Heat Hot Sauce Shop – Black Pepper Ginger Chili Grinder

Bitter: 🟡○○○○

Salty: 🟡○○○○

Sour/Tangy:🟡○○○○

Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○

Umami: 🟡○○○○

Heat: 🟡○○○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Ginger, black pepper, chili

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Dried with nice course grind

Ingredients: Organic Black Pepper, Organic Ginger, Peri Peri Pepper Flakes

California based Heat Hot Sauce Shop not only has some of the best deals going on a wide variety of hot sauces from some of the top sauce makers in the nation, they also have a growing library of their own sauces and dry spices. I’m particularly fond of their Habanero Umami seasoning as well as their newer and hotter Dragon’s Breath Umami seasoning. Another nice thing I like about them is that when you place a large enough order you get a free mystery gift. That’s how I came about this grinder – it was included as the free gift in a recent order of sauces that I made from them. It’s not likely something I would have picked on my own as I’m not the world’s biggest fan of ginger but after spending more time with this I’m glad that I received it.

The ingredients of this are simple – black peppercorns, dried ginger, and dried peri peri pepper flakes. Peri Peri peppers. Peri Peri peppers, also sometimes called Piri Piri, are interesting as they’re a Capsicum Frutescens pepper. Capsicum Frutescens are genetically similar to Capsicum Chinense peppers but typically grow in an upward facing direction and are much smaller than Capsicum Chinense cultivars. Many ornamental varietals are Capsicum Frutescence but aside from Peri Peri two of the most notable commercially important varietals are the Tabasco pepper, the one used in the eponymous sauce, and the the Thai Birdseye pepper. Peri Peri are also very closely related to the malagueta pepper which is incredibly popular in Brazil, and in fact the Peri Peri, which is heavily associated with South Africa, was introduced there by the Portuguese who likely took it from Brazil. They’re also known as the African Birdseye pepper though they are are different varietal from the Thai variety.

One thing I like about this grinder is the clear bottle making it easy to see the whole peppercorns and big chunks of dried pepper and dried ginger. The grinder doesn’t have an adjustable grind from what I can tell and the default is rather chunky, but I personally prefer that, especially for black pepper. The flavor is very ginger-heavy but with the dried ginger it’s a different flavor from fresh. While fresh ginger has a citrusy floral flavor dried is warmer and sweeter. Combined with the black pepper, which also has warm notes in addition to the pungent piperine bite, the overall sensation from this blend is warm and sweet with some peppery notes. The dried Peri Peri adds some fruitiness which accentuates those warm spices as well as just a hint of sourness that seems common across Capsicum Frutescence peppers. I didn’t find this to be particularly spicy, or even have much heat at all, but there is pepper flavor sitting below the ginger and black pepper.

I tried the Heat Hot Sauce Shop Black Pepper Ginger Chili Grinder first off on some grilled meats I did takeout from a local Brazilian churrascaria. I found the black pepper and chili elements worked well but the ginger wasn’t what I was expecting with the meats, not a bad combination by any means though. Thinking the ginger would work better with Asian foods I tried some in wonton soup to give it a kick and found it was a great flavor combination, though strangely the dried ginger and black pepper together gave me almost an herbal-tea vibe in the hot soup, although still delicious. Going non-Asian I also tried this with some french fries and onion rings and found that the flavor combo is very solid on fries. I’d never considered ginger fries before but I liked it for a change of pace.

I will recommend the Heat Hot Sauce Shop Black Pepper Ginger Chili Grinder, it has a unique flavor profile and though it may not work well on all foods it does work great on the things it works on. Heat Hot Sauce Shop also has a range of other grinders including some that are pure peppers and other that include other flavors including one with Thai flavors. I will look forward to trying the others. This grinder is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.