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Taste The Fear’s Battle of the Bottles III™: Carrot Wars
By admin | July 17, 2008 |
Today we have a slobberknocker for you folks. Battle of the Bottles III™: Carrot Wars is bigger and better than previous Battle of the Bottle™ events.
Mostly for two huge reasons. Firstly, Taste The Fear now has sponsorship for Battle of the Bottles III™, and secondly we throw out the Ring of Destiny and usher in the fierce and intimidating Cage of Condiments™.
It takes a lot of guts to put everything on the line and walk into the cage. Many have looked the other way, but only a few dare to look fear in the face and get locked into reinforced steel bars knowing only one condiment would walk out of the cage victorious. As you know, there can only be one winner once the Battle of the Bottles has begun.
Jungle Jim’s International Market, Home of the Weekend of Fire, August 2-3 in Fairfield, Ohio proudly presents Battle of the Bottles III™: Carrot Wars!
Without further adieu, let us bring in the competitors…
Our first bottle, Harry’s Habanero, is from The Boulder Hot Sauce Company.
100% Fresh Quality Ingredients, No Sugar Added and Naturally Thickened with Sweet Carrots.
We would like to thank Harry Robertson, the man behind the bottle, for jumping at the challenge when the chance arose to get in the cage as a last minute substitution due to an injury. Not only did he jump at the opportunity, but he was enthusiastic as well. Harry’s Habanero has a rich orange-brown, thickness and you can see a lot of ingredients going on just by looking at the bottle. Yet looking at the ingredients list, you wonder why it isn’t in a more liquid state. Purified Water and Vinegar are the first 2 on the list. Hmmm?
Ingredients: Purified Water, Vinegar, Habanero Peppers, Fresh Poblano Peppers, Fresh Onions, Fresh Carrots, Red Ripe Serrano Peppers, Fresh Garlic and Salt.
Harry’s competition is just not your ordinary hot sauce folks. In less than a year in the hot sauce business, Intensity Academy has won numerous awards from the Scovies, Chile Pepper Magazine’s Zestfest, and the Hot Pepper Awards. Hot², their entry for the Battle of the Bottles III™: Carrot Wars is one of their products that took home an award. So with honor at stake and a will to put their product to the ultimate test, they fullheartedly agreed to the battle. Not only did they agree, but Michelle Northup of Intensity Academy told me she didn’t care what company their product would go against, Melinda’s, Marie Sharp’s, it didn’t matter to her. She just wanted to bring it and let the glass shards fall where they may. Unlike Harry’s Habanero, this sauce has a bright orange or should I say, carrot hue. It is a lot thinner in it’s make-up for their all natural product.
Ingredients: Carrots, Onions, Habanero Peppers, Vinegar, Garlic and Lime Juice.
With the introductions out of the way, let us get these two into the Cage of Condiments™ for the battle. Wait, is that an illegal weapon that Hot² casually tucked under it’s band? It looks like some sort of carrot-shaped knife. We appreciate the enthusiasm one must have going into a scary match like the Battle of the Bottle™, but no weapons are allowed. Unless one wishes to be disqualified. Take note future Battle of the Bottle™ challengers. These actions will not be tolerated!
Round 1: I got very excited to put some of these sauces on some Whole Foods’ egg, cheese and bacon pizza. This pizza rocks and with a little touch of hot sauce it has done wonders. So I brought the slice back to my apt and wanted to get some great pics. With the slice cut in half, you can see the before and after effects with the hot sauce.
You can see on the left how bright the Hot² is compared to the extra thick Harry’s Habanero. I couldn’t wait to get to this split personality pizza, but then all of a sudden the phone rang. Okay, timeout. It’s some gator lover from South Carolina that says he just wants 5 minutes of my time. Well 45 minutes later, my pizza was cold, and my meal had lost all its luster. I tried to nuke it, but microwaved pizza doesn’t do the trick. Eating cold eggs is the last thing I wanted to do, so I ended up unhappy and couldn’t judge this round at all. Next time I will use my Caller ID.
Round 2: I still wanted eggs, so I went with a tried and true egg omelet with cheese and salsa. No phone calls for this meal.
Once again, you can see such a huge difference in the consistency in both hot sauces. The taste has an even bigger difference. You get such a sweet carrot flavor from the Hot², while the Harry’s Habanero hits you right in the face with bold smokey flavor. There is so much more happening with Harry’s Habanero that the omelet transforms into a whole different meal. Hot² is tasty, but it gets lost amongst the other ingredients. Perhaps, it is just too sweet with the salsa I used. Harry’s Habanero also wins the clinging factor as this hot sauce doesn’t roll off my forkful like the Hot² does. As for heat, Harry’s Habanero carried a lot more than the Hot², but you should know that Intensity Academy makes a Hot3 which is a hotter version. So no point deductions for heat in this contest.
Round 3: The bunless burger test. This kind of shocked me after the reaction I got from the eggsperiment. Smokey burgers should work right? Harry’s Habanero did not work for me. The smokey flavor overwhelmed my palette and eventhough I still liked the burger, I wouldn’t do it again. It was just a lot more than I wanted. Then when I took some bites out of the Hot² burger, I was pleasantly surprised how well the sweet carrot flavor went with the meat. I found myself falling more and more in love with the taste of the Hot² with every bite I took. I wanted to drown my burger in it. By the picture, I practically did.
Round 3.5: Without having made up my mind yet, I decided to go with my favorite weekly meal, chicken. No pics of me dunking my chicken. Just a simple straight forward analysis. Chicken goes well with most hot sauces, and this was the case here too. I liked both sauces and went back and forth for a while trying to make up my mind. I went 2 days, eating the chicken separately with each bottle so my tastebuds could better assess the flavors. There is so much happening with the Harry’s Habanero that if you like smokey flavor in hot sauces then you must try this one. It is different, very different for me at least. As for the Hot², I really think that the simplistic approach that was taken here would be so much better if it had the thickness of Harry’s Habanero product. The taste is slightly addicting to me though. The more I have it with my chicken, the more I just want to dunk, dip, lick the plate and soak every inch of my chicken in it. I don’t get the feeling with Harry’s Habanero that I have to drench my food in it. That is probably because there is more robust flavors present and the Hot² is light in this regard.
There is something to take from each hot sauce in this competition and make them even better than they are. One needs more thickness and volume, and the other needs to take a step back from the smokey flavor. Although, in different ways they both work. I think you know by now that my scorecard reads Hot² as the winner of this tightly contested Battle of the Bottle™. Congrats Intensity Academy, you got my vote!
Hudd:
I received these two sauces in the mail and immediately was interested in trying both. I’ve never had a carrot based sauce before. The two are completely different in appearance. Hot2 is thin and orange, and Harry’s Habanero is thick and brown.
Both are very similar in smell with the habanero being prominent but not overbearing.
The two taste different with Hot2 being a little milder and sweeter. Harry’s has more heat and texture. Hot2 liquefies their all natural ingredients, while Harry’s fresh ingredients are chopped fine and visible in the sauce.
I went to each company’s web site to get an idea of what to do with the sauces to put them up against each other. Intensity Academy has a few recipes that look interesting. I didn’t find any on The Boulder Hot Sauce site. So what to do?
I decided to just do wings on the grill and put these two head to head. I was at first worried that the Hot2 wouldn’t stay on the wings with it being as thin as it appeared. I was fooled by the appearance as it did stay on the wings just fine. I put a few of each on my plate and started in on them. I have to tell you, I was having a hard time picking a favorite between these two. I ended up getting a couple more to help make the decision. The Hot2 started out kind of mild but the heat built up pretty quick. I think that’s due to the fact the ingredients had been liquefied. Harry’s started out with some heat, but it didn’t get much hotter.
I would like to thank both companies for supplying their product for this review. I really liked both of these sauces and as I stated before, had a hard time picking a winner. Overall I picked Intensity Academy Hot2 as the winner.
Justin:
Just looking at the two bottles, I like the Harry’s Habanero one better. Its got a brown paper label that I like both the looks and feel of in my hand. The picture on the front is a nice drawing that isn’t really anything special, but is nice looking and keeps the label simple. I read the back, and the basic idea is that it’s not just hot, but it also tastes good and says on it, “use a spoon not a toothpick”. So I’m guessing it probably has little to no heat at least for me. I cracked it open and took a whiff. It had a smell that reminded me of Tahiti Joe’s with the Worchester and clam juice. I checked the ingredients and it didn’t have anything like that in it, only the same ingredients that you would see in most carrot and habanero hot sauces. It didn’t even have spices or seasoning listed in it. I’m not sure where I got that from, but it smells good though so I couldn’t wait to dig in. I poured it out on a slice of pizza and it was thick, with the consistency of a good salsa. Looking at the consistency and color of it reminded me of M & D’s Ring of Fire. I ate the whole piece and was surprised by the heat level. I was expecting a lot less because of the whole flavor and heat, and use a spoon thing, but it was actually pretty hot and tasty. At first when I poured it out I was going to knock it down a point for the thickness of it, but it wasn’t to bad really. I spread it around with my finger, and the juices from it coated the whole slice of pizza while the thicker part stayed put and gave me a thick layer of delicious sauce without dripping off. Think about salsa and how the juices drip from it with the blended tomato and onion and peppers and etc… stay in place. So far I have just briefly tasted the sauce that is going up against this one so I cant really tell yet for the review, but like the first battle these two sauces have huge differences in them. This is considered a carrot based sauce, and it does have carrots in the ingredient list, but I cant taste them at all. I could definitely see both bottles sitting next to each other in my fridge, but if I was in the mood for a carrot sauce I would grab the Hot2. That doesn’t mean that I like the Hot2 better though. Like I said, I just briefly tried it so I don’t know. The only impression from the first small taste of it on my finger was a very fresh carrot flavor. I will do the second half of this review later tonight after the flavor and burn from Harry’s Habanero has completely left me.
THE NEXT DAY
When I open up the bottle of Hot2 and take a whiff, it is garlic that I first smell and then fresh carrots. This is the type of sauce that I think of when I think of a carrot based sauce. I poured it onto my pizza and ate my entire meal before typing this. Just like with Harry’s Habanero, the heat was not super hot, but surprisingly hotter than I expected. It’s a thinner sauce with a more even consistency than Harry’s Habanero which doesn’t really add or take away from its chances of winning. The flavor is full of garlic and carrots backed by vinegar. It doesn’t stand out from other carrot based sauces as much as Harry’s Habanero does, but honestly I think Harry’s Habanero stands out to much and isn’t really what I would want when I thought about a carrot based sauce. That does not mean that its not as good or even better, its just different enough that I could see them sitting next to each other in the fridge. Hot2 does stand out though with its heat and garlic. Enough that I would buy it again.
It’s really a hard choice between the two, because they are both so good and because they are both so different that I might pick one today and the other tomorrow depending on my mood. The best way I can think to name a winner is to think about which sauce I would be most likely to reorder the most of, and that would be Hot2.
I would highly recommend both sauces though, and I look forward to trying Boulder Hot Sauce Company’s other sauces. If your reading this Harry, you only lost my vote by a fraction.
Contact Information: INTENSITY ACADEMY
“HOT2″
www.intensityacademy.com
Contact Information: THE BOULDER HOT SAUCE COMPANY
“HARRY’S HABANERO”
The Boulder Hot Sauce Company
P.O. Box 19435
Boulder, CO 80308
Toll free: 866.253.7468
Email: Harry@boulderhotsauce.com
www.boulderhotsauce.com
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- Multi-Review: Battle of the Bottles V™- Louisiana Style
Topics: Contests/Events, General, Hot Product Reviews, Reviews | 48 Comments »
I love a good carrot based Hab sauce !! Great coincept and great review, nice job !
Thanks AJ, it was so much fun to do. So was the word “coincept” a mistake or a bad pun?
now thats entertainment.
LOL, what a neat typo
This was a fun review. The two were so close and it seems buddah and Justin had just as hard a time as I did deciding a winner. I like what you done with review buddah. Good job guys.
Nice job guys! I like the Battle of the Bottles cage too. Very cool!
Thanks Samuel. You better like it, your bottle is next.
Thanks Hudd. I like the surprise element we keep until the review is posted. Also we got more sponsors for B.o.B. IV.
Cage of Condiments = COC. Cage of Condiment Killers = COCK.
TTF’erz never let me down.
Loved the Battle!
Great job to those who made it happen.
Suprises me that they were soo close and everyone went with the Hot2 in the end.
one of the best reviews yet. imaginative and informative all roud.
Funny how I’m always the excuse for
wasting food. 
Awesome reviews guys. :nerd:, I love the ring, looks very cool :bro:.
Thanks General, much 2 kind. These reviews are by far my favorite to review, especially when you get 2 tasty products
DK loves COCKS!
you don’t get to be my size from wasting too much food.
USC Gamecocks
I guess you’re due another phone call or two soon then huh?
Or were refering to the fact that you are my friend?
uh
i plead the fifth. and i drink it too.
dk,
9-13-08
UGA at USC
You gonna be there?
yeah
i just happen to have bout $1200 for hotel airfare and tix just hanging from my money tree.
That egg and bacon pizza looked good. I love hot sauce in my juevos.
Good review everyone.
cheerio mate. welcome aboard. same ol same ol.
it really is good with hot sauce, too bad some redneck disturbed my meal with some endless yappin’.
Just thought, after I move, the omelet pizza won’t be around the corner anymore.
My lips are humming with ’10′ wing sauce right now. Boy that stuff can make me sweat. I guess adding more sauce did the trick. NICE burn!
I like the ring, great reviews…… A+ all around
Coming from the almighty HWL, that is the highest of praises. Thank you kind Sir.
That was the most imaginative review EVER!!! I really LOVE the Cage match. Will it be at Jungle Jim’s I need photos of it!?! In celebration of winning the match I will offer a FREE bottle of Hot2 with ANY purchase from our website with mention of the Battle of the Bottles III.
GREAT job on the review it is so creative!!!
Sweet offer!
Can I just mention it in person?
I will try to remember to bring it. I have a few things to remember to bring and I all ready have forgotten what they were. Thanks for the kind words. We’ll see ya at JJ’s!
ya dude i wer good in this review
It says use the website :dork:! Besides, you already got your bottle Mr. Reviewer!
Hey :nerd:, I got your list. I’ll remind you a few days ahead of time what to bring.
You have to do it after I move because I have to find the stuff in the boxes I packed it in.
Hooters shot glass!
I picked up the 2nd one last night.
I know
Cool, thank you sir.
Counting down the minutes to Jungle Jim’s! If you’re going come by the booth to see the Taste of Fear Battle of the Bottles 3 Boxing Carrot Champion Live & in Person!!!! (You’ll have to see this to believe it!) Hope to see you at JJ08′.
Look’n forward to seeing you there Michele…
Cap’n Bones
I look forward to seeing you again Michele.
[...] Continued… [...]
Hey guys, Just want to let you know, Intensity Academy has a new website & the link for purchasing Hot2 is CLICK HERE – Just an FYI if you want to update your post. Also if you want, check out their new blog: CLICK HERE
Teresa – Design One Ltd., LLC
I cook all the time and I have now tried both sauces. They were both very tasty. The only comment I would add is that all your tests were surface experiments. If you use hot sauce as a cooking ingredient such as in Chili, Soup and skillet creations, Harry’s Habanero is at it’s best. The smoky flavor adds great depth to chili it’s making my mouth water right now. On wings I give the slight edge to Hot2.
Funny enough H’s Habanero reminds me or Reign of Fire (a frequent visitor to my refrigerator). I was happy to see that pointed out in the review.
…My bad. I wanted to say Harry’s Habanero reminds me of “Ring of Fire” not “reign of fire”. Although their is such a sauce as Reign of fire, I have never tried it myself.
Welcome to TTF Julien!