2K21 Q3 Update

 2K21 Q3 Update

Note: This is being posted earlier than usual (these typically come at the last day of the quarter), but due to an ongoing family emergency that is very time and attention intensive, I won’t be able to post at the usual time, so I’m coming in a few days ahead. I will say that this situation makes being as far ahead as I usually am on the videos very handy, as I can schedule those and they can proceed uninterrupted.

So, here we are, finally, Post 300 for the blog (300 full review sauces is still some distance away, probably next year). Another diet change, in the midst of a major life change (not related to the diet change or the noted emergency, but preceding the emergency and not yet concluded), and I’m trying to find more opportunities to fit hot sauce into my diet, which has once again been revamped to accommodate some fitness goals I’m working on. I’m below the 20 sauce threshold for my backlog, even though I wound up getting some for my birthday, so I’ll be looking to head up to Rog’s and load up again in the very near future. I have also added a playlist on the FOH series for the Inferno Candy Company products, since I have done so many of them. Additionally, all content filmed in 2020 is finally posted. It will probably be pretty deep into 2022 before I’m caught up with this year, at least on the non-sauce content. I have also gotten within one letter of completing the alphabet of reviewed sauces...just need to find a manufacturer that starts with the letter “U”...

I might count up just how many Carolina Reaper products I did at the end of this year (and I’m seriously thinking of going through everything in my backlog just to get it all done before then), but I can say that I kind of can’t wait until my existing backlog (maybe a third of what I have left sauce-wise) of stuff with that pepper is over. It truly is on another level compared to other peppers and even extract, an aspect which I both find interesting and somewhat annoying. It also tends to hit a lot harder in the receptors in the back of my mouth, which is rather irritating. Flavor-wise, I’d put it above the Scorpions and probably the Fatalii, but definitely below Jolokias and the 7-Pot Primos, the last of which I am happily running across more and more.

I have filmed entirely all of the non-sauce content I had, which puts me into 2022 somewhere. It is so weird seeing a tower of various packaged food staged for review in my office now being entirely absent. I’m still trying to sort out how I want to approach the coming year in terms of posting. Sauces will still be continuing as now, with posting on Sundays and any sauces from Hot Ones (starting to make a solid dent in that list) on Fridays. The quarterly Wing Things will also continue. I’ve done a lot of stuff with the Inferno Candy Company, but do not have anything on deck from them. They are always kicking new stuff out, though, and I have yet to see the Paqui One Chip Challenge for 2021, actually, I have seen signs for it, but have not come across the actual product yet, so it may be a bit later into next year before this problem really comes to the fore.  

It will be, again, another issue, though, as if I go every other week, I probably am closing in on all of next year, however, with products like these particularly, there is also a timeliness issue and I’m not sure how much I want to be posting content that is 6+ months old. I might just keep it the way it is now through the first 2 quarters and then shift after that...depends on how many more products I’m able to come across. Again, though, 2021 is the year of the chile in many respects, so there is a lot more stuff than anticipated, but still not quite enough to keep me comfortable. I am thinking about resurrecting my spicy chicken sandwich battle thing for another round, but really going back and forth on that with the Delta surge. I’m still debating some challenges and/or possibly exploring fresh pods, but those are definitely way down on my list of interest. Of course, I’m always open to suggestions as well.

As to The Hot Ones, the Season 16 lineup is out, which I have updated. Once again, the wisdom of me doing that wretched Da Bomb sauce is vindicated, as I already have an entry in this season, just by doing that singular review and video. As to the rest of it, because I just shot a video for a Yellowbird sauce and referenced Sean Evans heavily in it, namely that he is a big fan, but also no sauce from them had ever appeared on the show, naturally, he has an entry for this season. Go figure. That specific sauce, and a few others, I won’t be partaking in, thanks to onions. Overall, half of the sauces from Season 16 I won’t be doing, and all of them for that reason. Other than that, though, I think the sauces for this upcoming season are definitely intriguing.

One thing I will note is that playing with superhots in 100 degree heat is an interesting experience and makes the internal burn kind of different. With the associated decrease in appetite, it also raises the bar on hot sauces or even spicy foods in general for me to be interested in them, which is something I’ve really only noticed this year and probably both because it’s so stupid hot, but also because I’m doing a lot of non-sauce content as well (and also have my video hood on, which, even though it’s sheer and very loose, somehow seems to increase the sensation considerably). That said (or typed), if I ever do decide to toy around with fresh pods, definitely will be no sooner than possibly winter.

I noticed something interesting in that the Top 5 sauces, in terms of overall views, has shifted somewhat, with Zatarain’s moving down and Schlotzsky’s moving up. The obvious problem with that is to do an FOH video for that, I’d need to acquire another bottle of the sauce, which I would not mind at all, to be honest, buuuuut, there are zero Schlotzsky’s anywhere in the state any longer (the franchise evidently took a pounding during 2020) and the nearest location is 400+ miles away. The sauce is, naturally, only available in-store, buuuut (again), the vicinity of this family emergency actually has one location (and the other is on the way to the vicinity), so I may actually be able to get this done, which would be a bright spot in an otherwise awful mess.

A future hot sauce road trip might also be something I consider doing, like Kendall over at Tasting The Heat (go check him out, he’s great) is kind of doing, bringing in a camera and showing off some different hot sauce places. I note now that the route I more normally take will bring me right to Volcanic Peppers in Nebraska or thereabouts as well as another one called Halogi on the edge of South Dakota, so there might be something to this idea. Road construction and the pandemic are precluding it currently, but perhaps someday... I count myself very fortunate in having nearby perhaps the greatest hot sauce store in Roger Dodger’s Burn Your Tongue Emporium, and of course, both Pirate O’s and Grove Market as solid backstops as well.

Also have added another SOTY candidate, which makes 5 as of now, and a very, very difficult decision will have to be made towards the end of the year, if this holds. It is both a good and somewhat agonizing problem to have, but definitely preferable to wondering for most of the year if there would be a contender at all...