Dave's Gourmet - A Great Range of Chilli Products

Winner of numerous awards, Dave’s Gourmet range is one that doesn’t need any introduction. More than 13 years in the making, this brand is one of the most popular when it comes to hot sauces and now produces items ranging from Organic Heirloom Pasta Sauces, Insane Drink Mixes and Insanity Popcorn to Olives in Pain (although these are unfortunately difficult to source in the UK but we’ll soon remedy that!)

Here at the Devil’s Garden we have a few of Dave’s hot sauces that are constantly in demand such as, of course, Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce, the hot sauce that started it all. Originally banned from the market when hot sauces were still considered evil and only worthy of those with a death wish, this hot sauce is definitely sizzling but also incredibly flavoursome.

Other tasty hot sauces from Dave’s include Total Insanity which has a garlicky flavour and Ultimate Insanity which, made with extract, will have your blood sizzling in seconds as will Dave’s Ghost Pepper Sauce made with Bhut Jolokias.

Dave’s Hurtin Jalapeno is a wonderful tribute to this much loved chilli pepper while Dave’s Gourmet Adjustable Heat Hot Sauce will allow the whole family to regulate the heat in their plate!

Also, have a go at Dave’s Insanity Salsa for your next party or Dave’s Smokin and Burning Nuts. Smoking Nuts are perfect for a barbecue while Burning Nuts will surely liven up your day if you’re bored!

We’ll admit it ourselves, it is very hard to choose between all of Dave’s wonderful range of hot sauces but Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce is definitely a good start! We cannot wait to get more produce from this world-renowned American brand.

Chilli Queen - Original Chilli Jellies

Amongst all the great brands that we tried at the West Dean Chilli Fiesta last month, the multiple awards winning Chilli Queen is one that really surprised us by its originality and quality.

Starting out with a simple chilli jelly 25 years ago, Chilli Queen has now developed into a full range of tasty chilli sauces and dips. The brand’s image designed by the famous Scots illustrator Clare Mackie creates is extremely appealing and instantly gives out that quality homemade feel.

The Sweet Chilli Ketchup and Brown Sauce with Scotch Bonnets are best friends with burgers, sausages and bacon butties while the range of chilli jellies can be added to most recipes in our books and enhance an incredible variety of foods. The jars will also last you a while which makes it great value for money.

Chilli Queen’s fully range of Chilli Jellies are: Coriander & Shallot, Ginger & Lime, Sundried Tomatoes & Balsamic Vinegar, Cranberry, Mint, Original Chilli Jelly and Extra Hot Chilli Jelly.

Overall, Chilli Queen is a fantastic brand to have for everyday use. There is a little bit for everyone and with a mild-to-medium heat across the whole range, Chilli Queen is definitely a winner for most people wanting good quality condiments to be used by the whole family.

Mr Vikki's - Indian Fusion for Chilli Lovers

Mr Vikki’s doesn’t need much introduction as he is fast becoming one of the most loved chilli producers in the north. Adam, the head behind the whole operation goes out of his way to make sure that people try his chilli treats where Indian spices blend in seamlessly with traditional tastes.

Some people are just addicted to one chutney like King Naga or HHH (i.e Hell Hot Habanero) while others often ask us for different products depending on the occasion or simply their taste for sweet or savoury.

We love recommending Mr Vikki’s Apricot or Mango Chutney as a dip and his range of savoury preserves such as Gooseberry, Tomato & Nigella, Chilli Jam and Banana Habanero and Fiery Lemon Harissa always go down a storm!

His curry pastes are just out of this world. We are obsessed with them and keep asking people to try it in their food. The combination of spices and various flavours is just right and it is always such a pleasure to make a good chicken curry with either the North Indian or Hot Goan one.

Mr Vikki’s Tomato Ketchup and Brown Sauce just have a nice heat at the back of the throat and believe us when we say that your bacon butties will never taste the same after you’ve tried them. Same thing with Hot Stuff, Mr Vikki’s only hot sauce although we’re sure this is about to change!

So keep an eye out for new quality preserves from Mr Vikki’s and check out his already incredibly successful range!

Levens Hall Chilli Festival

Well the sun shone, the smell of chillies was in the air and lots of people tried wonderful preserves, hot sauces and spices throughout the weekend. We feel this was the most successful Chilli Fest so far, with a comedian making the crowd laugh for a good hour, tantalising dancing and much more stands than in previous years. Famous brands such as the Chilli Pepper Company and Mr Vikki’s had a roaring success as well as the up and coming Spicy Monkeys and Cambridge Chilli Farm. We were disappointed not to see Darth Naga as the Chilli Fest although we can’t really blame him as he was making his way to London in order to appear live on Big Brother’s Little Brother on Sunday morning. Overall, the Chilli Fest was a great way for Southern suppliers to get their produce known in the North. We had tried the Chilli Pepper Company’s famous 10 minute burn hot sauce at the West Dean Chilli Fiesta (a hot sauce that was banned at two prior festivals), but decided to be a bit braver and try half a teaspoon of the stuff. The flavour was amazing although our tester looked a bit green once the powerful chilli extract hit his stomach… a great sauce though, and one that we are sure to stock soon. We were particularly bowled over by The Cambridge Chilli Farm’s range of jams and jellies which, although rather mild, will mesmerize you with their incredible flavour, especially the Habanero Gold Jam! We hope that the Chilli Fest will develop over the years as the West Dean Chilli Fiesta is still the top festival on a national scale. We’ll be sure to go to next year’s Levens Hall Chilli Fest and see how things developed over the year!

Sweet Treats for Chilli Heads

Most of us have got a sweet tooth, with chocolate, jam and fruity preserves on our list of shopping priority. But add to that a hint of chilli or full on extract and your dish is instantly transformed, with your tastebuds going on a rollercoaster of flavours.

At the Devil’s Garden we have many things to satisfy your chilli and sweet craving, starting with Dartmoor Chilli Farm and their awesome range of chilli chocolates (loads of choices!), chilli marmalades (and soon to come the best chilli strawberry jam, like, ever!!) as well as sweet chilli sauces and chilli jam. Mr Vikki’s closely follows with an amazing range of preserves, one of our favourite being the hot mango chutney and gooseberry one.

Firefoods have a chilli peanut butter to rival the best American brands and their chilli chocolate drops are a must have for bakers and kids out there!

Chilli Pepper Pete is one of our best selling brand and for a good reason. Their produce are definitely on the hottest scale, with Dragon’s Blood (apple and pineapple – Dragon’s Blood Batch 13 even hotter!) and Dragon Slayer (blueberries, cherries and prunes) some of the best hot sauces with chilli extract we have ever tasted.

So come and have a look at all these sweet treats and the many more chilli products we have in store for you!

Levens Hall Chilli Fest 2010

Just a quick reminder that the Levens Hall Chilli Fest weekend is fast approaching, with the doors (or gates rather!) opening from 10 am to 4 pm on both days (£8 per adult, free for under 16’).

There will be loads of wonderful brands, amongst which Mr Vikki’s and we definitely recommend people to try some of the sauces from the Chilli Pepper Company (beware of 10 minute burn though!) and The Cambridge Chilli Farm (Their Nagalade is extra tasty but not for the faint hearted!).

We will be there most of Saturday (lookout for the man with the flame tattoo on his left arm!) and cannot wait to see what the North has yet again got to offer! We were there at the first Chilli Fest in 2008 and last year too (despite the awful weather on both occasions) but the skies seem to have held so far this week so fingers crossed!

Darth Naga from the Chile Foundry shall be videoing the event so there should be some pretty good moments from this event on the web soon.

If you are local we strongly recommend you make your way to Levens Hall near Milnthorpe (M6, junction 36). If you’re too far then make sure to read our account of what promises to be a great weekend next week on our blog!

The West Dean Chilli Fiesta 2010

We thought we would let you know how the chilli fiesta went on last weekend. The team of the Devil’s Garden was there on Saturday with weather a bit more merciful than the day before so thanks to the sun shining and the call of chilli everywhere the atmosphere was absolutely buzzing.

We had a brilliant time talking to most of our suppliers amongst which Chilli Pepper Pete, Firefoods, Hot Headz and Mr Vikki’s. We of course tried a hell of a lot of chilli produce, from chutneys and jams to hot sauces, from chocolates to Dragon’s Blood Ice Cream!!

We are of course very keen to get many more brands into the Devil’s Garden such as Cambridge Chilli Farm and the Chilli Pepper Company so watch this space as we are likely to get some of their range in pretty soon.

Most of you will have heard of the notorious Darth Naga (a nutter who tries just about anything chilli-related) and we had a good chat with him, talking about his favourite hot sauce of all time i.e Hot Headz Who Dares Burns 2nd Assault which is definitely worth trying!

We will be visiting the Levens Hall Chilli Fest this Saturday so be sure to tune in next week to know how it went!

Dartmoor Chilli Farm - Just Wonderful

Dartmoor Chilli Farm is without a doubt one of our favourite chilli brands, not only because of their scrumptious range of chilli products but also because of their environmentalism, integrity and inventiveness.

We were therefore keen to get a hold of many more of their produce as soon as possible and to share our discoveries with you. We now have five different chilli marmalades (Seville Orange, Lemon & Ginger, Orange & Whisky, etc...), all incredibly tasty although a bit mild for our liking if we’re perfectly honest...

But if it’s spice that you’re after then quickly order some of their Bhut Jolokia dried Chilli flakes available in an attractive tin or some of their Bhut Jolokia chilli pods, amazing in colour, taste and size albeit a bit scary sometimes by their pungency! Dartmoor Chilli Farm’s Beast of Dartmoor, a fresh tasting natural hot sauce, is just how its name indicates, full on, slightly mysterious and so tasty you’ll wonder where it all went!

We also have new preserves such as Sweet chilli chutney, Sweet pepper and tomato chilli chutney, Tomato and chilli salsa, Jalapeno and cider chilli chutney, Sweet chilli sauce and a fantastic chilli salad dressing!

As always, we’re here if you have any comments or suggestions, so tasting spoons at the ready!

Hot Sauce - Natural or Extract?

A great debate shaking the very foundations of the chilli world in the UK is whether or not to have natural hot sauces or those packed with chilli extract, brands constantly competing to produce one or the other that will truly stand out from the crowd and settle the question. Here at the Devil’s Garden, we believe it’s a matter of taste but also genetic predisposition.

Some members of our team can handle Chilli Pepper Pete’s Satan’s Shit at breakfast while other recoil at the mere thought of trying the milder Chilli Pepper Pete’s Dragon’s Blood (for a true chilli kick, try Dragon’s Blood Batch 13 and Dragon’s Slayer!!).

Natural hot sauces are a great way to understand the various combinations (fruity, tomatoey, etc...) possible, as well as the differences in flavour between chilli peppers such as cayenne, chipotle, habanero, jalapeno or lesser known ones like Pasilla. Hot Headz is a wonderful producer of such hot sauces, as well as Dartmoor Chilli Farm with its Naga-based Beast of Dartmoor. Blair’s range holds its ground at both ends of the scale as well as Dave’s and Mad Dog.

Whatever you go for, at whatever time of day or occasion, you can be sure that there is a little something for everyone here at the Devil’s Garden when it comes to hot sauces, natural or extract based!