Boomslang Ghost Pepper Sauce

Ashley Food Company – Sudbury, MA

Boomslang is a three-pepper, extract-enhanced sauce from Ashley Food Company, of Mad Dog fame. Looking at the ingredient list, ghost peppers are used in the highest proportion, with bird’s eye peppers and jalapeno peppers falling between garlic and onion, showing that there is more garlic in the recipe than either of these ancillary peppers, but less onion.

Boomslang, named for a skittish-but-deadly sub-Saharan tree snake, is a dirty reddish-brown, about the color of enchilada sauce, and is uniform, save for a small amount of tiny light and dark solids. It is fairly thick, enough so that it does not pour freely— which is nice because of how hot it is— but not thick enough that pouring it is a major hassle; I’d go so far as to say that the rheology works really well for the heat level.

It smells like good chili: sweet and tangy tomato notes with a strong cumin presence, a light vinegar tang, and hints of garlic and dark sweetness at the back. On the palate, it is sweetish up front, then the cumin and the other chili spices hit. Sweetish/pasty tomato notes come in midpalate. That characteristic ghost pepper flavor is nowhere to be found, which honestly does not hurt my feelings. All told, it comes across a bit too sweet— a tad more salt would bring it into balance— but this is honestly a quibble, as you don’t notice it at all when you’re using the sauce on food, just when you’re torturing yourself with straight Boomslang for tasting notes. All told, this is a delicious chili-flavored sauce.

Boomslang is very spicy, say 7 or 7.5 out of 10. The burn is immediate and lasts with the tenacity of a bulldog, and is mostly front- and mid-mouth (particularly mid-mouth). It is a bit cloying/overbearing in a way that is reminiscent of the peppers from a tepin tree I used to have, so it’s not surprising to see bird’s eye peppers in the ingredient list.

Great smell, great taste, great burn, optimal flowability. Recommended.

Ingredients: vinegar, tomatoes, ghost peppers, garlic, bird’s eye peppers, jalapeno peppers, onion, unsulfured molasses, herbs, spices, pepper extract, salt, xanthan gum.