Customer Reviews

Dave's Ghost Pepper Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce 5oz

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased a burrito from a small shop a few blocks from home. I was unimpressed with their habanero "hot" salsa. Eager to kick it up a notch, I reached for a bottle of what I later found to be Dave's Gourmet Ghost Pepper Jolokia Hot Sauce. I unscrewed the top and went to put a dab on. I quickly realized that there was no flow regulation but not before a large pool of the magma colored liquid dripped into my lunch. I decided to dab my finger in it and see what I was dealing with. It was formidable, sweet and flavorful with a long heat. I thought I could take the heat.

I demolished the burrito, hot sauce and all, and shrugged off the pain. Every bite was saturated with the taste of a thousand tortured souls but the guacamole still tasted great. I wiped my tingling lips and while downing a glass of water I looked at the bottle. It claimed a heat rating of "Insanity++." I headed home thinking surely the worst must be over. I've ate plenty of hot food and my stomach is battle tested. I was wrong.

I walked no more than a block before I started to feel odd. It was in the forties in Cleveland but I could feel the sweat forming on my brow. I walked another block and I could literally feel the burning sensation outlining my stomach. My breaths were noticeably faster and shorter. People on the street looked at me weird. I figured it would go away by the time I got home but I decided to pick up the pace. By the time my apartment was in sight I was experiencing tunnel vision and it felt like a live agitated weasel had been placed inside me. I knew what I had to do. After flushing my lunch, a tablespoon of this sauce, half a gallon of milk, and my ego down the drain, I can honestly say I am just happy to be alive. This sauce is not for mortals.

A few hours ago, I put a dime sized dab of this sauce on a corn chip and scarfed it down. Initially, it was hot but certainly no hotter than other sauces I've had. I quickly followed up with another dime sized dab on a chip. Shortly thereafter, it began to feel as if my tongue was being electrocuted. My eyes began to sting and my lips went numb. The ecstasy brought about by eating spicy food poured up out of my mouth and into my head. I laid down and the dog started to act very worried. While prostrate, I focused on the pain and stared into the darkness of my own eyelids. Every little thing becomes significant when the mind is seeking relief from pain. I do not know what will happen when this stuff makes its way through my digestive tract. I'll be eating more soon.

It seems like there is a new "Hottest Pepper in the World" every couple of years or so. Not too long ago it was the Red Savinaź Habanero with a Scoville heat rating of 577,000 units. Now it is the Naga Jolokia (also known as the Naga Morris, Nai Miris, Bih Jolokia and Bhut Jolokia, etc.) with a whopping 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units according to the New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute. In February 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia (aka Naga Jolokia) as the hottest pepper in the world. It is reportedly called the "Ghost Pepper" because after one bite of the pepper you "give up the ghost".

Now Dave's Gourmet has made a sauce from this serious pepper. This is nothing to fool around with, it will cause pain, a lot of pain. So why would anybody want a sauce that hot (other than for bravado)? I for one like the taste. It is a little smokier that Habanero. I also use it in sauces where I want heat but not the red color of chili peppers, such as a cream based sauce. Since it only takes a drop to give me the heat that I want it will hardly change the color of a white sauce.

My only reservations about it is that it contains hot pepper extract (which is what they call the stuff that they spray in the eyes of criminals). I've seen hot pepper extract for sale as a commercial additive. It's low on flavor but big on heat. Was this added to give the sauce extra pain inducing heat while using fewer actual Jolokia peppers? I don't know but it makes you think. Dave also has a special edition sauce that uses the Bhut Jolokia pepper and cost about four times more than this one does. I like this sauce, but use with caution.

Yep, it's insane alright.

Having tried Dave's Original Insanity and hearing all the campfire stories of the dreaded ghost pepper I decided to embark on a mystical journey and ordered a bottle of this.

The bottle was unassuming enough when it arrived. Standard shape, somewhat mundane label, but it contained a substance that had a curiously bright crimson and orange color. Once opened it had a spicy smell, not unlike Tobasco although thankfully without the overwhelmingly foul essence of vinegar.

Well, time for a taste. I got a good thick coat of the bright substance on my index finger and took the plunge. It had a pretty nice tangy flavor... That is it had a nice flavor for about 1500 milliseconds before Oppenheimer hit the red button and, "I am become heat, the destroyer of digestive tracts."

The heat hit me like a runaway freight train hitting a house of cards. No, make that a run away freight train with several JATOs attached to the rear propelling it somewhere above the upper class neighborhood of mach 2. I doubled over and let out a raspy gasp, my face flushed to a hue not unlike the sauce itself, my eyes became a water park. My aural senses became dull like I was at the bottom of a swimming pool.

I heard a knock at the door and stumbled towards it with blurred vision. It was a county sheriff at the door and he was there to serve me. My own tongue, esophagus, uvula, stomach, and intestinal tract had somehow just filed a class action lawsuit against me. I reeled backwards and fell onto the couch and tried to focus my bleary eyes on a small fuzzy object on the floor. It was my cat, standing quietly and observing my plight. Maybe it was the impaired vision, maybe it was the start of something more spiritual, but my cat's face warped into a Cheshire smile many times the girth of his face. Each tooth glowing with the luster of tarnished gold in an unholy candlelight. His eyes sank back into ashen voids, glimmering ember pin points at the center of each gaping socket. The room around him began to dance and spin and the walls eventually melted away to reveal a brimstone canyon stretching as far as could be imagined. "Soooo hoooot it's spoooooky," my cat boomed, his voice echoed with a baritone bass that would surely send James Earl Jones running for the hills. Sweating, hyperventilating, and nearly blind, my vision finally faded to black.

I awoke with blinding light bombarding my face. How long was I out? Slowly gyrating figures came into focus and as my eyes adjusted more I recognized them as people standing over me. A few more moments and I was able to see one of the faces and... Grandpa?!

I bolted upright nearly headbutting the entire crowd looming over me "Am I dead?!" I shouted.

"No, no. You just had a bit too much of the insanity sauce in one go, I'm afraid. You'll be back to the mortal world in a few moments," my grandpa stated non nonchalantly, adjusting his tie slightly.

"So, wait," I began, "Wha... what is this? ...Is this?"

"Maybe," grandpa shrugged, "Perhaps you can ask me again on your next visit in a day or two."

"Next visit?!" I shouted, "I'm not touching that sauce ever again! Except maybe per drop. Diluted in very large amounts of some sort of substrate like chilli. I-"

Grandpa smiled and interrupted, "You only have a few seconds left. You'll be back at least once more, I know that for sure."

"For sure?" I asked genuinely confused.

Grandpa tiled his head, looking at me like I had just grown a third eye, "Well yeah. You already ate the stuff, and what goes in has to come out eventually."

My face cracked and was painted with the same look a deer must have in the headlights of an approaching freight train that is powered by several JATO motors. Before I could seek further council I was grasped firmly by an unknown force and suddenly yanked away. The light got sucked into darkness and the roar of passing wind deafened me. I was falling.

Soon something came into focus, approaching fast. It was the ground, rushing to greet me with the eagerness of a freshman salesperson thinking they've identified an easy mark. I began screaming, as if that would help. My life didn't flash before my eyes, I didn't have any final profound thoughts, my whole head was filled with paralyzing unmitigated terror. Closer, closer, closer. The ground hurled itself towards me in excitement to say hello to my face with a big wet, red kiss. And just as I'm 1mm away from contact...

I jerk upright on my couch, back in my house. Sweaty and tongue numb, cat still sitting on the floor looking as plain as can be. I breathe a heavy sigh of relief, although doing so has a noticeable heat to it due to the remnants of the sauce. I hold my head in my hands and try to regain composure, reassuring myself it was just some weird dream brought on by everyday stress combined with the sudden shock of the ghost pepper sauce. My eyes drift around coming to rest on a stack of papers on the coffee table. Legal papers? I'm... I'm suing myself?

I've since been eating lots of cheese and chocolate hoping to stave off the inevitable second visit to Grandpa.

This sauce is hot. Really hot. Use a drop at a time in large volumes of other stuff that needs a bit of heat.

Pros: Ultra super mega hot. Nice bright, festive color - If HGTV did a makeover of Satan's house they'd probably paint the living room with this stuff for the color.
Cons: Flavor is made irrelevant due to the absurd level of heat. No stopper in the bottle's neck so be careful about pouring.

I've been experimenting with ways to give my guacamole an extra kick. After receiving this industrial solvent in the mail, I called some buddies over for burritos, beer and baseball.

Cut to fifteen minutes later: four men are sitting around, watching baseball and drinking beer as it dawns on them that there is an angry dragon writhing about in each of their stomachs. The dragons breathe white hot fire that scorches their mouths and ravages their tongues. Ever men, they remain erect and try to soothe the dragon's temper with gifts of alcohol. Quickly, though, the supply dwindles and furtive glances dart around the room. Who will break first? As sweat drips down their foreheads and stings their eyes, they try to think about baseball...think about baseball...think about baseball...and then one makes a break for it! In an instant there is a stampede for the kitchen. They fling open the refrigerator and, snorting like wild bulls, rip open another case and chug like Dionysus reborn--but to no avail.

This alcohol is fueling the fire and not dousing it. With choked and gasping breath one whispers "milk". Upending the kitchen they can find none of the sweet elixir. With tears streaming down their faces they tear outside, but in the rush of flailing limbs they fall into a heap on the pavement. "Oh no" they say, realizing the horrible truth. In their haste to quench this insatiable heat they made a fatal mistake: they are way too drunk to drive. Rising from the ground, they take off on foot for the nearest corner store. Soon, none can bear to breathe through their mouths; the dragon's flames lick at their lips unbearably. As they breathe heavily through their noses, their sinuses are soon aflame from the intense heat and begin their own form of self defense.

What a spectacle! Four grown men with red faces, streaming eyes and snot flying into the wind as they gasp and wheeze down the road, driven by the fires of hell itself.

Soon, the fat one falls, hitting the ground hard but stretching his hands out for help. Through the sneezing and wheezing no words can escape his ruined lips. Onward the three friends push with nary a backward glance. "We will remember you fondly, fat one" they say to themselves, hearts roasted free of compassion.

They burst into the corner store as one drunken, moaning entity of pure thirst and claw their way to the milk. With wild abandon, they forego such modern niceties as payment and immediately pour gallons of soothing white mana into their gaping, flaming maws. They sink to the floor in the silent thanks of men spared the gallows. One thought lingers in their minds: "that guac sure was tasty."

I saw this innocent looking bottle on the shelf of a specialty market and it winked at me. I am a lover of hot sauces and have heard about the nuclear qualities of the Ghost Pepper. I had heard that it needed 2 keys turned at the same time just to open the bottle.. The label claims it is a "great industrial cleaner and grease remover".. Bah, enough I said. I had made some Turkey chili previously and had some leftovers so what a great way to try this "So hot it's spooky" sauce. I put a tiny bit on my pinky and licked it off, immediately my lips,toungue and mouth were tingling. It tickled my fancy. After a few minutes I began to sweat and my face flushed a bit. Bah... No worries. My wife sampled a drop on the end of a toothpick and was burning up for almost an hour. I splashed a drop into my chili, stirred it and nothing. Felt no heat, dropped some more in.. stirred it and let it set, mmmm good heat... I went do put some more sauce in and a quarter sized glob ejaculated out. I stirred it, let it set and Holy Hell... What a difference. I instantly began sweating, my nose was dripping and my sinus cavity was conflagrated. I loved it. I ate more, it got worse. My hearing diminshed and my eyes were burning. I ate more chili, my esophagus burned. I kept on going, had some milk. I finished the bowl in about 20 mins. I felt like death. It hit my stomach and it felt like a WWF battle royal in there. I got dizzy, had to sit down.. I became soft spoken and started to burp a lot. The next 2 hours created so much bubbly gas that I farted about every 30 seconds, some so loud that it registered on the Richter scale. I felt better. I survived. I had to work the next day. I am a firefigher and am used to heat. I had to poop. I never felt more of a delightfully different burn coming out of me. I had 3 of these episodes in about an hour. Putting a roll of toilet paper in the freezer would have helped quell the fire. I laughed, the guys on my shift laughed.

All in all, it's really a great tasting sauce with a lot of heat. Will I do this to myself again.. You bet your ass I will :)

The Ghost Pepper version of "Dave's" has a great lingering heat from which rises an excellent flavor that enhances rather than hides the taste of your food. Did I mention that it is a LINGERING heat? This is a great sauce with a familiar, distinctive "Dave's" taste that leans a little more toward sweet (and away from bitter) than original "Dave's". Personally I prefer this slight shift toward sweet with most foods on which I've tried the sauce. This will not keep me from continuing to use the original on hotdogs, perogies, and chili, etc...

While the Scoville rating on the Bhut Jolokia (aka Naga Jolokia, Ghost Pepper) is no doubt impressive, what does it taste like? Does Dave's Ghost Pepper Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce capture the taste of the pepper?

I, for one, absolutely love the fruity, bright taste of the Habanero - yes, Habaneros are hot, but their taste is exquisite; capturing that taste, or complimenting it, in a hot sauce takes real skill. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure what the Bhut Jolokia tastes like in its raw state, as I have yet to have the opportunity to try it (though I am looking for just such an opportunity). I would assume this sauce does the job, considering the ingredient list:

* Naga Jolokia
* hot pepper extract
* salt
* vegetable oil
* roasted garlic pulp
* acetic acid

The thing that worried me is that second ingredient - "hot pepper extract" is, no doubt, capsaicin. I take issue with including it in this hot sauce, as it artificially raises the heat level. Why not allow the Bhut Jolokia stand on its own? Who cares if the resulting sauce doesn't melt my face off? "The Source" or the plethora of has-no-flavor-but-who-cares-because-its-insane-heat-impresses-people hot sauces can do that for me if I am looking for that kind of experience.

Overall, this sauce has a decent flavor if you can get past the distracting quantity of heat. I suppose I should have expected the company that gave us "Dave's Insanity Sauce" to miss the mark, since heat seems to be their only goal; none of "Dave's Gourment" sauces has ever impressed me with flavor, I shouldn't fault them for merely being consistent. :)

This stuff is ultra-hot and was exactly what I was looking for to spice up my chili recipes. One teaspoon in a bowl of chili is sufficient to release a torrent of endorphins and cause the eater to sweat profusely. After accidentally adding too much Ghost Sauce to one bowl of chili, my wife made me take a shower before she'd get close to me. It was as if nearly every pore in my body opened up and went into overdrive producing sweat.

Don't expect to get much flavor out of this sauce. It's all about heat. If you're looking for something that tastes great on its own, you'd best look elsewhere. But if it's heat your after, you've chosen the right product. I always add a good dose of Tabasco sauce for flavor, but Tabasco is pretty puny when it comes to setting my mouth on fire. Dave's Ghost Pepper Sauce gets the job done!

This sauce is HOT. It is obviously not made for just plopping on your food, more likely mixing in a large bowl of chili (or for pranking your friends). Although this stuff is RIDICULOUSLY hot, it actually has some taste compared to other sauces of similar potency. I has an interesting smokey flavor and tastes like straight-up jolokia. Doing the toothpick test with this is bearable, but the heat sneaks up on you about 2-3 minutes in and it lingers for eternity. Wherever you placed the toothpick will temporarily feel like you actually burned it there. Yeah, its hot!

Please know what you are getting into if you buy this. It is a sauce with extract in it and is VERY hot. The especially sneaky part is that the temperature creeps up on you and takes a few minutes to really kick. This is not a sauce you would put directly on your food like tobasco or something. Be warned!