With this inaugural review, we start a new category of product reviews here at The Hot Zone Online. With a comprehensive variety of spicy foods such as hot sauce, salsa, cooking sauces, dry spices, and the like…we have somehow neglected to pay some attention to the spicy sweets of the world. You remember these, right? Spicy chocolates. Hot pepper candies. Stuff that exercises your pancreas while gently sizzling your heat-seeking taste buds. We have a “battle” of sorts to start out with, just to make it a little interesting. An American-German tussle that hasn’t been seen since the Battle of the Bulge several decades ago.

Our first contestant is Hot Cinnamon Flaming Hearts by Flaminghotcandy.com. Steve Garner from FlamingHotCandy sent me a jar to see how I liked it and how it measured up to the desire of my palate to find that perfect mix of spicy and sweet.

The packaging: I like the small glass jar with clip-top. It keeps the candy fresh and is secure enough that you don’t have to worry about the candies leaking out of a dislodged bottle lid

The aroma: Mostly cinnamon, and lots of it. I don’t really detect any hints of chile pepper or chemical-smelling extract, and that works in its favor. I want my candy to actually smell like candy.

The appearance: Small red candies slightly larger and about twice as thick as a nickel. Cool frosted-coating look gives it that old-fashioned candy appearance from those classic candy shops where there were more varieties than your mind could grasp.

The ingredients: sugar, tapioca syrup, cinnamon oil, red food coloring, natural flavors, cream of tartar

My first thought was where’s the ‘spicy‘ ingredient on this list? I asked Steve about this shortly after I received the jar, and he assured me that the hot ingredients (beyond the cinnamon) are included in the “natural flavors” and included some unnamed natural pepper extracts.

The taste: Impressive. At first, this candy seems like a run-of-the-mill spicy cinnamon drop. However, give it some time and the heat starts to build a little. It’s not searing, mind you, but builds to a nice steady medium burn…much like a simmering pot of water on your stove will gently cook. Pretty heavy on the cinnamon, perhaps a little moreso than the pepper extract, but not so sweet that it offsets the heat of the cinnamon-pepper combination.

Overall recommendation: Great hot candy product that’s a little heavier on the cinnamon hotness than the chile pepper aspect of it, but that really works. Very enjoyable and user-friendly enough that you’ll want to share…once.

Our second contestant hails from Germany and is a product of the Pepper-King Hot Shop. This candy is entitled Weinende Erdbeer Roci’s, which translates to Crying Strawberry Roci’s. There is also a raspberry version of this candy, but I decided to stick with good ol’ strawberry for this battle.

The packaging: A simple plastic baggie with a German language label on it. Pretty much lacking in terms of style points, and I always worry about the candies getting squashed accidentally while I’m toting them around. Could stand an upgrade in this area. The label in German says:

Wir behaupten nicht nur, wir wissen es: die schärfste Süßigkeit im Universum! Nicht verzehren bei Bluthochdruck! Von Kindern fernhalten! Genuß auf eigene Gefahr.

Translation: We state not only, we know it: the most sharp sweet in the universe! Do not consume with high blood pressure! Keep away from children! Pleasure at own danger.

Wow, I consider myself warned. Excellent!

The aroma: Strangely enough, these have a nice strawberry aroma. A little nicer on the nostrils than the overwhelming cinnamon of the other, but also lacks subtlety when it comes to the pepper smell as well. Still, it’s an unexpecting aroma that doesn’t have that spicy a smell to it.

The appearance: Thick dime-sized candies also with that frosted look to them. Also lacking in aesthetic appeal, but they’re a fairly standard hard candy in appearance.

The Ingredients: Zucker, Gukosesirup, Säuerungsmittel Zitronensäure, Chili-Extrakt, Aroma, Farbstoff: Rote Beete

Translation: Sugar, glucose syrup, citric acid, chilli extract, aroma, coloring: Red patches

The taste: Now this has some heat. Imagine turning your stovetop on medium-high heat, sprinkle some sugar on it, and then sit your tongue on it for a few seconds. That’s sorta what this hot candy is like in terms of heat potential. It’s a heat that is a steady high-heat burn that builds all the way through eating it. When I got to the middle, it was a intense capsaicin flash-burn that took a minute to subside. I really only tasted the strawberry for the first minute or two, and then I was concentrating on how the heat was messing with my palate’s heat capacity.

Overall recommendation:

Want to wake yourself up if you’re feeling tired? Pop one of these on your tongue and feel the burn, baby. A little bit strawberry and a whole lot of heat, these candies are for those who can really handle their heat with a little bit of sweetness. That, plus all those cells inside your mouth who were teetering on the edge can blissfully go to meet their maker.

And the winner is…. A pretty even match, but I give the edge to the Hot Cinnamon Flaming Hearts in a split decision. They offer similar sorts of heat, although the Crying Strawberry Roci’s are definitely one notch above in terms of how hot a piece of pepper candy can be. However, it’s the taste that slants me towards the former of these two. Very accessible for snacking and the price point is decent as well. No matter which one you choose, just get a couple of containers so you won’t run out too quickly. Enjoy!