Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Trader Joe's Extra Hot Habanero Ghost Pepper Salsa



(This is as close as I'm getting to a special Halloween post: there's "ghost" in the name of the product.)

If you look closely at the photograph above, you can see the TJ's pepper-shaped hotness scale. You'll notice that it's filled in all the way to the top, save for a tiny smidgen of white. The not-so-subtle message is, "This is about as hot as it gets."

That is no lie. It is by far the hottest salsa I've ever tasted. It is, in fact, way, way too hot. I tried it twice, and each time I could get through only about six dipped chips before I gave up.

So I tried a kinder, gentler approach: I mixed some of it in with my favorite salsa, the Fire-Roasted Tomato, in a ratio of about 1:4. That dramatically upped the heat factor in the good salsa, but did not otherwise alter its overall flavor, as far as I could tell. I deemed this experiment a failure; more heat without more flavor is not an improvement.

The nearly full tub of this new product is going to be returned to TJ's for a refund. I can't handle it. If you love--or are at least more tolerant of--extreme heat in your salsa, maybe you'll be a fan. I am not.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

No comments:

Post a Comment