Angry Irishman Olive It! Jalapeno Hot Sauce
Angry Irishman Olive It! Habanero Hot Sauce
NOTE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbfnpruxEs8
I have decided to do another double review for these, as there is very little different in anything, except for a slight coloration difference (more towards beige for the Habanero and more towards olive green for the Jalapeno) and the Habanero being the only one that has even a slight edging towards piquancy.
At first, these looked to me to be basically pureed green olives, which seemed an intriguing base to start a hot sauce. I love green olives dearly, but it had never occurred to me that they might make a good sauce component, though I've eaten more than my fair share stuffed with everything imaginable, bleu cheese, garlic, Jalapeno, Habanero, Jolokias, and so on, even once, memorably, with a stab at bacon cheddar, which went about exactly as well as you might expect. For all that, my money is still with the pimento-stuffed, which is where this sauce is at, as well. So, all to the good there.
My expectation of it being pureed olives basically, was bolstered by the label, which listed Spanish olives as the first ingredient. I checked out the website a bit for where such a sauce might have some recommended usage and saw pizza. I've long been an adherent of green olives and pepperoni as my go-to pizza of choice at a certain local pizza eatery, so it seemed we might be kindred spirits in thought. They also mentioned dirty martinis (I'm off drinking for the time being, so no test there) and egg salad, which I did test, among other things. I was, I should say, a bit apprehensive also, though, as green olives have a pretty strong flavor and I've found most people seem to reside snugly in the "love" or "hate" categories, with little room between. Making a sauce with that ingredient, without also having it be overpowering, seemed like a nifty trick, if it could be pulled off.
As it is, though, they do not appear to have tried. These "sauces" are basically pureed Spanish olives, with some minor additional components added, the flavors of which very little show up. Certainly not the Jalapeno at all, the garlic slightly, the olive oil not at all (I assume this to be meant as an emulsifier, which didn't work great - both sauces need to have constant agitation and both not only separated, but clotted up the bottle neck), and the Habanero very little, though it did impart a slight degree of heat. This also makes a very thick sauce, quite sludgy, and nearly impossible to pour, as one might expect.
Now, obviously I'm a fan of the flavor, but I will also say that part of my enjoyment of eating those olives comes from the bit of firmness and mouth feel when eating them. There is none of that here, just the flavor, but it was a flavor I did not find particularly enjoyable in egg salad, without the accompanying mouth feel. There, you just have a mouth of mush, though a tasty mush. On pizza, it was slightly better, but, again, I was missing the mouth feel. I suspect this would probably work better in a drink, but one of my favorite bits, again, is eating the olives after downing the martini (and I prefer mine extra dirty).
Where all this is going is that this is an interesting idea, though how much you will want to throw in on it depends on how much you like the flavor of green olives. If you're like me, and you also like the heft, the mouth feel, the bit of chew to the olives, that aspect is missing here and will feel missing as well with usage. If you are a dirty martini drinker (and I might save these, for if I happen to resume drinking at some future point), these might be of use, assuming you just want the flavor (and with the Habanero, maybe a slight spark of heat). Other than that, it's hard to see getting these when you can easily make this yourself with a jar of high quality Spanish olives and a Magic Bullet.
Bottom line: Not sure of the target audience, but this seems to me to be sauces of both limited appeal and usage. I definitely will eat them both entirely, as I'm fond of the flavor of green olives, but also won't be replacing either of these.
Breakdown (Jalapeno):
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
Breakdown (Habanero):
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
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