I tried the hottest sauce in Scotland, I couldn’t stop crying, my mouth was on fire
A FORMER pub worker is doing the devil’s deeds – after creating Scotland’s hottest sauce.
Former chef Ewen Mackenzie, 50, makes the infernal concoctions under his Mack Chilli label, which he exports around the world.
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Red Hot Chilli Fifer, owner of Something Different gift shop in Cowdenbeath, said: “The first thing people often ask me is ‘Where’s the hottest sauce?’
“But with chili it’s not about the heat, it’s about the taste. There are more than four and a half thousand peppers in the world and it would be foolish if they were all hot.
“It’s quite a difficult balance to find what people want and what they can actually handle.
“People try the hottest and finish dancing kind of like idiots because they panic. You’d be surprised how many people I’ve seen cry.”
Ewen named one of his sauces Valhalla, after the location in Norse mythology where Viking warriors killed in battle go.
He adds: “I think some of the people who tried Valhalla are there now.”
Ewen worked in pubs and kitchens for years until he got serious raid left him with major health problems.
Forced to reconsider his futurehe chose to become self-employed and took over a gift shop.
It was during that time that he learned all about hot sauce and realized it was going to be big company. Since launching his own brand in 2021, Ewen has been flogging more than 1,500 bottles a year around the world.
With dozens of different options, there is something for everyone on their sliding scale of heat. His most infamous offering, however, is Angel of Dead.
This extreme seasoning is Scotland’s hottest sauce and contains 90 percent Carolina Reaper – the second hottest chili pepper in the world – with 9 million Scoville extracts.
These units range on a spectrum from zero, meaning no heat at all, to 16 million and higher for pure firework. The measurement is carried out by diluting a pepper extract with sugar water and asking human testers to identify the heat level.
The more water needed to beat the heat, the higher the number of Scoville Heat Units (SHU).
Ewen’s scariest offer amounts to being over a thousand times hotter than even the angriest jalapeño.
It’s no surprise that Mack Chilli has a disclaimer accepting no responsibility for misuse of the product.
Despite his reputation for making some of the world’s most fearsome sauces, Ewen would rather people enjoyed the taste than simply see them as a challenge.
He doesn’t recommend that people throw themselves in at the deep end, but instead advises people to build their tolerance level the right way.
HOT TAKES
I had never tried anything other than Tabasco before visiting Ewen, so the thought of this taste test made me warm under the collar.
And while I was pleasantly surprised by the fruity flavors at the lower end of the spice scale, I’ll leave the extreme options to the masochists with a stomach of steel.
Here is my hot version of chili sauce:
LEAVE THE LIGHT ON (charity bottle, £3 per sale to Andy’s Man Club) BBQ sauce with flavors of cherry, cola and smoked chipotle.
CHIQUILA SUNRISE A tasty, fruity sauce with notes of strawberry and plum. Goes very well with game meat.
TROPICAL TEMPTATION This is truly tropical with hints of mango, peach and orange and a moderate burn.
CELTIC GHOST With a serious kick it’s still tasty, with flavors of mango that can shine.
ANGEL OF DEATH This will blow your mind: it has fruits like cranberry and orange in it, but all you feel is the burn.
Ewen adds: “If you can tolerate the heat, that’s fine, but for a beginner I would avoid anything that is too much.
“Start with jalapeño and don’t go straight in and don’t go too far because you’ll hurt yourself and throw yourself off.
“I’ll take my sauce to the pub and see if they can take it.”
Ewen jokes, “They ask me if I’m trying to kill them.
“There was a man who thought he could handle the heat, but he couldn’t finish his pint and had to go At home.
“Many schoolchildren like it. And girls seem to have a higher tolerance than the boys.