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Melinda's
Hot, Extra Hot, XXXtra Hot . . . XXXX Hot?
New Orleans . . . The number
one selling habanero pepper sauce in the world introduces it fourth
pepper sauce - Melinda's Original Habanero Pepper Sauce 1994 XXXXtra
Hot Reserve. It is an annual limited edition sauce and is considerably
hotter than Melinda's XXXtra Hot, the company's best-seller.
Originally, Melinda's was available in hot
and extra hot. The XXXtra hot was born from consumer demand for
a more fiery Melinda's product. However, Although Melinda's uses
the hottest pepper in the world, it is traditionally not as hot
as brands that go for pure heat. "We believe that a sauce
has to complement food, not overpower it. No one ingredient should
dominate, and we have achieved this even in our hottest pepper
sauce," says company president, Greg Figueroa. "Our
sauces live up to Melinda's reputation of blending heat and flavor
better than any other sauce on the market."
Melinda's unique recipe focuses on enhancing
the distinct taste and aroma of the habanero with a vegetable-base.
Percentages of the pepper are added to make the different heat
levels. The XXXtra hot has the maximum amount of pepper allowable
without distorting the Melinda's recipe.
Melinda's XXXX Reserve is made by hand-selecting
the most potent habanero peppers. The heat of a chile pepper is
rated by Scoville Units (S.U.), named after Wilbur Scoville, the
pharmachologist that invented it. It acurately determines the
heat of the pepper, a feat better off performed in a lab than
using human taste buds. The test is performed using high pressure
liquid chromatography (hplc) which measures the intensity of capsaicin,
the chemical that makes chile peppers hot. Habaneros are usually
between 200,000 and 300,000 Scoville Units and are the hottest
chiles in the world. To put it in perspective a jalapeño
rates a mere 5000 S.U.
In order to make XXXX Reserve, Melinda's
had to develop a system of identifying habaneros that are closer
to 300,000 Scoville Units. It was determined from the testimony
of consumers of the raw chiles that the flatter, less oblong chiles
are hottest. Melinda's puts these aside for its XXXX Reserve pepper
mash. It's aged longer to intensify the heat and is then used
to make a batch. "It's hard to say how many cases will be
made each year." says Figueroa "It all depends on the
selection of chiles available and the time constraints on introducing
an annual limited edition sauce." So far the sauce is rapidly
selling out. In fact, 2000 cases were pre-sold.
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