10 Jun Review – Wild West Worcester Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
Review By Michael Elias
Name: Wild West Worcester Ghost Pepper Sauce
Origin: Dargaville, NEW ZEALAND
Ingredients: Malt, Vinegar, Brown Sugar, Wheat Flour, Onions, Spices, Salt, Licorice Confectionery
Review: This came up in our recent chilli awards competition and i have to admit sparked a huge debate amongst myself and my fellow tasters. Worcestshire Sauce in its own as a sauce is one of those condiments that tends to either be loved or hated, there is no real in between when it comes to the classic flavours that make up the sauce commonly used with a nice steak. Add to the sauce some other ingredients that also polarise opinion and you come up with what in my opinion was liquid gold in a bottle. Firstly i like worcestshire, l love chilli and i’m a big fan of licorice, so this sauce hit all the right targets in what i enjoy to eat. For some of my colleagues that combo just didnt work for them. When tasting the sauce you get the licorice which is a nice flavour, not overpowering. Then comes the malty flavour and a slight sweetness before the heat from ghost pepper makes it presence felt….not by excessively burning but providing a nice lingering warmth….kind of like a wrapping yourself in a blanket in front of a nice fire in winter. As with most well made sauces there needs to be a level of balance where all key ingredients get a chance to shine and this sauce succeeds in allowing them do so. A real surprise. On my heat scale its a 9/10.
Verdict: Wild West Worcester have managed to do something rather revolutionary – they have made the humble worcestshire sauce interesting again and brought it back to a modern audience. By perfecting the base and adding in some ingredients that you wouldn’t find common in that style of sauce they have created something rather special. It might not suit all flavor pallets but i believe its a worth a try, even if you are not a huge fan of this style of sauce. Would work best with a juicy steak medium well or any other form of red meat cooked to your liking. I couldn’t quite convince my fellow judges to get this in contention for an award – fair dinkum it was like trying to convince the 12 Apostles to split the bill but i at least managed to get them to all try it and it came withing a point of being in award contention. I’m going to dub this “The People’s Champion” of spicy sauces and rate this a 9.5/10.
Would you like to know more or contact Wild West Worcester – it’s online at http://www.wildwestworcester.co.nz/
