salsas and condiments Archives

Mikey V’s Smoked Bacon Salsa

by Brian Meagher : 06/01/2017 1 Comment

A huge hit at the latest NYC Hot Sauce Expo, Mikey V’s Smoked Bacon Salsa was a sell-out. But I managed to get a couple of jars just before they ran out.

Mikey V’s new Smoked Bacon Salsa features Rentsch Brewery’s Weizenbock Beer

Ingredients: Tomatoes, Beer, Onions, Jalapeño peppers, Lime juice, Fresh garlic, Cilantro, Spices, Natural bacon flavoring, Pure cane sugar, Kosher salt, Black pepper, Spices, Cumin.

If you look at those ingredients – that’s pretty much how the flavors come out.

This delicious salsa has a distinct yet mild beer flavor coupled with fresh tasting onions and garlic. Jalapeños bring on the little heat that it offers.

The smoked bacon flavor comes from a natural bacon flavoring ingredient. I appreciate this, as I wouldn’t want pieces of cooked bacon in my salsa. I’m ok with the flavor of it though, and I like a little natural smoke flavor if it’s in small doses.

The pure cane sugar adds a nice sweetness to the overall flavor – I do like a sweet base in my salsas and sauces.

This is one of those “WOW” salsas that everyone will love! I couldn’t stop eating it as I write this review!

Texture & Appearance: – Chunky. Lots of tomato, onion, garlic and jalapeño pieces.

Heat Level: – Nice mild tingle. Just enough heat for everyone.

Where to buy: Visit Mikey V’s Foods at http://www.mikeyvsfoods.com/

Mikey V’s is also available to you lucky Texan’s all over the Austin and San Antonio areas.

They are also available at stores across the country. For the full list visit: http://www.mikeyvsfoods.com/about

About: Based in Georgetown, Texas, Mikey V’s Foods is an award winning, Veteran owned, Texas based food company aimed at offering high quality, hot sauces, salsas, spicy pickles and jerky, using only the freshest all-natural ingredients with no artificial preservatives. We view ourselves as partners with our clients, and our community.

Disclaimer: We purchased this product for our own personal use and review purposes. No compensation was received. The thoughts and opinions expressed are our own.

Filed Under: reviews, salsas and condiments Tagged With: bacon, jalapeno, salsa, smoked

KYVAN Honey Apple Salsa

by Brian Meagher : 05/07/2015

KYVAN Honey Apple Salsa

KYVAN Foods’ Reggie Kelly brings his soul food Mississippi roots to salsas, sauces and other condiments via his KYVAN label.

Among the many offerings of sauces and condiments from KYVAN, we’re looking at their two salsas today.

We love salsa, and the more unique the flavor the more interesting the salsa.

KYVAN’s Honey Apple Salsas fall into this area. Take salsa, add honey (+1), add apple (+1) add fresh peppers and you have a very unique salsa flavor profile. And in this case, it’s a very edible and delicious dip. Good on eggs, steaks, and just about anything you’d put a sweet salsa on to get some zing.

Think sweet pepper relish as a salsa base. It’s that sweet and peppery.

KYVAN Honey Apple Salsa – Mild

The “Mild” version of KYVAN Honey Apple Salsa is very sweet with little heat.

Ingredients: diced tomatoes (tomatoes, tomato juice, salt, citric acid, calcium chloride), vinegar, red bell peppers, sugar, green bell peppers, honey, dried apples, garlic, salt, onion, starch, spices, cilantro

Texture & Appearance: Very chunky and bright red in color. It’s bell peppers in a sweet sticky sauce. familiar.

Taste Straight Up: Slightly spicy, sweet peppers with garlic. The honey and apple tastes bring the sweet, while the bell peppers bring the heat (mild as it is). This tastes very much like a sweet pepper relish kicked up to salsa levels. delicious.

Heat Level: ½☆☆☆☆ Mild, mild, mild. And that’s a good thing here. It never tries to be anything else. a super sweet salsa.

Final Thoughts

This is a sweet honey and apple based pepper relish that is in a jar of salsa. And it works! A refreshing change of pace from other traditional salsas.

As you will see below, the “Hot” version is slightly different in ingredients and satisfaction.

KYVAN Honey Apple Salsa – Hot

The “Hot” version of Honey Apple Salsa has the exact same ingredients, save for the added “natural flavors” added near the end. These “natural flavors” are what bring on the heat of the “Hot” version.

Heat Level: ★★☆☆☆ The heat level here stings! Not exactly a cry-baby heat level, but it’s got some bite. sweet with a sting

It’s hard to tell from the pic, but the mild (on left) is much brighter in both color and flavor. The hot version is darker in color and taste.

Quite a jump in heat level without disclosing exactly what the ingredient is. What exactly are “natural flavors”?

I suspect dried chile peppers or dried extracts. Either way, I think you’ll like the “Mild” version and the “Hot” version as well.

About KYVAN82

KYVAN82 Foods is found at http://kyvan82.com/

Cooking is a way of life in the South and nobody knows that better than NFL Pro Reggie Kelly, owner of KYVAN™ Soul Food Selections. Reggie grew up in Aberdeen, MS and played football at Mississippi State University. He also excelled at the Pro level by playing 13 years in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals and the Atlanta Falcons.

Disclaimer: We received this product courtesy of the manufacturer for review.

Filed Under: reviews, salsas and condiments Tagged With: salsa

Sir Kensington’s Ketchup – Spiced

by Brian Meagher : 03/05/2015

Who gets excited about ketchup?

Or catsup? Isn’t it a kid’s thing after all?

Not in this case. Sir Kensington’s Ketchup – Spiced is for grownups.

It features chipotle peppers, cilantro, lime juice, and hint of coriander.

Spicy enough to amuse the taste buds, it “packs a pleasing punch without sinking the ship”.

While all the world is a-twitter about sriracha this and bacon that (both now in ketchups, by the way), Sir Kensington’s has been ~~quietly~~ proudly making their ketchups and other condiments since 2008.

You just may not have heard of them until now.

Sir Kensington’s is headquartered in a Prohibition-era building overlooking the Hudson River in New York City’s Meatpacking District.

Sir Kensington’s Ketchup comes in beautiful square 11 oz jars, adorned with awesome graphics (a monocled Brit) and witty text.

Even the Story of Sir Kensington’s is a comedic read in and of itself!

With 50% less sugar and 33% less sodium than regular ketchup, Sir Kensington’s Ketchup is packed with great flavor.

Ingredients: tomatoes, tomato paste, organic sugar, organic distilled vinegar, onions, spices, jalapeños, salt, lime juice concentrate, green bell peppers, cilantro, citric acid.

Texture: The texture is remarkable. Thick and rich. Bold.

Aroma: Pungent and sweet. The organic sugar really makes a difference in both the smell and taste. And the vinegar is muted, not sharp, but mellow. Fragrant.

Taste: Sweet and slightly vinegary. Full bodied tomato flavor. Delicious.

Heat: Mildly spicy – just a tingle. Even the kids will like this ketchup. (Tell ’em it’s for grownups only!) A great way to introduce the little folks to some chipotle pepper heat. Spicy.

Overall: – Highly recommended!

On Food:

We had Sir Kensington’s Ketchup on french fries of course…

…and hot dogs.

This is one of the few times I would put ketchup on hot dogs.

Catsup or Ketchup? Our review of @SirKensingtons

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Bonus Recipe. Write this down!

Here’s a cute toasted hot dog recipe I grew up with as a kid.

Ingredients:

1 slice American cheese
1 slice white bread
1 hot dog
2 toothpicks

Instructions:

Place american cheese on bread.
Place hot dog on top, diagonally.
Spoon on Sir Kensington’s Ketchup and other condiments.
Fold bread corners over and secure with toothpicks.
Toast / broil until golden brown. Enjoy.

Sir Kensington’s Ketchup – Spiced is one of 7 variants of condiments that they make, and you just must try! Ketchup, Mayonnaise and Mustards are all offered with varying degrees of spice and flavors.

Where to purchase: Sir Kensington’s is available all over the New York City / New Jersey / Long Island areas at these fine grocers: Sur la Table, Whole Foods, and Fairway.

And of course online at SirKensingtons.com.

Even though we received a few bottles of Sir Kensington’s for review, as I finish writing this… I’ve already gone to their site to order even more – including their mustards. It’s that good!

Disclaimer: We received this product courtesy of the manufacturer for review.

Filed Under: reviews, salsas and condiments Tagged With: chipotle, condiments, ketchup, spicy

Boulevard 647 Buffalo Bleu Cheese Dip

by Brian Meagher : 01/05/2015

Over at the Boulevard 647 Specialty Food Company, our friend, the Hot Dip Mastermind Dwayne Dittmer, brings us his award winning Buffalo Bleu Cheese Dip. The French might call the cheese “bleu” but in America, we say BLUE CHEESE.

Buffalo Bleu Cheese Dip

Spice up your next Holiday or Football party with this delicious Award Winning buffalo cheese dip. It’s an easy heat and eat dip right out of the jar. Or, you can kick it up with some of the many recipe suggestions from Boulevard647.com.

Ingredients: cream cheese, hot sauce, butter, blue cheese, garlic, chipotle peppers, sugar, chili peppers, garlic powder, mustard powder, onion powder, paprika.

Boulevard 647 Buffalo Bleu Cheese Dip won the Chile Pepper Magazine’s 1st Place Award in both Condiment – Specialty, and Snacks – Prepared Dip categories. A double win!

Texture and Appearance: A very thick yellow dip with bits of spices throughout – it’s even gloppy.

Thick dip needs to be heated up.

Yes, gloppy is not an attractive word, but I wanted to distinguish it from the smooth, pasty cheese dips you see in the supermarket shelves near the chips. And in this case, “gloppy” is a good thing!

This is NOT thin cheese wiz stuff. But it does need to be heated to make it… well, dip-able. Very thick.

Taste Straight Up: Big bold cheese taste. Spicy on a medium level for a dip. It truly has a buffalo blue cheese flavor. This dip can be very useful. Beware, the salt content is high, but most buffalo sauce flavored recipes can be that way. Versatile.

Heat this dip for best flavor. With chips, it's pungent!

Heat this dip for best flavor. Our homemade pita chips.

Taste on Food: We heated up a cup of this dip to have with our homemade chicken tenders (below) and to dip with some pita chips (above). Pungent.

Our homemade chicken tenders were a perfect match.

Our homemade chick tenders were a perfect match.

Brian: This dip is great for a quickie. Just heat and eat. It was much better with the chicken tenders than it was with the pita chips. While I love blue cheese, I like controlling the amount of it in a dip. I think there could be more blue cheese crumbles versus the cheese mixture. And, like Marilyn says… this is some salty stuff.

Marilyn: This is a little too heavy on the blue cheese for me. I did like the creamy buffalo flavor, but the saltiness is a turnoff.

Heat Level: – Mildly spicy. Not too hot for the masses. Just right.

Overall Rating: – This dip has some promise. You could use it as is, or doctor it up. We think it’s very versatile and worthy of any party dip or veggie tray. Spicy.

Final Thoughts

Label/Graphics: The label and graphics are simple and clean. You know what you are getting.

We like the jar size – for a big party the jar is perfect – for a couple or smaller gathering, just spoon out what you need and keep the rest for later. Classic.

Where to buy: Boulevard 647 also makes a Garlic & Parmesan Artichoke Spinach Dip and both dips are available at http://boulevard647.com

Filed Under: reviews, salsas and condiments Tagged With: 2015, blue cheese, buffalo, cheese, dip

Flyboy’s Salsa review

by Brian Meagher : 06/23/2014

Why should you order salsa online?

You can easily go to any grocery store and pick up Pace, or Tostidos, or even Chi-Chi’s… the list goes on and on. But what you end up with is a “grocery store salsa”. Mass produced with flavors and tastes that are bland and generic.

Why should you order salsa online?

Because you get a better salsa that is usually hand-crafted or is a small batch product. Especially the salsas that we review here on HotSauceDaily.

Enter Flyboy’s Salsa…

Flyboy’s Salsa

Flyboy’s Salsa out of Arlington, Texas, is the brainchild of Sean Ray and Ryan Renz. They both have ties to the airline industry, hence the name Flyboy’s Salsa.

The labels each feature a cartoon image of a WWII Fighter Plane, complete with angry eyes and jagged teeth. Just ready to eat and overtake the enemy’s planes.

Each heat level of Flyboy’s Salsa sports 2, 4, and 6 bombs in silhouette to indicate the heat level.

Their Mild, Medium and Hot salsas all have garlic, jalapeño and serrano chile peppers as base ingredients.

I can’t stress enough how much the garlic plays into these flavors.

I. Love. Garlic. Salsas.

And if you do too, all three of the Flyboy’s Salsas will make you happy.

Flyboy’s Salsa Mild

Ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, onions, cider vinegar, cilantro, jalapeño peppers, salt, water, red wine vinegar, serrano peppers, natural flavor. Contains sulfites.

Heat Level:

Fresh taste with garlic way up front. Very mild heat from the jalapeños, sweetness from the red wine vinegar, and a nice tingle from the serrano peppers. Versatile.

Flyboy’s Salsa Medium

Medium Salsa

Ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, onions, cider vinegar, cilantro, jalapeño peppers, salt, serrano peppers, water, red wine vinegar, natural flavor. Contains sulfites.

Heat Level:

The jump from Mild to Medium is not a big leap. While the Mild has that little tingle from the serranos, the Medium kicks that flavor up a notch or so. The garlic really starts to come center stage here too.

I could eat this salsa everyday.

Even the mild has it’s heat, and the Medium kicks that up a notch and a half.

First is the big garlic hit… a little fresh green jalapeño flavor, followed by the sting of the serrano peppers. Hidden underneath is a sweetness from the red wine vinegar. Everyday use.

Flyboy’s Salsa Hot

Hot Flyboys’s

Ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, onions, cider vinegar, cilantro, serrano peppers, jalapeño peppers, salt, water, red wine vinegar, natural flavor. Contains sulfites.

Heat Level:

The jump from Medium to Hot is a bigger deal… 2 notches at least.

Still presenting and capitalizing on the fresh garlic “bang”, Flyboy’s Hot is a whole new creature. Funny, since the ingredient list is still basically the same, only rearranged.

The most flavorful of the trio, Flyboy’s Hot brings on big flavors, big garlic, and big heat – well, as big as a serrano/jalapeno combo can get. Deliciously Hot.

Overall Rating:

Overall Rating: – For great taste and quality, and for superb graphics, labels and artwork, Flyboy’s is a class act, and is worthy of your dollars! Tell them HotSauceDaily sent you.

Social Media: Flyboy’s Salsa can be found on Twitter and on Facebook as Flyboysalsa.

Where to buy? Purchase FlyBoysSalsa here: FlyBoysSalsa.com.

Listen in as Brian and Sean Ray talk about Flyboy’s Salsa:

Filed Under: reviews, salsas and condiments Tagged With: 2014, hot, medium, mild, salsa

Mikey V’s Smoked Bacon Salsa

Mikey V’s new Smoked Bacon Salsa features Rentsch Brewery’s Weizenbock Beer

KYVAN Honey Apple Salsa