The Alchemy of Hot Sauce
At Chardy’s we are very passionate about chilli peppers. Our vision has always been to respect the integrity of the peppers by balancing these vibrant, wonderfully complex fruit qualities, with the acidity assuming a very much more sympathetic role. This may sound like a simple task, however allowing the chilli peppers to take back centre stage, meant rethinking the entire alchemy of how to craft a hot sauce.
For thousands of years winemakers have been perfecting the art of extracting the subtle flavours and nuances of the humble grape, to create a delicate balance of fruit, acidity and tannins. That led us to a simple question, “why can’t we do that with chilli peppers?”
From the start we wanted to craft a sauce without compromise, if you will, a “fine hot sauce”. Whilst we initially believed that doing this meant reinventing the wheel, we realised we simply needed to let the chilli pepper lead us along a journey of evolution. To adapt, combine and borrow traditional techniques, to make something entirely fresh, indulgent and unconventional.
... and then a touch of magic
As with winemaking, the alcohol fermentation is critical to producing a complex layered sauce. Without going into too much science, yeasts produce flavour compounds called esters and phenolics and by carefully selecting all our yeast strains, we can build a flavour profile to compliment the individual peppers. Most importantly, the alcohol fermentation helps to preserve the freshness of the chilli peppers and further develop these flavours throughout the maturing process.
That’s not the end of the story however, because we are also using a partial “Lactic Acid Fermentation”. Overall, this gives a very customised acidity profile and a wonderful tangy balance to all our sauces.
We never said making a sauce without adding vinegar would be easy, but we feel the depth and complexity of flavour we achieve through this layered, double fermentation process, is more than worth it.
Time is a wonderful thing...
We can’t emphasise enough just how important the aging process is and as such, it’s not something we are prepared to compromise on. After all, from the very beginning our vision has always been to make a premium hot sauce.
All our sauces are finished by maturing in old malt whisky casks imported from Scotland. They quietly mature, while we constantly monitor the temperature and humidity, only releasing them when we feel they are truly ready.
Patience brings its own rewards, and the result is a more complex, rounded, smoother sauce with a better mouthfeel, a touch of oaky tannins and some whisky magic.
A kiss of smoke
Smoke may be the perfect flavour to accompany chilli peppers, after all it’s the reason peppers such as chipotles taste so damn good. Not all smoke however is so graceful, which is why at Chardy’s we carefully match the flavour profiles of all the woods we use with our individual recipes. Furthermore, our pit master Dennis carefully smokes all our peppers by hand in small batches.
At Chardy’s balancing the flavour of the chilli peppers is most important and that’s why we believe in a kiss of smoke, because there really is a fine line between overpowering it and enhancing the flavour of a chilli pepper.
Habanero, Jalapeño & Fire Roasted Red Pepper
The world’s first alcohol fermented hot sauce, our Habanero, Jalapeño & Fire Roasted Red Pepper sauce is also note worthy, because it is cask aged for 4 months in whisky barrels. We at Chardy’s, are all about respecting the pepper, so we developed a unique double fermentation technique and avoided using vinegar, in order enhance the fresh fruit character of the peppers. The sauce is balanced with a touch of smoke, by roasting the peppers on a wood fire and then matured to develop its rich complex, fruity, smoky and tangy signature. Power to the pepper!
Food suggestion
This sauce is extremely versatile with the spice and smoke, pairing perfectly with BBQ food, burgers steaks etc. We always add a splash to a chilli con carne and this sauce is an absolute game changer for making Bloody Mary’s. For a quick and easy meal, add a few drops into pasta with a little garlic and olive oil.
Ingredients
Red Peppers, Water, Habernero, Agave Syrup, Jalapeños, Grape juice, Green tea, Sea Salt and Yeast
Nutrition
(per 100ml) Energy: 250KJ/60Kcal, Fat: 0.28g (of which saturates 0g), Carbohydrates: 9.16g (of which sugars 6.47g), Protein 0.71g, Salt 0.3g
Allergens
We do not use any nuts in our products, however we do use shared kitchen facilities. Therefore we can’t completely guarantee this
€ 7.95
Madame Jeanette & Adjuma Pepper Sauce
This sauce is all about respecting the integrity of the peppers. That’s why we use our unique alcoholic double fermentation, to preserve the true character of the Madame Jeanette and Adjuma peppers. The sauce is vinegar free, which allows the wonderfully intense citrusy, passion fruit, pineapple and mango flavours of the peppers to really shine through. A word of caution, we have been pretty generous with the peppers, so it’s a bit on the hot side. If you love Madame Jeanette as much as we do, then this is our little gift. Power to the pepper!
Food suggestions
Pairs perfectly with chicken or fish dishes. It is a great general purpose sauce for using in the kitchen, when you want to add a taste of the Caribbean into a dish. We use the sauce at home to make a mayonnaise and it is a real game changer, especially for dipping fries.
Ingredients
Yellow Pepper, Water, Madame Jeanette, Adjuma Peppers, Agave Syrup, Lemon Juice, Salt and Yeast
Nutrition
(per 100ml) Energy: 238KJ/57Kcal, Fat: 0.24g (of which saturates 0g), Carbohydrates: 8.98g (of which sugars 5.96g), Protein 0.83g, Salt 0.25g
Allergies
We don’t use nuts in this product but because we produce it in a shared kitchen we can’t guarantee that it is nut free.
€ 7.95
Our story...
We are Duncan and Jeroen, a couple of foodies, one from England and one from the Netherlands. Whilst it may sound like a cliche, we began the Chardy’s journey more by accident than design. It all started after drinking a few bottles of wine and a spontaneous decision to make a hot sauce, as you do. The conversation had been about existing hot sauces not ticking enough boxes and we had come up with a crazy, what if idea. Like mad (slightly drunk) scientists we got to work.
The results, several days later, were a real eureka moment and with inspired timing Jeroen dropped in his catch phrase “see I told you, wine is always the answer”.
The next bit was all about peer pressure and we need to thank so many of our friends for giving us the little kick in the arse we needed to go for it. We love and thank them all, since they were instrumental in persuading us, that it would be entirely selfish not to share our sauce with the world! And here we are.
So, the future is exciting. We are burning the midnight oil in the lab, working on some really exciting products, which we are looking forward to sharing.
Lets Chat
In the faq’s we try to answer some of your common questions. If you have any other enquiries, or perhaps you want to pop round for a nice cup of tea and a chat about fermentation, then please use the form below or call us on +31 6275 22 333.
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FAQ's
Why do you use alcoholic fermentation?
Our techniques were born out of a rather crazy “what if” experiment, whereby we tried fermenting peppers and we immediately realised the benefits. The experiment also provided us with a solution to one of our longstanding concerns about many existing sauces, namely vinegar. The issue is that vinegar suppresses flavours whereby alcohol enhances them. Through careful selection of the yeasts we are also able to bring flavours into the overall profile that complements the peppers.
Can you give Chardy’s sauce to minors?
Chardy’s hot sauces are legal to sell to minors because it’s not a beverage and it’s also practically impossible to drink enough sauce to feel the effects of the alcohol. In fact a single serving size (5ml) contains a similar amount of alcohol that you would find in a couple of slices of bread (citation). For example, to become intoxicated enough to be over the limit to drive a car would mean drinking 6 bottles of sauce which even the hardest of chilli heads would find nearly impossible (disclaimer: this is not a challenge, our sauce is not a beverage so please don’t be foolish enough to try drinking it!!)
Do you use sugar in your sauces?
Chilli peppers don’t contain a lot of sugar, certainly not enough for an active fermentation so we do add sugar. Without going into too much science, the sugars we add are pretty much all broken down during the fermentation process. We do, however, have a little chip on our shoulders about using refined sugars, instead we prefer to keep things natural and use organic agave syrup as well as grape syrups.
Are your sauces vinegar free?
We don’t use any vinegar in our sauces but that’s not to say our sauces don’t contain acidity, we believe a little kick of acidity is fundamental to a balanced flavour profile. Our sauces contain a whole array of different acids but because they are all naturally occurring either through our fermentation techniques or the ingredients we use, you won’t find them on our ingredient list. The very core foundation of our philosophy has been to produce natural products that are a balance of fruit, tannin and acidity.
How long do your sauces keep for?
We tailor the acidity of all our sauces to a level whereby they are shelf stable. Furthermore, because we ferment with alcohol our sauces can in theory last for many years provided they remain unopened. Once opened we do recommend keeping them refrigerated and to consume within four weeks because they will begin to oxidise. Essentially, this means they will become vinegary and start to taste like many other sauces on the market.
Do your sauces contain additives or chemicals?
No, we have gone to great lengths to make sure our sauces are made from natural ingredients. There were ingredients such as citric acid, xanthan gum etc that would have very much simplified our task of making a hot sauce. Whilst these ingredients are not considered harmful, we looked instead for natural alternative for each as we wanted to stay true to our principles of using the absolute minimum amount of processed ingredients. Yeast remains on our ingredients list because whilst these are freeze dried, they are cultured directly from strains taken from the wild. We have opted where possible, for organic ingredients and remain committed to seeking the best ingredients possible. Under no circumstances would we ever use ingredients that we even suspected to contain genetically modified material
Are your products vegan?
Yes, all our sauces are vegan, neither do we use any honey or lactose in our sauces or products in any way derived from animals.
What’s your environmental policy?
We take our responsibility to the environment very seriously and try wherever possible to source our raw ingredients from organic, sustainable as well as fair trade sources. Due to the specific difficulty of farming chilli peppers, it’s almost impossible for us to buy organic peppers, however, we do source our chillies from suppliers who commit to the very best farming practices and minimise their use of chemicals. We also do try to keep our energy consumption to low levels as well as recycling all our waste materials.
Are your products safe for people with nut allergies?
Because of the complex fermentation process we use, it’s critical to make sure that anything that comes into contact with our products has been properly sterilised. We don’t use any nut products in our sauces and we buy our raw materials from suppliers who guarantee their products to be nut free. We do however work from shared kitchen spaces, so although contamination is highly unlikely, we cannot guarantee our products to be 100% percent safe for people suffering from nut allergies.
Do your sauces contain sulphites?
We do not add any sulphites in our production process, other than for sterilising our casks prior to use. However, sulphites are a natural by-product of fermentation, so they are present in our sauces albeit at a very low concentration