Simple Heat

The third sauce this week is called Simple Heat, a very thin mixture made with Habaneros, orange juice, garlic, and other goodies.  No vodka this time... It has a honeydew melon mouth feel with a candy-laced smoothie tongue.  The heat is fast and intense, sometimes surprising you with the sensation of inhaling noxious fumes from a chemical weapon factory, however, the fruit rounds out the heat in an odd, yet appropriate finish.  After diluting my pepper puree, my initial estimates at heat turned out to be a tad high.  This sauce is only about 250-300,000 Scoville units. Still hot enough to make you cry with pain, but not me.

I touched my eyes about an hour after making the sauce, and almost ripped out my eyeball.  Oil from the pepper's intestines will spread like poison ivy if you don't watch out.  After a few years of making peppers I have become bold enough to not use gloves, and oily ocular occasions like tonight force me to reconsider my lethargic tendencies toward latex protection. That being said, I thought it might be a swell idea to add a warning label to the bottle.  You can't see it very well as the failing light wasn't enough to illuminate the white font and the flash just produces glare.  Basically, it warns of a hazard to your mucous membranes... 

I can't wait for my Red Savinas to ripen.  I'm looking at a rum based hot sauce with sugar, lime juice, and 500,000 Scovilles of nice, blistering heat.   I am even happier about my upcoming Bhut Jolokias.  Once they turn that magic color on the plant, I will harvest, and try to add some flavor to the increasingly popular Ghost Pepper sauce, although, at over ONE MILLION Scoville units, I don't think it's possible. Overall, I am happy with the production these past few weeks, over four flavors, loads of peppers, and varying levels of heat (as defined by me, and Mr. Scoville).  Cheers.