The combination of sweet and savory is nothing new. Peppers and chocolate were traditionally mixed together in Central America. Here in North America we’ve come full circle again with the new craze of adding spicy peppers to everything.
One of the classic hot pepper sauces is McIlhenny Company’s Tabasco sauce, made in Louisiana from tabasco peppers. Tabasco sauce was first produced in 1868, so it’s a wonder that it’s taken this long for it to be combined with chocolate. (Though I do recall a strange hot pepper chocolate fudge someone gave me in the 90s.)
I picked up this little tin of McIlhenny Co Tabasco Brand Spicy Chocolate that holds 1.75 ounces at Cost Plus World Market. Right now they’re featuring it in their Christmas area with the stocking stuffers, but I think they carry it year round.
Like other Chocolate Traveler products, it’s a disk of chocolate divided into eight “slices”. The circle of pieces is about three inches in diameter, so each little slice is about 1.5 inches long and about one inch wide.
The portioning is great, each piece is only 30 calories and less than seven grams.
The pieces are thick, easy to grasp and pull out of the tin and bite. The chocolate is semi-sweet (55% cacao), not terribly smooth and any graininess I noted was probably from the peppers. There are no milk products added, so this can be considered a vegan product (though it’s processed in a shared facility with dairy, peanuts and nuts if it’s an allergy issue).
The sweetness is a little distracting, but gives way to a well rounded woodsy chocolate flavor. The spicy burn of the red pepper comes in slowly but is quite noticeable, especially as a cumulative effect over several pieces. The pepper has a distinctive and notable Tabasco note to it, as there is a little bit of distilled vinegar in there.
As someone who’s not overly fond of Capsaicin heat, this was probably about as hot as I can take. So if you’re craving something really hot, this is probably not going to do much for you. The tin is absolutely lovely and would probably be useful to hold small things like jewelry, maybe some earphones or sewing items. It’s a great gift item for less than $5 mostly because of the packaging, but since Christmas can be a hard time for gift giving, this might fit the bill for a gift basket for a pepper fan or a stocking stuffer.
Related Candies
- Cowgirl Chocolates Mild Milk Chocolate Sarsaparilla
- Compartes Chocolates
- Bequet Gourmet Caramels
- Lillie Belle Farms Assortment
- Chuao ChocoPods
- Dolfin: Anise and Red Pepper
- Hot Tamales and Hotter Tamales
It’s tough out here for a milk chocolate lover…
I’ve seen this around for several years, even though I have yet to try this. And if you go to the Tabasco website, they have a few dessert recipes that use Tabasco sauce. I remember my Dad made the brownies a number of years ago. They definitely have a kick to them.
We don’t have Cost Plus here in Memphis, TN. Do you have any suggestions for where else to look?
Thanks, love reading your blog. I’ve tried some really unique candies over the past few years!
Where can I find this chocolate in the uk?
Where can I buy this in Australia or online please thanks
Your chocolate is not something I purferd this chocolate is not at all what I tought it was NASTY no it isn’t something I would eat again
Your chocolate is not something I purferd this chocolate is not at all what I tought it was NASTY no but it isn’t something I would eat again because it was burns my throught then Ipukd it up if I rated your chocolate 1 to 10 it would be a 6
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