Blair's Sauces and Snacks
Blair's Sauces and Snacks is a United States snack company founded in 1989, most famous for their Death Sauce line of hot sauces, known for their extreme range in Scoville heat ratings.
History of Blair's sauces and snacks
Blair's Sauces and Snacks is a New Jersey-based food company specializing in hot sauces and spicy snacks. Blair has been featured on FoodTV Unwrapped, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, QVC Japan, Rolling Stone magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Daily News, the New York Post, and more.
Blair Lazar, founder of Blair's Sauces and Snacks, introduced Death Sauce in 1989 while bartending on the Jersey Shore. He began bottling and distributing this "Original Death Sauce" and a full line of hot sauces later followed (e.g., After Death, Mega Death, Sudden Death).
Blair's Death Sauce
Blair's produces a variety of hot sauces under the brand name Death Sauce. The sauces range from the more modest heat of Sweet Death to the extreme heat of Ultra Death Sauce. The hotter sauces have pepper extract added for additional heat.
Their line of Death Sauce, from mildest to hottest:
- Sweet Death Sauce - A mild habanero sauce with a vinegar base. Contains sweet tropical ingredients such as honey, mango, passion fruit, and sugarcane.
- Jalapeño Death Sauce - A jalapeño hot sauce with tomatillos, garlic, onion, and tequila.
- Golden Death Sauce - Released in 2010, at around the same heat level as Original Death Sauce,[1] containing Scotch Bonnet Chilis, Fresh Onion Puree, Turmeric, Ground Mustard Seeds, Chipotle, and Habanero Powder. 34,000 Scoville units.[2]
- Original Death Sauce - Blair's flagship product. A habanero sauce with vinegar, cayenne, garlic, chipotle, lime juice, cilantro, herbs and spices. 35,000 Scoville units.[3]
- Salsa de la Muerte - Latin America variant of Original Death Sauce with more chipotle taste. Contains the same ingredients but with a higher concentration of habaneros. 45,000 Scoville units.[3]
- Pure Death Sauce - A sauce with naga jolokia and habanero peppers, vinegar, and Hawaiian red salt. 48,000 Scoville units.[3]
- After Death Sauce - Original Death Sauce with added pepper extract for extra heat. First sauce in the series to be labeled with a "warning". Notably hotter than previous sauces. 50,000 Scoville units.[3]
- Beyond Death Sauce - A habanero sauce with Red and Orange Habaneros, Vinegar, Pepper Extract, Fresh Cayenne, Smashed Garlic, Chipotle, Lime Juice, Cilantro, Fresh Herbs, and Spices.[4] 99,760 Scoville units.[3]
- Sudden Death Sauce - A habanero sauce with cayenne, white vinegar, honey, lime juice, ginseng, and spices. 105,000 Scoville units.[3]
- Mega Death Sauce - A habanero sauce with cayenne, white vinegar, ancho chilies, chipotles, natural pepper flavor, molasses, guava nectar, ginger, salt, and spices. 550,000 Scoville units.[3]
- Ultra Death Sauce - Replacement for Jersey Death Sauce (Red Habanero Pods, Cayenne Chilies, White Vinegar, Natural Pepper Flavor (Contains Soybean Oil), Tomato Puree, Pirri-pirri Chilies, Lime Juice, Salt, & Spices) with added Naga Jolokia peppers. 800,000 Scoville units.[3]
Blair's Heat Collection
Blair's Heat Collection includes a line of sauces used as marinades or dipping sauces. The Heat Sauces include: Habanero Mango, Jalapeño Tequila, Chipotle Slam, and Wasabi Green Tea.
Reserve Collection
Blair's Reserve Collection includes a selection of award-winning, limited-edition, hand-crafted, signed and numbered bottles. Each Reserve edition commemorates a significant event or experience, beginning with the "A.M." series noted above. This series originated in the early 1990s when Lazar was bartending on the Jersey Shore. Patrons wanting to stay past the 2 am closing time were dared to try "Blair's Wings of Death", made with Blair's Original Death Sauce. Anyone who survived could stay as long as they wanted, thus, giving rise to the remaining items in the "A.M." series (e.g., 3am, 4am, 5am, and 6am Reserves). Other significant reserves include "Caldera," "Blair's Holiday Reserve," "Blair's Halloween Reserve," and "the Firecracker 500 Reserve." All but the 2am and 3am reserves are completely sold-out and are shown in Blair's vault. Collectors have been known to resell their reserve bottles for extremely high sums as per the Blair's website quoting "It has been reported to us that a bottle has recently (late 2004) sold for $5450 (sold in a private sale to a buyer in Europe)." [5]
16 Million Reserve
The strength of Blair's hottest product, "Blair's 16 Million Reserve", is 16 million Scoville units (Tabasco, in comparison, is 2,500 to 5,000[6] Scoville units). It contains only capsaicin crystals, and is the hottest possible capsaicin-based sauce. Only 999 bottles of "Blair's 16 Million Reserve" were produced, each one signed and numbered by the firm's founder, and have all been sold. This reserve was certified by Guinness World Records as the hottest product available.
Death Rain Potato Chips
Blair's also manufactures cauldron-cooked potato chips in a variety of flavors and heat levels. Blair has added his Death Rain Dry Spice to potato chips. Blair's Death Rain Habanero Chips (the black bag) are the hottest type and are described as "XXX hot" or, more recently, "OMG hot". Medium heat flavors include Jalapeño Cheddar, Chipotle, and Buffalo Wing. In 2013 Blair released a new flavor "Jolokia Pepper" chips. These are rated at a heat level of "WTF".
References
- ↑ "Blairs Blog » Announcing The Best Damn Hot Sauce Ever". Extremefood.com. 2010-05-20. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- ↑ "The Scoville Heat Scale for Chilli Peppers and Hot Sauces from ChilliWorld. Compare relative heats all the way to Blair's 6 A.M. - pure capsaicin". Chilliworld.com. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Scoville Scale Chart for Hot Sauce and Hot Peppers". Scottrobertsweb.com. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ Blair's Beyond Death Sauce, Extremefood.com
- ↑ "Blair's Sauces and Snacks : The Official Home of Blair's Death Sauce and Extreme Food :: Reserve Collection :: Vault (Sold Out Reserves) :: 4 A.M. Reserve". Extremefood.com. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- ↑ "Fact File - The Scoville Heat Scale". ChilliWorld.com. E-von Limited. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
External links
- Blair's Official Site
- Scoville Scale
- Blair's Scoville Ratings
- Scoville Scale comparing Hot Sauce and Hot Peppers
