Blair's Death Sauce - Hot Sauce You Have To Try!

A few weeks ago, my other half was given some samples of Blair's Death Sauce. This got me excited as I do love hot sauces, especially ones that come with skull keyrings! I'd never heard of Blair's Death Sauce before, so when my boyfriend got home from work, we did some research. It turned out to be a fascinating story.

In 1989, Blair Lazar was a 19 year old bartender in Gimpi's restaurant in New Jersey. Lazar was tired of the late night drunks who wouldn't leave his establishment. So he figured out a way to get rid of them. He made a hot chilli sauce that he cooked chicken wings in and offered them to the late night drinkers, he told them that if they could eat four of the wings, then they could stay drinking all night. The wings were so hot due to the chilli sauce, that no one could manage four and so everyone always left.

Word got out about the 'chicken wings of death' and so more and more people visited Gimpi's restaurant to try them. This was the birth of Blair's Death Sauce.

Blair Lazar began his Death Sauce business with $600 of saved tips. His many products now sell millions of units around the world and have not only won awards, but have earned Blair a place in the Guinness Book Of Records.

A scoville unit measures capsaicinoids, this is the natural substance that produces a burning sensation in the mouth. Capsaicinoids are found in the white strips that run down the middle and sides of a pepper, the bits that we would usually discard when cooking. Capsaicin is the primary compound of casaicinoids.

Capsaicin doesn't actually burn the mouth, it fools the brain into thinking it is by stimulating the nerve endings.

To understand just how hot Blair's products are (there's more than just sauces), you have to understand a bit about the Scoville Scale.

An American chemist, Wilbur Scoville devised the Scoville organoleptic test in 1912. In this test, 5 panel members tasted a diluted pepper extract in sugar syrup, which had been diluted until the burning sensation was no longer detectable. This is how the pepper is rated in Scoville units. It is determined by how much the pepper extract needs diluting. For instance, a bell pepper has a rating of 0, as there is no burning sensation prior to dilution. A scotch bonnet pepper would have a rating of 100,000 - 350,000, because this is how much sugar syrup it would need to be diluted with in order for there to be no burning sensation. 100,000 - 350,000 drops of sugar syrup to 1 drop of scotch bonnet extract.

This product is in the Guinness book of records as the hottest chilli product commerically available. It doesn't get any hotter than this. The name comes from the units of heat according to the Scoville Scale (above). The 16 million reserve is 3200 times hotter than a jalapeno.

The product consists of pure capsaicin crystals, which are obtained by first removing the moisture from the peppers until a thick tar like substance is left. The rest of the process is a trade secret, but it is known that all impurities are removed and the process has to take place in a laboratory where Blair Lazar and his team wear special suits and masks to avoid inhaling the capsaicin or getting it onto the skin.

Lazar makes other reserves such as 2am (the time in which he would close the bar) which ranks 1,000,000 on the Scoville Scale. 6am where the ingredients range from 10,300,000 to 16,000,000 and various other products which are preservatives and aren't intended to be used as anything but a provider of serious heat to a recipe. This stuff is so dangerous that you have to sign a disclaimer before you can buy it.

All the reserves are limited editons, and serious chilli heads (we'll get to that in a moment!) buy 2 or more so that they can have one for display and one to use. As well as being collectors items, It also seems that these products are investments, as the limited editon edge makes them highly desirable products and so they can re-sell for a lot more than was originally paid for them. As you can see below.

• !!!!
• Crazy
• Hot
• Mild

That's Blair's heat meter right there.

I thought that I was quite hardcore in terms of hot food, but since that sample of Death Sauces came into my life, I have realised that actually, I'm probably defined as a bit of a heat wimp. Though there are four bottles in the sample, I actually only have two different sauces. Jalapeno Death Sauce which is rated mild and somewhere around 15,000 units, I think; And Original Death Sauce which is rated hot and comes in at 30,000 units. That's 6 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper.

The Jalapeno Death Sauce is ok, but now after all this research and the discovery of chilli heads (I will get to them soon!) I want hot. Original Death Sauce is HOT to me if I put quite a bit on a Dorito. Though I do think that I'm getting more used to it with every taste. It has to be said, that although I would consider this sauce to be hot, it actually has a lovely flavour. I don't know how Blair Lazar would feel about me describing one of his Death products as lovely, but it's got a great flavour, a real smokiness from the chipotle. I wholly recommend that you try some, if you haven't already done so.

So next I have to go hotter, which means that I have to up the Scoville units and get to Crazy status. Currently on their way to me are a full size Original Death, After Death and Death Rain Potato chips. I must remember to buy some more Pepto Bismol, as I'm getting quite obsessed by Blair's products.

Any chilli heads out there reading this may well laugh at my current lack of heat constitution. But some of the things that they get up to are just plain madness, and you're about to see what I mean!

Blair Lazar is a self confessed chillihead who is selling millions of products laced with chilli around the globe. I'm sure that there are loads of other people who produce chilli sauces that are chilliheads too; And the people who enjoy their super hot sauces in general. The kind of chillihead I find extremely entertaining and amusing, are these people (all of whom seem of the male species I should add!!) who video themselves being, for want of a better word - tortured by these sauces.

Finding videos without profanities in them was a feat. If you want to see more people self harming themselves with hot sauce, then go here.

I like chilliheads, because for both taste sensation and visual comedy, they have provided me with a new source of amusment recently. Though I shall never become one of the hardcore, I am in full support of their antics.

Other than the sauces and reserves, Blair's also make kettle chips in various flavours such as Habenero, rated crazy on the heat meter, Cajun - hot, Jalapeno Chedder - hot, Buffalo Wings - hot, plus others. Then there are cheese dips, salsa's and rubs.

Biocap is the new anti ageing product which has been praised by the media and consumers alike. Launched in 2007, Biocap contains capsaicin and was created by Blair Lazar after an accident in the kitchen.

Whilst creating a new Death Sauce, Lazar accidentially splashed himself with capsaicin on the skin surrounding the eye. This was a very painful incident, but after a three days Lazar noticed that the crows feet which were previously apparent around his eye had dissapeared, and his skin also felt tight.

This got him thinking about cosmetics and how the capsaicin might be able to be used in an anti aging product. Years of research and countless tests later, Biocap uses capsaicin, the natural ingredient which makes chilli's hot, to act as a vasodilator (a substance that increases blood flow) and collaging building agent. This results in healthy, smooth, glowing skin.

Not only am I becoming increasingly obsessed by the food, now I'm loving the anti ageing cream too! It leaves the face really soft and smooth, and the best part? It plumps up the skin so lines really do fade. Blair's, what a discovery in more ways than one!