22 September 2010

Encona West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce [By Spectre] (Nisa)


I'm a fan of hot sauces, especially with cheese on toast, so when I saw this West Indian Hot Pepper sauce in a local supermarket I found myself dying to try it. This sauce is supposed to give you a classic taste of the Caribbean. It has been made with the same recipe of Scotch Bonnet and Habanero peppers for over forty years. It claims to have "a deliciously fiery and fruity flavour for a true taste of the tropics". The red chilli on the front of the bottle says "Hot", but just how hot can this sauce be?
Just before we headed out to see the hilarious play "Murdered to Death" starring Norman Pace and some other nutty actors, Cinabar prepared me some cheese on toast and I cracked open the sauce bottle. The thick orange sauce oozed onto the plate looking much like liquid fire with chilli seeds sparking against each other. The slices of cheese on toast seemed to visibly back away from the sauce in blind terror. I dumbly started carving up my cheesy portions and dipped the first piece into the fiery fluid that was trying its best to melt through the plate. The sauce had a wonderful hot chilli sweet smell to it as I raised the fork filled molten morsel to my mouth. The heat hit me almost straight away making my lips and tongue tingle disturbingly. After a few more mouthfuls I noticed all I could taste was fire, rather than the "fruity flavour" as promised. This sauce is super hot, in fact a little too hot for me, a full uncomfortable fiery heat in a sweating running nose type way. I switched to Worcester Sauce to cool myself down (I know... Wuss!) and then my usual Cholula sauce and Tabasco sauce. I'm sure I'll brave this Encona sauce again at some point, but next time I'll not forget to call the local fire station just in case.
By Spectre

6 comments:

Dreich said...

Not sure why but I rather dislike Enconas sauces, tried a couple and while they're not horrible I just don't like them. I find the texture a bit on the sticky side.

cinabar said...

It was thick, but it had too many chilli seeds for our taste buds!
Spectre has picked up a couple of other bottles of chilli sauces to try, will obviously blog about these soon - hope they are good!

Jon said...

I love this Chilli sauce, its the best of whats out there at the moment. Ive tried loads, organics, imported everything. I always come back to this sauce.

Its amazing if left in the bottle for 6 months or so, it ages like a good wine, the sauce goes darker and has a much more "mellow" taste (if you can describe chilli as mellow) than a freshly opened bottle.

Anonymous said...

This sauce is not Caribbean. It might have some Caribbean ingredients and a bit of heat but it's truly aweful. Why can't supermarkets stock real authentic sauces rather than the crap that comes with "Reggae Reggae" type rubbish.

Neil G. said...

You really should try Dave's Insanity Sauce. It makes Enconas seem like ketchup.

If you do decide to try it a word of advice, use one drop. Seriously the smallest amount you can get out of the bottle.

cinabar said...

I am going to have to find some of that sauce, because you are not the first person to recommend it... but I'll be honest - I am scared! :-D