Powerful Pepper Company – 4 Alarm Salsa
Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Fresh, fruity, savory
Texture: Very chunky with some crunch
Recommended: Yes
Ingredients: Tomatoes, Onions, Chili Peppers (Jalapeno, Serrano, Manzano, Ghost), Garlic, Cilantro, Apple Cider Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Lime Juice, Salt, Spices
Atlanta based Powerful Pepper Company grew out of a love for gardening and then having to figure out a way to use all of the peppers that grew. While I’d heard of the brand before I hadn’t had a chance to sample any of their products until the Pinellas Pepper Fest earlier this year. The event itself was wonderful and it was a great opportunity to sample a variety of different hot sauces and spicy products. Powerful Pepper Company’s 4 Alarm Salsa was one of the ones that impressed me so much that I had to buy a jar.
The four alarm is a reference both to the heat and the fact that this salsa uses four different peppers – jalapeno, serrano, manzano, and ghost peppers. Manzano peppers are a Peruvian variety related to rocoto peppers. A member of Capsicum Pubescens they’re known for being particularly fruity and citrusy and having a heat level similar to cayenne peppers. In addition to the foursome of peppers 4 Alarm Salsa has a very clean ingredient list – tomatoes, garlic, onions, ACV, cilantro, lime juice, and spices. No modified food starch, xanthan gum, artificial preservatives, pepper extracts, or other tomfoolery to be found here. Something I particularly like about it is that this salsa has a very chunky texture with large chunks of peppers and vegetables. Even better is that many of them retain an nice al dente texture and even a bit of crunch, something rare to find in shelf-stable cooked salsas. The aroma of the onions, garlic, and peppers are prominent with a nice fresh smell.
That freshness carries through to the flavor as well. The fresh grassy vegetal flavor of the green jalapenos and serranos combined with the cilantro and lime juice give this salsa a garden-fresh flavor. The manzano chiles do add some fruity flavors and seem to blend well with that lime juice as well and of course the ghost peppers bring the heat and a bit of earthy smoky flavor to help anchor things down. Having the large chunks of peppers and vegetables makes each bite a little bit different, sometimes there’s more onion so you get an extra savory bite, and sometimes there’s more chile for an extra spicy bite, this makes it more fun. Acidity levels are good and the lime juice tempers the ACV so that it doesn’t dominate. The cilantro in this sauce tastes fresh as well, again hard to do in a cooked shelf-stable product. The onions and garlic give it richness and some sweetness and the tomatoes still taste as fresh as a jarred tomato can, plus all add to the texture of the sauce. The heat level builds on this salsa. While it’s not as hot as The Spicy Gnome’s Dragon’s Fury Salsa it’s at least a step or two hotter than Mrs. Renfro’s Ghost Pepper Salsa not to mention being orders of magnitude better in terms of flavor and texture.
Powerful Pepper Company’s 4 Alarm Salsa deserves my highest recommendation. Not only is it absolutely delicious it has some of the best texture I’ve had from any commercial salsa and it has enough heat to keep chile heads interested. This salsa is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
