Catchy title, huh? Nothing like a little double entendre to start a review out properly…or in this case, a trio of reviews. A few weeks before the Weekend of Fire, we received this lovely box of Peppermaster products, courtesy of Greg and Tina Brooks. The great thing was that there such a great variety of products, suitable for nearly every taste you could imagine. The problem was…that there such a great variety of products, suitable for nearly every taste you could imagine. I was a bit flummoxed as to which to try first, and with what. These three are my first foray into the new stuff, and I’m so glad I did.

Now, we’ve reviewed quite a few Peppermaster products before. The Szechuan Black Bean Orange in particular still has its own review, which you can read HERE. I won’t as much re-hash that review as much as I’ll mention some good opinions offered on it by some of my co-workers who were willing to try it out.

I didn’t do as much with these sauces as I would with a typical review since they came in smaller amounts, but I was able to get a good tasting for a couple meals apiece. Without further ado, here are the items that I tried out:

Szechuan Black Bean Orange sauce: apple cider, peppers, ginger, plums, orange, garlic, tamari, rice vinegar, sherry, cornstarch, sesame oil, spices, black beans, herbs, sea salt, guar

BBQ Bahamas: fresh hot peppers (scotch bonnet, habanero, finger, birdseye), tomato paste, fresh ginger, cane sugar, molasses, fresh lime juice, fresh garlic, apple cider, honey, pineapple, balsamic vinegar, rum, tamarind, mustard, chilies, Tellicherry black pepper, spices, herbs, sea salt, habanero chipotle

Mild Green Curry: fresh ginger, fresh roasted garlic, fresh onions, coconut cream, fresh leeks, fresh scallions, cider vinegar, finger peppers, Tellicherry peppercorns, red chilies, fair trade certified sugar, molasses, cornstarch, kosher sea salt, turmeric, cloves, cardamom, mustard, coriander, nutmeg, cumin, cinnamon chips, star anise, cayenne, fennel, fenugreek, celery seed, guar, mace

One thing you can say about the Peppermaster products is that there is never an artificial ingredient in the bunch. Full of spices and fresh ingredients, these are products that smell and taste just as fresh when you open them as when they were originally bottled.

Szechuan Black Bean Orange sauce: I produced the sample spoons for this one at work. Now, my co-workers (or occasional taste victims as they’ve pointed out) are normally a little skeptical when I tell them that a sauce I have for them to try isn’t hot. This one threw them all for a loop! All the comments were how surprisingly tasty this sauce was, although there was much discussion as to what food would compliment it best. Even without Tina’s “cheat sheet” of suggestions, most liked the idea of this sauce with stir-fry. Even something as pedestrian as using it with french fries will still work, but most detected that sesame oil “Oriental” flavor to it. In all, 8 out of 9 people who tried it gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

BBQ Bahamas: This sauce had the highest heat rating of the three (9 flames out of a possible 10), and the first taste let me know why. With an initial spice-heavy sweetness, the heat builds with each bite. Not sure if I would call it 9/10, but it does have some schwerve in the heat dept. The aroma of the sauce is like all the best stuff you keep in your spice rack, with the tomato-ey overtones that are the base to the sauce. This sauce is ideal for ribs, and I did coat a few generic ones while at work one day just to appreciate how good this sauce is on those. Not making ribs? No problem, as you can use it in place of ketchup for any dish you want to spice up, BBQ-style. This sauce was also good on scrambled eggs as well. Addictingly good, and spicy enough to please the die-hard chilehead if you eat enough of it.

Mild Green Curry: There’s no mistaking the curry aroma as you open this sauce, but the taste is pleasingly mild while retaining the distinct curry flavor that those who like it want to have. The heat is as advertised, roughly the same level as your average jalapeno. Thick as paste and very green, this is one of those sauces you can just slather over just about everything. The one thing that stood out to me was the spicy taste. By spicy, I don’t mean hot…I mean spice-laden. While the BBQ Bahamas sauce smelled like the spice rack, this sauce taste like you emptied them into it. There are so many that I couldn’t identify them all, but the cloves, sugar, and nutmeg were the most noticeable to me. I liked this sauce a lot with spices, particularly with rice and even stirred into mashed potatoes. Don’t want to make those fancy curry chicken recipes? Just add a liberal amount of this to some prepared chicken and you are good to go. You can even mix it into creamy soups and sauces to give it that great curry flavor. While it wasn’t the hottest of the three sauces I tried, it would probably be my favorite in terms of flavor. A great sauce.

Overall recommendation: What else do I need to say? I’m just excited that I have a bunch more Peppermaster products still to try. Some really good products out of our neighbors to the north. Get some for yourself and see what you think.

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