Elijah’s Xtreme Reaper Sauce review

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Elijah's Xtreme Reaper Sauce bottle

Elijah's Xtreme Reaper Sauce bottle label description

I reviewed Elijah’s Xtreme Reaper Sauce yesterday. I found this hot sauce at a local Ingle’s supermarket, but is also available at Amazon. It is produced in Gastonia North Carolina, near Charlotte. The flavor is very good, has kind of a dark sweet blend. The main flavor ingredients are Black Cherries and Cranberries, but they are overshadowed by the bourbon, vanilla, and sugar flavors. You can still taste the fruit though, but first impressions were the bourbon and vanilla. Although the label and description on the bottle imply a very hot sauce, the heat is actually pretty mild (to medium). It started with a stinging tongue burn, then overall mouth. The heat kind of radiated, but at no point was it very hot. I think you could use this liberally on anything you would use sweet flavored condiments on. Probably would go great with a Thanksgiving meal with all the cranberries in it. Elijah’s also has a Ghost Pepper sauce, which I have not tried. I saw another review saying that it was hotter than the Reaper sauce, so I’m assuming it has a higher concentration of peppers. The next time I’m at Ingles and see it available I’ll buy a bottle and do a review on it.

Ingredients shown on the label:
Black Cherries, brown sugar, tomato paste, cranberry sauce, Carolina Reaper Peppers, Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, white onion, vinegar, vanilla extract, sea salt.

Video review:

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Habanero, Orange

Orange Habanero

Orange Habanero whole

Orange Habanero cut open

Capsicum chinense

Background:
The Orange Habanero is a very popular chinense pepper, often used in cooking. The peppers can be found at most local grocery stores, but can easily be grown as well. The plant is very hardy and productive. The estimated Scovilles are 100,000 to 350,000 on average.

Ratings:
Heat: 4
Flavor: 6
Burn Profile: Stingy overall mouth
Effects: None
Cap Cramps Potential: None

Review:
This particular pod was from seed that came off my 2015 season hab plant. Apparently a pod from that plant fell on the ground, and a seed germinated and sprouted. The flavor was the best of any hab I’ve eaten. It was very fruity and crunchy. It had upfront immediate heat that peak early.

Video review:

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How to make hot pepper popcorn with the Westbend Stir Crazy

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Westbend Stir Crazy popcorn popping machine

Hot pepper popcorn making should never be done in an enclosed area with no outside ventilation. It’s best to do outdoors, or in an open area that has ventilation to the outside. This is because the vapor that comes out during popping has capsaicin which can be harmful to breath, or at the least very distressing.

This could really be adapted for stove top cooking, but you would have less options regarding ventilation. Whereas a Stir Crazy can be moved to whereever you need it. If you have a strong vented-to-the-outside hood above the oven, that would probably work fine. It would still be a good idea to not cook near anyone who might be sensitive to the vapor.

For a full batch of popcorn use:

  • 1 cup of kernels (3/4 cup if using larger kernels)
  • 3 tbsp of high oil like canola, vegetable, etc…
  • pepper slices. Adjust the type and number of peppers to suit your tastes

The Stir Crazy can be purchased at Amazon. I bought ours at a local Goodwill for about 1/2 the price. It was a salvage item, unused, but a small piece of plastic had broken off. Doesn’t affect usability though. We’ve made several batches with ours and it works great, easy to clean up too.

We used two yellow superhots and that made a very hot batch.

Pepper slices in oil

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Thai, Large Orange

Large Orange Thai

Large Orange Thai whole pod

Large Orange Thai cut open

Capsicum annuum

Background:
This strain is possibly a hybrid Thai pepper. The plant is very productive and produces lots of bright orange fruits that are three to four inches long. The heat level is low to medium, not nearly as hot as typical Thai strains.

Ratings:
Heat: 2
Flavor: 6
Burn Profile: Mouth
Effects: None
Cap Cramps Potential: None

Review:
The flavor was sweet and fruity. The pod remained very crunchy two days after being picked. The heat was mild, maybe a little more than Jalapeno if that.

Video review:

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Jay’s Ghost Scorpion, Peach

Jay’s Peach Ghost Scorpion

Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion pod

Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion plant

Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion peppers

Capsicum chinense

Background:
The Jay’s Ghost Scorpion pepper strains were created by Jay Weaver of Pennsyvania. The seed for my plant came from Semillas la Palma. I’ve read esimated scovilles around 750K, but it seems much hotter than that.

Ratings:
Heat: 8
Flavor: 6
Burn Profile: Major creeper, mouth, tongue, back of throat
Effects:
Cap Cramps Potential: Some

Review:
This was probably one of the most intense creeper burns I’ve had, relative to the amount of pod I ate. I took one big bite from the front end, and didn’t get much heat. The flavor kind of bhut like. The second bite was all but the last inch of pod toward the back end. The heat build slowly over the next eight minutes but became pretty intense toward the end.

Video review:

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Congo, Peach

Peach Congo

Peach Congo pods

Peach Congo pod cut open

Capsicum chinense

Background:
This Congo strain was created by pepperlover.com. The plant was short but productive. My results differed from the description on the pepperlover site which said there were no floral or bitter tones. I got a lot of both on my taste test.

Ratings:
Heat: 5
Flavor: 5
Burn Profile: Tongue and roof of mouth
Effects: None
Cap Cramps: None

Review:
Pod test of Peach Congo, which is a large hab-like Capsicum chinense. The seed for my plant came from pepperlover.com. The pod was huge so I only ate half for the review. I ate the tip end first, and flavor on it was habby, slightly floral tasting with some sweetness. It was a little citrusy too. The placenta end was hotter, more floral and had some bitter aftertaste. The heat was a little hotter than regular habanero. It stayed on my tongue and and after eating the hotter side, hit the roof of the mouth.

Video review:

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Scotch Bonnet, Foodarama Red x Pixie Yellow

Red Foodarama Scotch Bonnet x Yellow Pixie

Red Foodarama Scotch Bonnet on scale

Red Foodarama Scotch Bonnet, whole

Red Foodarama Scotch Bonnet cut open

Capsicum chinense

Background:
Foodarama background: Beth Boyd of Peppermania discovered this at her local Foodarama store. This is the red variant of the original yellow version. The Foodarama Scotch Bonnet is now part of the Chris Phillips Rare Seed Collection, CP-136.

This pod is a Red Foodarama crossed with Yellow Pixie.

Ratings:
Heat: 3
Flavor: 7
Burn Profile: Mouth burn
Effects: None
Cap Cramps: None

Review:
The pod I reviewed was grown and sent to me by Michael Christensen. The flavor was sweet and fruity, and also salty. The heat on this pod was mild to medium, less than habanero.

Video review:

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Chocolate Primo Reaper (CPR)

Chocolate Primo Reaper (CPR)

Chocolate Primo Reaper whole pod

Capsicum chinense

Background:
This was discovered and stabilized by Butch Taylor. He wasn’t sure if it was Primo or Reaper, so the name has both. The plant is very slow growing and slow to produce. It needs a very extended growing season. It is not a heavy producer when it does produce.

Ratings:
Heat: 6
Flavor: 2
Burn Profile: Mostly mouth, tongue, roof of mouth
Effects: None
Cap Cramps Potential: Fairly bad cramps within an hour of eating the pod

Review:
This is one of the worst tasting pods I’ve ever eaten. It started out floral and slightly sweet, then turned bitter. It tasted like I was eating ear wax. I absolutely hated it. The only thing I like about this pepper is the pods are very cool looking. Flavor is awful. The heat is not that extreme, not nearly as hot as Reaper or Primo. Originally I gave it a seven on heat, but after reflection, bumped it down to 6.

Video review:

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CO 1225 (Possible Cross)

CO 1225, possibly crossed

Eximium CO 1225 pod on plant

Eximium CO 1225 pod cut open

Capsicun eximium

Background:
This is supposed to be Capsicum eximium, CO 1225. The seed came from a seed train. I can’t find any info on this pepper, or what it is supposed to look like. I’ve seen some pics of general unidentified eximium pods, and they were small, berry-like. Also, the flowers don’t look like other eximium flower photos I’ve seen. The plant itself is beautiful, the stems are purple and grey and covered with fuzz.

Ratings:
Heat: 2
Flavor: 5
Burn Profile: Light, prickly heat roof of mouth.
Effects: None
Cap Cramps Potential: None

Review:
This pod came from my Aerogarden, growing in a Bounty Elite. The pod ripened to bright red, and was long cylindrical shaped, more or less. The skin was very, very thin and hard like plastic, but was flexible, not brittle. It was hard to break it down chewing. The insides were juicy, almost mushy. Flavor was mild and sweet. The aroma and taste was like no pepper I’ve ever had. There were a lot of seeds. I don’t know what it would be good for, maybe powder.

Video review:

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Scotch Bonnet, TFM

TFM Bonnet

TFM Bonnet, whole

TFM Bonnet, cut open

Capsicum chinense

Background:
The TFM Bonnet was originally discovered by Mark Manning, at the Trenton Farmer’s Market. It is now part of the Christopher Phillips Rare Seed Collection, CP-010.

Ratings:
Heat: 3
Flavor: 7
Burn Profile: mostly overall mouth burn
Effects: None
Cap Cramps Potential: None

Review:
The pod I reviewed was grown and sent to me by Michael Christensen. The flavor was citrusy and fruity. Texture was crunchy. The heat was fairly mild for a hab type pepper, much less than a typical Orange Hab.

Video review:

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