One of the true gems from our trip to ZestFest 2006 was meeting the nice ladies from Heaters Nuts. We were casually strolling around the convention hall when we wandered by their booth, which wasn’t receiving a whole lot of love there on the Trade Day. We tasted a few samples of their products and chatted up Paige and Amy a bit, and moved on while making a mental note to get back to them later about writing up their stuff.

Unfortunately, later turned out to be a few months. Heh…better late than never, huh?!

What we really liked about their products was they didn’t try to “re-create the wheel” in regards to spicy peanuts. The simple idea was to take good ol’ peanuts and make ‘em good & spicy without all that extra salt & powder that you find in just about every other container of spicy peanuts currently on the market. These peanuts are infused with flavor rather than coated with spices, and that is their strength and main selling point.

Also available is peanut brittle, available in jalapeno- and habanero-infused versions. A great idea to mix the comfort food goodness of peanut brittle with the spicy capsaicin-laden goodness of the fave peppers in the marketplace today. In fact, their Habanero Peanut Brittle combined their Bucka’s Burners and peanut brittle to make a concoction that was a 3rd place award-winner at ZestFest, not to mention their Jalapeno peanut brittle which was a 2nd place winner also.

For our Featured Product reviews, we always include an interview with the makers themselves. Since we filmed a bunch of video, we’ll let the ladies from Heaters speak for themselves. Here is a link to the video we filmed while at ZestFest:

Interview with the ladies of Heaters

(The video is in Apple Quicktime format. When viewing, please keep in mind that it’s a large file and may take a few minutes to load in your browser depending on your connection speed.)

The list of products we tried include:

Bucka’s Habanero Burners

Habanero Infused Peanut Brittle

We normally include a list of ingredients with our reviews, however we find doing this to be a little redundant this time around. The peanuts all essentially include peanuts, water, natural jalapeno or habanero flavor, and salt. The recipe for the brittle is not on the packaging we have, but we’re sure it’s available upon request.

Bucka’s Habanero Burners

Joe’s take: With its red coloring, these peanuts just look hot. Let that red color be a warning as well, as I was a little liberal in chomping on these and was taken aback by the heat level that built so quickly. Very spicy and addictively good despite the heat, these are peanuts that will demand your respect for their heat…and your dollars for some bags of them if you like habanero. A hot peanut that I can heartily recommend.

Linda’s take: “Holy canoli!!” I was instantly ready for my drink after tasting this, and it’s definitely an increase in heat over the regular habanero peanuts. It has great habanero flavor, and perfect texture. I can’t emphasize enough how much the lack of icky powder has on this product. Normally, the heat from hot peanuts will linger more on my fingers & lips due to all the excess spice powder, but this lets me savor the habanero flavor all on my palate. Awesome!

Salted Habanero Infused Peanuts

Joe’s take: While not as hot as the Bucka’s Burners, these still manage to preserve the habanero flavor while offering a respectable heat level that will not harm any tastebuds. If you’re at all like me, you will wish for them to come in a bigger bag as you may consume them in mass quantities. Definitely a legume for a chilehead.

Linda’s take: This has outstanding flavor, and you can really taste the habanero quite well. One of my faves in regards to heat level for sure.

Salted Jalapeno Infused Peanuts – Mild

Joe’s take: I am normally very hard to please with the mild products, but not so with this bag o’ nuts. While easily having the least amount of heat, it has a pleasant and distinguishable jalapeno flavor compared to its hotter brethren. Flavor is king, and this is a snack food for anyone who thinks that jalapeno is hot enough for them.

Linda’s take: Fresh peanut taste which is very mild, and taste like it just came out of the roaster and hasn’t been laying around getting stale. This one might have just a tad too much salt, but has a nice jalapeno flavor that makes for easy eating.

Salted Jalapeno Infused Peanuts – Medium

Joe’s take: While not a major step up in heat, it at least got my attention more than the Mild. Probably a good starting point for chileheads with these peanuts in regards to heat, but the flavor nearly matches that of the Mild as well. Middle-of-the-road in everything but quality, your mileage with these may vary.

Linda’s take: Most of what I said about the Mild pretty much goes for the Medium, but with a heat level that builds a bit more. Also seems to have a little more jalapeno “tang” to it as well.

Salted Jalapeno Infused Peanuts – Hot

Joe’s take: This came in the biggest bag compared to the others, and it’s a good thing…as my consumption of these was to match the supply. While listed as ‘hot’, these still maintain a level of mildness that makes these nuts accessible to snacking by chileheads and mainstream alike. I tried a crushed sample of these with my pad thai, and it helped spice my food up to about the right level of heat. For snacking or cooking, you can’t go wrong with these.

Linda’s take: Less saltiness than the other jalapeno peanuts, it has almost a black peppery taste to it that adds a little something extra to the flavor. So enjoyable to eat a jalapeno peanut without all that extra powder…a great hot peanut.

Jalapeno Infused Peanut Brittle – Mild

Joe’s take: I didn’t taste too much of the jalapeno as it may be masked a little by the sweetness of the brittle, but I loved the flavor nonetheless. Again, a great product for your chileheads-in-training. Good stuff.

Linda’s take: My thoughts on this are simple. Peanut…sweet…heat…GOOD!! I must say this also has one of the best textures for a peanut brittle I’ve yet tried.

Jalapeno Infused Peanut Brittle – Medium

Joe’s take: Unlike how I felt about the nuts for snacking, with increased heat comes a greater liking in terms of its taste appeal to me. The brittle is not too sweet, which is often a downfall of some. I could see this making a ton of money in the mainstream market. An excellent mix of tastes.

Linda’s take: The jalapeno is a lot easier to detect with this heat level, and it is a nice blending of salt and sweet. Very tasty!

Jalapeno Infused Peanut Brittle – Hot

Joe’s take: The creme de la creme of jalapeno peanut brittle, this one evaporated here in no time at all. Its got enough heat for the chileheads out there…and is just plain addicting. I didn’t appreciate the peppery taste that Linda did, but who cares? I am convinced that if Heaters puts out a hotter level of Jalapeno brittle, I’ll love that too. Again, I can’t emphasize enough how well they mix sweet & heat with this product. Nice!

Linda’s take: This is so similar in taste to the jalapeno peanuts…probably because it’s made with them. The peppery taste adds a depth to the flavor not normally found in this sort of brittle. This is less a peanut brittle for the mainstream person’s palate, but rather a great brittle for chileheads. Amazing!

Habanero Infused Peanut Brittle

Joe’s take: I tasted these along with Linda, and I was nearly speechless at how to describe the goodness of this candy. It may very well be the best chilehead candy not made out of chocolate I have ever tried. Heat that builds and flavor in abundance, Linda’s lucky there was any of it left for her to try. Habanero fans, meet the brittle made for you.

Linda’s take: “Wow!” A perfect combination of sweet and heat, and this has the unmistakable flavor of habanero that any chilehead would recognize instantly. The heat builds with each bite to a heat level that will get your attention. Definitely a chilehead’s dream candy. Just simply awesome!

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

www.thehotpepper.com

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

HSB reviews the Habanero peanut brittle