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Multi-Review: Three Hot Tamales “Cranked Up Cranberry” Sauce…Part 1
By admin | December 4, 2007 |
Since it is a tad lengthy, I split this review into two parts, and because of my busy work schedule I didn’t edit anything. Copy and paste baby!!! I’d like to thank the Three Hot Tamales, Blane, and the reviewers for their contributions that made this review possible. So here is the uncut raw version. Enjoy!
Parker:
Hi Yauwl, (that’s a California hello)
I’m not real big on sweet sauces, but when asked to do it, I reluctantly agreed. After all when you already have a pre-conception of what you like and don’t like, It already had one strike against it before it reached my door.
Nice label DK, I assume you are responsible for that.
So I open the bottle and give it a whiff. Yum, smells like cranberries. I like cranberries! I always pour a dab on the back of my hand and tasted it as I do all new sauces. It looked, well like diluted cranberry sauce. A far cry from that can shaped quivering blob that I usually eat.
Damn that’s Sweet, real sweet. I also like pineapple although I really couldn’t taste any, but it really didn’t matter.
As far as heat, well I guess there was some. I had to eat a tablespoon to detect any heat at all (and I ‘m not quite sure I did) Maybe I got a bottle with no Naga instead of extra Naga. No matter it was fun trying to find some heat.
I slapped some on a piece of turkey and gave it a try. YUMMY. I also poured it on my muffins with dinner like a thin jam. Sufficed to say I really enjoyed this bottle of sauce (although I won’t call it hot sauce) I think I’ll call it a Holiday sauce. Suitable for anyone!
Thanks to the 3 Hot Tamales for putting out another quality product, thanks to Blane for sending it, and Taste The Fear for posting my thoughts.
I have decided to re-think how I came to dislike sweet sauces.
The Vanilla bean Ice cream is in trouble.
Buddah:
I want to be upfront and honest with my review and I am not about to be held back so lets get to it. I simply do not like cranberries. Outside of Cran-Grape fruit juice by Ocean Spray I have not run into another cranberry product that I would say I liked. So giving me this “Cranked Up Cranberry” hot sauce was probably not the best of ideas. You know when you try something you don’t like, you have this preconceived notion about it, and it is hard to get over the prejudice that you have? Sometimes I try hard to convince someone that something I love is so good, that if they tried it they would change their minds. Well there was this one instance when my friend tried sushi for the first time. Before he put it in his mouth, he was freaked by the idea of raw fish and when he bit into it he had his mind made up before his tastebuds could put their own spin on things. He spit it right out, freaked by my recommendation.
Would my tastebuds be lost to my prejudice towards Cranberries? Well, I wanted to be fair, so I tried my best to allow my tastebuds to do their work. I tried the cranberry hot sauce the day I got it in the mail. I planned on having some chicken that night and since I rather have chicken over turkey, I figured it didn’t matter much. When I poured it in my dunking dish, a cranberry lodged itself at the rim of the bottle top and I had to reshake the bottle to loosen the berry from the opening. I wasn’t expecting chunks, so I was a bit surprised at this. Not sure I wanted chunks, but it was a fruit-based product so I guess fruity pieces were standard. Once I got the bottle to pour the hot sauce and got a chunk or two of cranberries out of the bottle I was more than ready to eat.
Then the phone rang, and DK aka Willy was on the phone. We got to chatting about the world and such. You know intellectual talk between two smart guys. In between exchanges I dunked a piece of chicken into the cranberry product. I noticed the sweet flavor, but it wasn’t hot or not yet at any rate. I secured another dunk and bite and managed to grab a cranberry on my chicken piece. I liked the taste but it wasn’t too strong, and didn’t much change the overall chicken flavor in my mouth. DK told me of his love of the cranberry hot sauce with oreos and krispy marshmallow treats and I honestly would’ve loved to try that method, but the sugar in the Cranked Up Cranberry was more than enough for me. I did envision trying it with banana and pineapple, but that would be another day. Now was the chicken. So once I got off the phone I sat down to do the meal justice.
When I smothered my chicken bites with the cranberry sauce I was pleased by the taste. It didn’t taste like cranberries. It was more like raspberry topping for ice cream. Yet the flavor tasted very watered down. I then looked at the label, and there it was. Water was the 3rd ingredient listed. This flavor was not strong on my palette, and I had to use a lot of cranberry sauce to really change the taste of the chicken and notice the sweetness come through. I still had no heat either and would like to have had some burn from the naga which I must confess never came. Yet, I had some hopes with this hot sauce and wanted to experiment further the next day.
I went to Whole Foods, which by me they have a state of the art food area where you can purchase fresh hot and cold ready made gourmet items. DK had mentioned the cranberry hot sauce was good on pork chops, so I wanted to get a ready made version from Whole Foods. The pork chop meal also came with 2 sides. I chose garlic green beans with mushrooms and a little bit of mac and cheese. Yum Yum. Well all 3 did well with the Cranked Up Cranberry, especially the mac ‘n cheese which the flavor managed to come through the best with. I still had to use the rest of the bottle to drown the pork to get the flavor to shine. It just is too watered down for me even with the occassional small chunk here and there. The next morning I opened the 2nd bottle to have with some banana and pineapple, but I barely noticed the flavor of the cranberry. I drank some straight out of the bottle. Not hot, but having it this way I can see why DK likes it so much. The taste is right on, but once it is on something I barely taste it. I bet it is a winner with ice cream.
I did one last test a couple of days later, and that was to roll the sauce up with some turkey slices. Once again the hot sauce got lost in the meat. I am not disappointed with this product because I honestly didn’t think I would like it, but I did. THT knows taste that is for sure. I would like the ladies to cut out or reduce the water from the product. Perhaps they could add cranberry or orange juice or something similar to replace the water if that is the liquid base they want, because there is potential for greatness in their good product. It is THT’s creative edge that makes them a company worth following. THT Cry Baby and Garlic Lover’s Steak Hot Sauce are two of my favorite condiments, so I will keep my eyes peeled for more from these ladies in the future.
Buddah
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Topics: Hot Product Reviews | 15 Comments »
Al, can you elaborate a little more? I’m not quite sure where you stand on this sauce….lol
If you think I can go on and on, wait until read the dip and mustard reviews. I am as long winded as ever.
Awe crap….
Parker…don’t encourage him….
personnally if its more than 2 or 3 paragrahs, I dont bother reading it
I feel your pain Ed, we don’t have a diploma from ******** university.
IS THAT LIKE GRADUATING FROM THE UNIV OF SCRATHMYBUM?
On a side note: DK and I just set it up, the THT sent there bottles out to each person free, to have there sauce reviewed.
Thank you Lisa, Jodi and Kristi for sending the sauces out ;-)
Thanks girls!
It’s obviously the THT rock! ;-)
It’s also great in a milkshake. I found that out Sunday ;-)
I was supposed to share one of the two bottle I got, the one I bought and the other I got for free(thanks ladies), but I just couldn’t because I used the rest of it on some sliced peaches and cream. Yum!
So you had to hog it all eh’
:nerd:, Ladies are old. Girls are young.
Thanks Girls :-D
Hey guys! Thanks! As simple as this sauce seems to be to make is as it is hard to make! We wanted this sauce to be on everyones holiday dinner table to be enjoyed by hot heads and novice hot heads alike! But it seems even with the points of the sauce you don’t like, you still seem to enjoy the overall flavor of the sauce. That is what we love to hear! And of course we love to take in all the suggestions anyone may have to make our products even better! And no thanks is necessary to us for sending in Cranked Up Cranberry for a review. We feel it is a great learning experience for us and for our consumers!
Thanks again for all your love and support of THT!
BTW thanks Parker we love to be considered “YOUNG” even though we all know the truth! HA HA HA :-) And Buddha, we love you no matter what you call us!
Happy Channakka! (yes we had our brisket and laktes to celebrate!)
Merry Christmas! (yes we will have our brined roasted turkey and honey spiral ham to celebrate on the 25th!)
Isn’t it great when you celebrate both holidays? I love food and I love that I married a Jew! The food options are endless! Stay safe this holiday season no matter what you celebrate!
XXXXX OOOOO
Parker, :nerd:, great reading guys! Nice to see that I’m not the only person that’s changed their mind about sweet sauces because of this sauce. Parker, I’m gonna try the Vanilla ice cream thing, sound like a great idea.
:nerd:, you should of said that I interupted dinner, I wouldn’t have talked your ears off! LOL!!
Parker, yep, I did the label. And thank you kind sir, I’m glad you liked it. I had a lot of fun doing that for THT.
Speaking of which, THANK YOU Three Hot Tamales! Awesome sauce girls!