ATSUI!: DaViola Spicy Ancho pepper

Atsui is the Japanese word for "hot". It is the word that I will use to signify something that will be hot and spicy, from peppers to hot sauce. I have become a convert of hot food in recent years, always enjoying that bit of Tabasco my mom would put on her chicken or tonkatsu, but eventually feeling a need to want more heat. I enjoy to explore, and test my own limits.

I read a review in Fiery Foods & BBQ magazineabout a new brand of pepper from a company based here in the Pacific Northwest called DaViola. These peppers were created by someone who made the peppers to make frozen pizza taste better. I thought it was interesting, and while I'm not a big fan of frozen pizza, I wondered how it would taste on quality take-out pizza. I went to Albertson's on an unrelated visit when I saw the three varieties of DaViola: Hot Habanero, Smoky Chipotle, and Spicy Ancho. I decided to try Spicy Ancho.

It would be a few days before I would be able to taste it, but I ordered some pizza from Nick-N-Willy's and went for the taste test.

What I tasted first from putting a few dashes of Spicy Ancho on the pizza was the flavor of the peppers, which were roasted. It is salty, but not too much, and it blended well with the pizza, but not to where it completely takes over the pizza. Upon a second bite, it was then that I felt the heat. It's a nice heat, it doesn't burn but you can feel it. This would be considered mild, but I didn't want a bum rush of heat to hit me, and it made me want to have another slice to try it again.

The only ingredient listed is the chile pepper, with the legend All natural. No added salt. Everything that comes from this pepper blend comes from the pepper itself. I think this would taste good in soup, chowder, or on fish and chicken (it would make for a wicked jerk chicken-type dish), or even in ketchup to give it a little kick for dipping.