Ahhh, Colorado. Home to the ski slopes of Vail, the Denver Broncos and Nuggets, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and…great salsa? Sean Sorrin of Epic Valley Salsa dropped us a line and asked us to give their salsa a whirl. Despite any preconceived notions we might have had about the Centennial State, Epic Valley Salsa made us rethink a little. Here’s a little about what Sean had to say about their recent entry into the salsa marketplace….

You don’t usually associated Colorado and salsa, so tell us a little bit about how you got started making your products.

Basically, what the website says is it. Our good friend Mikey Larson had the initial recipe and when I took over the kitchen, I changed a few things, mainly adding more cilantro and fresh garlic. Then, Corey became the salsa maker at the restaurant and played with some of the spices. We weren’t sure if bottling would work because the salsa was always served fresh and now we had to cook it. After cooking it, the product definitely changed but is still good.

Your salsas feature some familiar ingredients, but yours have some carrots added. You see carrots in a lot of hot sauces, but how did you come to decide to use that in salsa?

As mentioned previously Mikey Larson had the first recipe that is now Epic Valley Salsa and he had put carrots in his salsa. The first time at the restaurant when I made the salsa, I saw the carrots. I thought since I had eaten many hot sauces with carrots before then why not have carrots in salsa too; it should taste good and did.

Where did you get the name Epic Valley from?

When trying to think of a name we wanted it to represent the love that we have for the beauty of Colorado without being specific to one place. At first we thought we would call the salsa Mountain Garden salsa, but found out the name was taken. At the time we also had a little story for the side of the jar that started: “Here above 9,000 feet in the epic Gunnison valley, we use only the….” Looking at the story and needing a name, Epic Valley just came to be. It wasn’t until last year that we put it together with the word epicurean for our tag line. Epic Valley: A place for EPICurean tastes.

If you are going to motivate someone to try your salsa who may not like spicy food all that much, what might you tell them about yours?

I would tell them that the mild is pretty mild but does have a little kick as it is salsa and not ketchup. I would then ask them how they feel upon eating a Big Mac. Feeling kind of tired and sluggish? Now try something to make you feel alive. Or something like that.

What’s on the back-burner in development for Epic Valley? New stuff?

Epic Valley will be releasing Epic Valley Awesome Asian Sauce at the Fiery Foods Show in March in Albuquerque. It is a spicy Asian style BBQ sauce that is very versatile. It can be used as a traditional BBQ, a wing sauce, stir fry sauce, dipping sauce, or for all sorts of things. After that, we will bottle our Mediterranean olive sauce. It’s an extremely refreshing and versatile [sauce] not quite like anything I have had before. It goes great with pasta, on meats and fish, salads, bread and as a dip. After that there is nothing definitely planned, but maybe some jerk style sauces or Indian curry flavor sauces as that is what I cook with a lot with at home. Epic Valley is also thinking about adding a new label line to attract the higher end gourmet shops as we feel we have the flavors, but maybe not the look.

evmild.jpg

So what’s in all this stuff? An Ingredient List!

Epic Valley Salsa - Mild: tomatoes, carrots, onions, green peppers, garlic, cilantro, red wine vinegar, salt and spices

Epic Valley Salsa - Hot: tomatoes, carrots, onions, green peppers, garlic, cilantro, red wine vinegar, salt, habanero powder and spices

Joe’s take

Epic Valley Salsa - Hot: Chileheads beware…even though this one’s marked ‘hot’, your tastebuds will not quake in fear because of it. The heat’s a little bit cumulative, but it settles to a nice pleasant simmer. I noted that it had a fresh smell to it when opening the bottle, which bottled salsas don’t often have. I would have liked to see this salsa be a wee bit thicker, but the taste makes up for whatever foibles it might have in consistency. One of my co-workers and I enjoyed it with chips, so it receives a thumbs-up for snack worthiness. I also enjoyed it as an accompaniment to steak dishes, and was a nice add to the finished product. Solid effort.

Epic Valley Salsa - Mild: The aroma of garlic and cilantro wafted into the air as I opened the jar, which made me have high hopes at what the jar’s contents taste like. To me, Epic Valley took that whole concept of mild quite seriously. Too seriously. Not much heat at all. This is another of the sauces I put into the category of ones to give to chileheads-in-training, “Master this basic one, young Jedi, and closer to the top of the heat mountain shall you go.” It wasn’t one I’d return to for snacking, but wow did it contribute mightily to sauces for Mexican food. A plain ol’ burrito plus this was a start…then you just need to add some capsaicinoid heat to it, and now you’re talkin’.

Linda’s take

Epic Valley Salsa - Hot: I would say that the heat level is more medium than hot. It has a nice texture to it. and is not too thick or chunky. I really enjoyed the pleasant garlicky flavor, and thought this made a great chip & dip salsa. To me, the overall flavor profile was preferable compared to the mild. This was great addition to huevos rancheros and as a sauce for enchiladas.

Epic Valley Salsa - Mild: This tasted quite a bit different than the hot version, and doesn’t just seem to be toned-down in heat. Not sure what it was, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as chip & dip eating, and really felt that it’s best uses was mixed with other foods. It seemed to complement rice dishes, especially those with Spanish-style rice. It also added its characteristic flavor to queso dips, which made for prime snacking.

Don’t just take our word for it! Here are some online reviews of these sauces:

HSB’s Review
Article at the Gourmet Food Mall

Want to review Epic Valley’s products for yourself? Go here and leave your own opinion:

www.thehotpepper.com

Give these reviewers a shout and ask them to review Epic Valley’s products as well.

Carl’s Big List of Reviews
Alien Zombie
The Hot Sauce Guide
Saucerater

Recipes

Our recipes uses were pretty straightforward and mundane, but you can send your recipe ideas to Sean at epicvalley@hotmail.com.

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