It happens to the best of us. You drag your lifeless corpse out of bed in the morning and shamble to the coffee pot to brew up something to get you through the day. Coffee, in a way, is the cure for that foggy zombie brain we all get from time to time. We’ll admit it. We’re not immune to zombie brain either. We often reach for the cheap plastic coffee can we picked up at the grocery store. It’s not the greatest stuff but it’s cheap and it does the job. There’s no reason you can’t indulge and treat yourself to a tastier zombie cure. We’re always up for trying new coffee, so when the Coffee Cousins offered to send over some of their DEATH TO ZOMBIES coffee for review we couldn’t resist.  Did it live up to the claims and our expectations? You’ll have to read on to find out!

WHAT IS IT?
DEATH TO ZOMBIES is a premium organic gourmet coffee in subtle zombie themed packaging. This is fresh roasted Honduras 100% Arabica coffee touted to be the “World’s smoothest, most delicious Coffee”. At the time of this review, DEATH TO ZOMBIES is available in ground, or bean variety if you prefer to grind to your own tastes. You can choose either 32 oz or 12 ounce bags. (We received the smaller 12 oz. bag for review.)

PACKAGING:
DEATH TO ZOMBIES comes in a high quality bag with a one way valve to help seal in and preserve freshness. The bags are such high quality that we actually underestimated how difficult it would be to cleanly tear off the top to open it. We’re used to cheap packaging and we weren’t expecting the top to reluctantly tear away leaving some jagged edges. We’re not too OCD so it only bothers us a little. Luckily it lends itself to the whole zombie theme.

After clumsily tearing off the top of the bag, we were convinced we’d destroyed the zipper seal area. In hindsight spending a few seconds with a pair of scissors would have been smarter. Fortunately our sloppy tear remained above the zipper seal area. It functions. More importantly, it stays put. That may seem like a small thing but it’s something we’re very thankful for. Everyone has used one of those frustrating zipper seals that won’t close or stay shut. They’re one of life’s obnoxious soul sucking little aggravations we can do without.  Fortunately there are no issues here because the zipper works every single time. WIN!

The zombie themed branding is very subtle with no cheesy neon green, “in your face” zombie graphics. True zombie fans will notice the name and image right away. The “normal” folks might pass right on by without noticing this is “zombie” coffee. Just the way it should be!

Click the images below to open a larger view:

AROMA:
We’re not coffee snobs around here but we are coffee aficionados and coffee Fans. Some might even go so far to call us coffee connoisseurs. Most importantly we have a mild chemical dependency when it comes to caffeine.  Our addiction to coffee means one thing:  we drink a lot of coffee! We’ve consumed enough of the cheap and bitter nasty stuff to know good when we taste or smell it. This is good stuff!

The second you tear open a bag of DEATH TO ZOMBIES, you can tell it is gourmet coffee. Just sitting in the bag it has that fresh roasted aroma that lets you know this is better than that plastic tub you drug home from the big box store. Start brewing and the aromatic goodness really gets cooking! The scent of this coffee brewing gets every coffee drinker in the vicinity shambling to the coffee pot.

The bottom line is this stuff smells amazing!

GRIND:

We won’t pretend to be coffee gurus here. We do know the coarseness of a grind is typically related to the brewing method that will be used. That being said, ours arrived as a nice all purpose medium grind perfectly suited for the old drip maker. That being said, you could get all fancy and throw this in a French press, siphon brewer etc. without issue. If you’re worried about the perfect grind level or maximum freshness you might as well go the extra mile and order beans and grind it yourself! If you don’t want the headache, rest assured DTZ arrives with a good general purpose medium grind that will please all but the most finicky coffee snobs.

FLAVOR:
There’s none of the cheap, half stale, highly acidic bitterness we’ve had to choke down so many times in the past here. We’re not sure we have enough experience to validate the “World’s smoothest coffee” claims but it’s worlds better than the cheap stuff.  DEATH TO ZOMBIES is honestly much smoother and less acidic tasting than the Columbian and Puerto-Rican coffee blends we’d been drinking prior to this review. It also has a slightly sweeter flavor and seems to be just a bit lighter and less strong in comparison as well.

There are some good starting points for figuring out how much coffee to use on the packaging but they’re just that: starting points. Brewing the ideal cup of coffee is highly personal and one of those “to taste” recipes you need to figure out for yourself. We ignored the measuring mumbo jumbo and went with our tried and true “this many scoops” method. We simply threw in the same number of “scoops” we used with our previous coffee. Afterwards we decided it was just a bit weaker than we’d like so we needed “a little more”. It’s a highly technical process to say the least. Now that we know how many “scoops” we need to fling into the coffee pot every morning (and afternoon. . . and sometimes evening) we’re very pleased!

What’s that you say? Our coffee slurping ways are too crude and barbaric? No worries. When you’re feeling fancy or looking for a more personalized coffee experience you’re good to go with DTZ. We tried this some in a French coffee press and it was as good as we had hoped. (Save the ooh la la jokes, we’ve heard them all.) Why would we bother with pressing coffee? It allows us to control temperature, brew time, yield and more. This is where good coffee like DEATH TO ZOMBIES really shines. Sure you get weird looks and comments from the mouthbreathers but that’s another story for another day.

PROS:

• Quality packaging
• Freshly roasted and/or ground just prior to shipping
• Premium gourmet Honduras Coffee
• Available as beans or ground
• Available in 12 oz. or 32 oz. sizes
• Free shipping to the USA
• 100% 90 day money back guarantee
• Organic
• Fair Trade
• 100% Arabica (No mystery blends)
• Smooth, tasty flavor
• Great Aroma
• Available as a single purchase or “subscription” style purchase

CONS:

• A bit pricey (Currently $19.99 for the 12 oz. bag and $29.99 for the 32 oz.) This pricing does include free 2 day shipping so in the end it’s actually quite fair and on par with what you’re probably paying now for gourmet coffee.
• The smell of this coffee brewing makes you very popular with coffee lovers. Not so great when you’re not in the mood to share.

CONCLUSION:

Our useless and meaningless rating: 4 out of 5

Good stuff! It smells and tastes amazing. Whether you want to be meticulous with a fancy brew or you just want to toss this into a drip maker or reusable K-cup, DEATH TO ZOMBIES coffee doesn’t disappoint. Ours was long gone within days of opening it. We’re not sure this is the cure for zombie brain but it certainly helps. The aroma also draws hordes of coffee mug wielding caffeine deprived zombies every time we brewed some up.

WHERE TO GET IT:
Go to the Coffee Cousins website or www.death2zombies.com for ordering information.

 
 
Enjoy DEATH TO ZOMBIES coffee out of an awesome zombie coffee mug:

The post Death To Zombies Coffee Review appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

Update 11/2017: It has come to our attention iZombie hot sauce is no longer available. Feel free to read our review below and don’t be afraid to try one of PuckerButt Pepper Company’s many other delicious hot sauces and pepper related products.

Original Review:

You might be surprised to discover zombies  don’t have a great sense of taste. We agree. It’s hard to believe with all of the brain craving and flesh devouring.  Fortunately the PuckerButt Pepper Company has created a hot sauce made with the world’s hottest pepper to liven up the palates of both the living and the walking dead: iZombie Hot Sauce.

Fans of the new zombie TV series, iZombie, on The CW will know zombies really can’t taste much their food.  It turns out they prefer their food super spicy.  It seems when you reanimate, your taste buds stay dead along with many other bodily functions.  When it comes to zombie food, the hotter the better.  That’s why iZombie’s main character, Liv, pours hot sauce on pretty much every brain themed dish she consumes.

The folks over at PuckerButt created a special iZombie themed hot sauce made with the world’s hottest peppers.  When we learned of this we decided we had to get our hands on a bottle. PuckerButt sent us over a bottle for review purposes and we tore into it with the fervor of a horde of flesh starved zombies.  Were we able to take the heat? Do we recommend this zombie themed hot sauce? Read on to find out!

Packaging:

Our bottle of iZombie Hot Sauce was lovingly packed in a heavy small cardboard box, wrapped with bubble wrap.  Everything arrived safely in great condition.

Bottle and Label:

iZombie Hot Sauce comes in a 5 ounce glass bottle complete with a very cool iZombie themed label.  The high quality label features an image of Liv holding a brain in a jar along with the iZombie logo.   The bottle is so cool most fans of the show, or adorable zombies in general, won’t be able to part with it when empty.

Ingredients (Know Your Enemy):

There isn’t much left to the imagination here. The ingredients are listed as: vinegar, onions, peppers and garlic.  You would think something so simple would be pretty tame. You’d be wrong.  iZombie is made with the world’s hottest pepper: “The Carolina Reaper.” Yes. It is just as intense as it sounds. More on the heat later.

Appearance:

The sauce has a beautiful rich orange amber-red hue and a medium consistency. It’s not the thin watery mess you’d find with your typical cheap hot sauce but it’s also not as thick as some other sauces we tried. It’s basically the perfect consistency for you to heed the warning on the bottle: “Tread Carefully.”

The sauce is just thick enough to frustrate heat freaks.  Brave souls like us wanting to bathe their food in a sea of sauce will want to remove the plastic plug from the mouth of the bottle that restricts the flow of the sauce. For all you mere mortals . . . it’s there for a reason.  Baby steps my zombie friend. . . baby steps.

Aroma:

iZombie has a beautiful earthy pepper smell with just a hint of vinegar. This isn’t the pungent vinegar smell you’d associate with the cheap stuff. It smells like the quality sauce it is.  It smells very similar to some of the premium ghost chili pepper hot sauces we’ve reviewed in the past. The aroma hints at some heat, but your olfactory buds alone could never fully alert you to the angry fire packed inside this little glass bottle.

Taste:

We were surprised at how sweet iZombie was.  At first taste iZombie tickles your taste buds with a pleasantly sweet pepper flavor.   The flavor is almost fruit-like and this sauce really does taste great. . . until the heat kicks in and obliterates your mouth with sensory overload.

Yes. iZombie Hot Sauce is HOT.

Heat:

We know. We know. You want to hear about the heat.  Well, Puckerbutt knows heat. Puckerbutt Founder and President, “Smokin’ Ed” Currie developed what is now known as the world’s hottest pepper: Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper®.  The pepper was awarded the Guinness World Record in November of 2013.

How hot is the Reaper?  It typically measures over 1.5 million on the Scoville Heat Unit Scale but can hit peak levels over 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units.

Let’s put that in terms non pepper-nerds can understand.  A jalapeño pepper typically measures anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 on the Scoville scale. That means the Carolina reaper is usually several hundred times hotter than a  jalapeño. Yep. That’s as hot as it sounds.

There’s a brief moment of bliss between the sweet savory roasted goodness of iZombie’s flavor and the heat.  Enjoy that brief 15 to 30 second window; the end is near.   Shortly after you find yourself thinking how unexpectedly flavorful iZombie is, the furious fire filled heat pummels your mouth.

The flavor subsides and the heat quickly begins to take over.  It all starts innocently enough.  It begins first as a warm tingling sensation on your tongue and in the back of your throat before rapidly building over the course of a few minutes in an angry and intense burning crescendo.  Your blood vessels will dilate. Your sinuses will open. Sweat may bead on your brow and tears may form in your eyes.  None of that compares to the burn.

The heat clearly lets you know Mother Nature doesn’t think people should be consuming peppers so hot.  They’re hot for a reason stupid!  Your mouth will burn. Oh will it burn. The burning is soon accompanied by a tingling and numbing of the lips. The intensity of these sensations depends on your heat tolerance and how much sauce you use.  One thing is certain. The Reaper hangs on tight.

The burning and numbness will persist for a good 15 minutes and that’s IF you’re already accustomed to hot and spicy sauces. The Carolina Reaper® lives up to its name!

In our opinion, if you’ve braved hotter peppers like the Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper or the Trinidad Scorpion, you’ll conquer the heat of this sauce without much extra effort.  If you’re expecting this sauce to be noticeably hotter than sauces containing the aforementioned peppers, you’ll be a little disappointed.  At a certain point ridiculously hot is just ridiculously hot.  Distinguishing variances at these extremes is difficult and subjective.  That being said, if you consider jalapenos or habanero peppers hot, you may want to ease into this sauce on your day off.

Side Effects:

It’s not uncommon for the uninitiated to experience some side effects to a sauce this hot.  Fortunately we’re fairly accustomed to hot and spicy peppers around here and we didn’t experience much in the way of side effects.  Aside from 15 minutes or so of mouth numbing and mind melting heat, iZombie didn’t bite back.  We experienced a pleasant warm sensation in our chest area for about 45 minutes or so.  Fortunately for our friends and family, the only PuckerButt we experienced was the company’s name.

Final Rating:

4.75 out of 5

What We Love:

• Great Aroma
• Sweet Fruity Flavor
• Intense Heat
• Awesome High Quality iZombie Label
• A Little Goes a Long Way
• All Natural
• GMO, Gluten and Nut Free

Meh. (What’s Not So Hot.)

• $12.00 a Bottle (But One Bottle is sure to last you a long time.)
• HOT is HOT!  If you’re expecting a HUGE increase in heat over sauces containing peppers like the Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper or the Trinidad Scorpion, you’ll be a little disappointed. This sauce feels hotter, but not significantly so.

Parting Thoughts:

If you like it hot we recommend picking up a bottle of iZombie from PuckerButt Pepper Company today.  A 5 ounce bottle currently retails for $12.00.  Aside from our reluctance to shell out $12.00 for a bottle of hot sauce (it really is worth it) there is little to complain about here.  iZombie Hot sauce would make an ideal zombie gift for fans of the show or zombie fans that love their sustenance served up in a blaze of burning flavor.

About PuckerButt Pepper Company:

• For more information about PuckerButt Pepper Company visit their website today at PuckerButtPepperCompany.com
• Subscribe to PuckerButt on YouTube
• Like PuckerButt on Facebook
• Follow them on Twitter

About iZombie:

iZombie Currently airs on Tuesdays in the US at 9pm/8c on The CW. For more information visit http://www.cwtv.com/shows/izombie.

Want your Zombie Product reviewed or featured on our blog? Would you like your zombie product featured on our site? Contact us for details! http://www.zombiegift.com/zombie-blog/contact-us/ or send email to blog@zombiegift.com or advertising@zombiegift.com.

The post Zombie Hot Sauce Review: iZombie Hot Sauce from PuckerButt Pepper Company appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

We first saw these zombie chocolate bars about two years ago and promptly featured them on ZombieGift.com.  Unfortunately we never got around to ordering some of our own to sample. When the good folks over at Sugar Plum Chocolates contacted us to talk business we coudln’t help but ask whether they’d be interested in supplying a bar or two for us to review. They went above and beyond and sent us a couple boxes so we could review and give away to you faithful zombie fans. (More on the giveaway later!)

We tore into these chocolate bars like a horde of hungry flesh eating zombies.When the dust settled we sat back in our chairs and couldn’t help but feel an odd combination of satisfaction and guilt. . . with just maybe a little sugar buzz mixed in. No one should have this much fun while “working”.

I feel like I should preface this review by letting everyone know these are not mass produced garbage churned out on giant conveyor belts. These are handmade chocolate bars crafted with love at Sugar Plum Chocolates in Pennsylvania.  We’d go into some detail on how these are made by hand but that’s necessary because these awesome zombie chocolate bars were actually featured on TV!  Food Network actually did a very cool behind the scenes piece on how these zombie candy bars are made. Check it out below:

Pretty interesting stuff! But enough small talk; Let’s get down to what we thought about these unique zombie themed treats.

Disclaimer: The manufacturer provided free samples in exchange for our  unbiased opinion and thoughts on their product.

Shipment Packaging:

Whenever we ship or order chocolate we worry about the recipient receiving a box of melted mush. No worries with Sugar Plum Chocolates. Our zombie chocolate bars arrived in fantastic condition. Sugar Plum chocolates packed them double boxed with air cushions and packing paper and it was all sealed with packaging tape featuring their logo. Nice! We received  many bars and none were broken or damaged in any way. Kudos to both Sugar Plum Chocolates and the United States Postal Service for doing things right.

Product Packaging:

The packaging on these chocolate bars is simply gorgeous. We admit to keeping the label off our sample bars because they are so cool! The outer wrapper is a high quality full print paper wrapper. No cheap labels slapped on a regular or plain wrapper as you might expect on a zombie themed treat.  The bar wrapper features the Words “Zombie Bar” in a zombie style font with dripping green background. The Green, yellow, purple writing looks great against the dark black and grey background. In the cemetery scene you see a lone zombie hand shadow rising from the grave. Keeping things low profile, you’ll barely notice Sugar Plum Chocolates feature their logo in  the lower right front corner of the wrapper. The back of the wrapper is very cool as well. It features the Zombie Bar text again at the top with the ingredients, nutrition information and company contact information and barcode placed below against a solid black background. It all looks great while being very easy to read.

The candy bar itself is wrapped inside high quality gold colored foil that looks great peeking out either end of the out wrapper. The entire Zombie Chocolate Bar packaging arrangement makes one thing clear: Sugar Plum Chocolates takes their candy making seriously.  You know you’re holding a delicious gourment high quality treat in your hands  before you ever take your first bite.

Click any of the images below to open a larger view:

The Chocolate Bar:

The Zombie Bar is a 2.0  oz (57g) white chocolate candy bar that is dyed a very cool zombie green color. It is somehow just the right shade of subtle and sickly zombie green: it’s not too bright green, nor is it colored too dark. It’s that perfect shade of zombie green that sitting somewhere between green, grey and blue. We like! Each zombie chocolate bar features raised letters on the top spelling out the phrase “Bite Me” in blood red letters. The coloring here is pretty spot on as well. Nothing is too bright or too over the top. With all of the food coloring we were a little worried there would be some after-taste but to our relief those fears were unfounded.

So what did we think of the taste? I should start off by saying none of us are huge white chocolate fans but we kept an open mind. After devouring our review samples we all agreed these are delicious! The white chocolate is creamy and has just the right amount of “melt in your mouth” feeling.  These zombie chocolate bars also feature rice crisp cereal crunchies inside.  We were a  little concerned because we aren’t big fans of certain chocolate bars packed with tons of rice cereal inside. Those concerns were also a waste of time. Sugar Plum Chocolates uses a very small amount of rice cereal inside these bars. It’s just enough to provide some texture and a subtle crunch at times.  These are made how we feel all candy bars containing rice cereal crispies should be. We want to feel like we’re eating a candy bar, not a rice crispy treat. Sugar Plum Chocolates nailed it with a very slight and subtle amount of crispness and crunch.

Our only complaint regarding taste was the sweetness. These bad boys could likely put a small horde of the undead into a diabetic coma. We reminded ourselves these are white chocolate and that’s just the nature of the beast. Not everyone’s sweet tooth is the same and you might find these to be just right. One of the reasons we aren’t big fans of white chocolate is because it is often very sweet so we’re probably a little biased to begin with. Given our choice we’d rather have a semi-sweet or dark chocolate zombie bar but that would mean they couldn’t be such a cool green color.

What’s Great:

• Gorgeous high quality packaging
• High quality manufacturing process with attention to detail
• Great candy bar color
• Just the right amount of rice crisp cereal without being too much

Meh. (What’s Not So Great)

• Sweetness: Holy insulin spike Batman! We tasted each and every gram of the 26 grams of sugar these bars contain. Don’t get me wrong they’re still delicious, but if you don’t like sweet white chocolate you might want to tread lightly. I foolishly blazed into an entire bar.  If you don’t have a massive sweet tooth you could probably eat half a serving and save the other half for later.
• Price: These Zombie Chocolate Bars are a little on the pricey side.  We understand why they’re priced where they. We’re simply mentioning the price because we know how you guys think! You have to keep in mind these aren’t the typical mass produced chocolate bars found at your grocery store checkout line. Therefore they aren’t priced like them. These are unique zombie gifts and gourmet chocolate bars made by hand; the taste and pricing reflect that. At the time of this post a single 2.0 oz  Zombie Bar will set you back about $6.95 on amazon or you can purchase packs of 4  on amazon or directly from Sugar Plum.

Final Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars…err I mean brains.

Overall we loved the Zombie Bar from Sugar Plum Chocolates. Although we found them a little on the sweet side and a little expensive that didn’t keep us from loving these unique zombie gifts. If you are looking for a unique zombie gift for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, Halloween (or any other occasion) we highly recommend picking some up.

The post Zombie Product Review: Zombie White Chocolate Candy Bar appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

It’s no secret we LOVE pretty much anything and everything to do with zombies. That’s why when I stumbled across these “Zombie Sticks” while grocery shopping I knew I just HAD to buy a pack or 12 to review and give away.

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat. These are just normal Slim Jim snack sticks packaged in a zombie themed 28 stick cardboard box. While the box does clearly show a normal Slim Jim on the front, the zombie loving kid in me was still hoping maybe they would carry the zombie theme into at least the individual wrappers. I bought a few of these and my son and I tore into a pack as soon as we got into the car. Alas, just as we suspected these are indeed just regular old 8 gram slim sticks packaged in a zombie box.

I wasn’t sure how to review these. You either like original flavor Slim Jims or you don’t. I happen to like spicy stuff and Slim Jims, so that was the easy part for me. I decided since this is a zombie product review I should review these from the standpoint of a zombie fan. That being said…here we go!

Packaging: Of course I love the front of the package. It reads “28 Zombie Sticks” at the top of the package and there’s a zombie lurking in background in a graveyard illuminated by an enormous full moon. A green cartoon zombie hand holds an “actual size” Slim Jim in the foreground. The back and sides make no mention of the zombie theme.

As a zombie fan I was pretty disappointed the folks at Slim Jim didn’t make an effort to at least make special wrappers for these “Zombie Sticks”. Since I plucked these from a Wal-Mart grocery shelf in October I can only assume this is a special Halloween themed package. I realize budget and consumer interest may not allow for a full fledged zombie themed Slim Jim, but as a zombie fan I can’t help but be disappointed with the missed potential here. How cool would naturally colored green Slim Jims packaged in Zombie themed wrappers be?

Flavor: Like I said you either love Slim Jims or you don’t. I happen to like them and these classic “original” flavor Slim Jims taste great while playing video games or watching The Walking Dead!

Final Verdict: 3.5 Out Of 5 Brains

We LOVE the zombie themed front of the package and it’s easy open pull tab. The fact that you get 28 mini Slim Jim snack sticks is a great value too! Since we love the package and the taste why are we giving these “Zombie Sticks” a 3.5 out of 5? As zombie fans we can’t help but be a little disappointed that the zombie theme wasn’t carried on beyond the front of the box. Who do we call at Slim Jim to bring our full fledged zombie snack stick idea to life?

What do you think? Have you seen these in your area? Let us know in the comments section below!

Looking to have your zombie product reviewed on our site? Interested in gaining exposure for your zombie product by sponsoring a zombie giveaway with us? Contact Us for details!

The post Zombie Product Review: “Zombie Sticks” Zombie Slim Jim Meat Sticks appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

Before I share my thoughts on the Zombie Apocalypse sauce, I should give you a little background on just how hot the peppers this sauce contains are. The Ghost Chili, or Bhut Jolokia pepper, was once dubbed by Guinness World Records to be the hottest pepper in the world! (They have since been surpassed by the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Pepper.)

To put it mildly…they’re hot! The intensity of a pepper’s heat is rated on the Scoville Scale. The higher the Scoville rating, the hotter the pepper. To put things into perspective, a Jalapeño pepper typically rates about 3,500 to 8,000 Scoville Units. Ghost chilis typically rate between 855,000 to over 1.4 MILLION Scoville Heat Units! That’s enough pepper education for now because we need to talk about this awesome Zombie Apocalypse hot sauce.

I’d like to start off by saying I like hot sauce. Actually I should clarify that. I used to like what I thought was hot sauce. What I knew as hot sauce before trying Torchbearer’s Zombie Apocalypse simply doesn’t cut it as hot sauce anymore. My family and friends love to get me those huge boxes of hot sauce gift packs around the holidays. You know the ones: The gift boxes containing a dozen or so different hot sauces. I love receiving them but after a while you start to think all hot sauce tastes the same. The cheap ones are usually a very mildly hot vinegar concoction. Some are slightly smoky vinegar flavor, some are a mild spicy vinegar flavor and some are a sweeter vinegar flavor. The main ingredient and underlying flavor always seems to be vinegar. It only gets more acidic and vinegary tasting as the sauces sit and age.

Here’s the typical experience with cheaper hot sauces.  You twist off the top and you smell little except that pungent acrid vinegar aroma. You pour out the sauce and it rushes or splashes out of the bottle as a thin watery mess.  Zombie Apocalypse from Torchbearer sauces is the absolute antithesis of cheap vinegar laden hot sauce. Simply put, this stuff is amazing.  Let’s get into all of the things I love about this sauce and discuss the sparse negative comments I could make.

Appearance:

At first glance you’ll notice the wonderful zombie themed label. Each 5 ounce glass bottle features a label that reads “Torchbearer Sauces All Natural Zombie Apocalypse Sauce” in a round logo with a skull border. There’s also a cool little “Winners of 52 National Awards”  emblem in the upper right hand corner. It  lets you know these guys know how to make hot sauce.   The best part of the label has to be the three founders of Torchbearer Sauces in cartoon zombie form. You can really tell these three zombies love cooking up insane new hot sauces!

After the label you’ll notice wonderful orange amber color of Zombie Apocalypse. The all natural ingredients blend to form an amazing blaze of orange color that hints at the kick-in-the-tastebuds heat this sauce packs. The sauce contains Bhut Jolokia Peppers, Habanero Peppers, Carrot, Mandarin Orange, Tomatoes, Distilled White Vinegar, Vegetable Oil, Garlic, Sugar, and other unnamed all natural spices.

SMELL:

I eagerly cracked open the bottle of Zombie Apocalypse and immediately knew by the smell this was going to be good. I was amazed at the natural organic and earthy smell. Instead of that horribly familiar vinegar smell that haunts cheap hot sauces,  my nostrils were blessed with the earthy smell of fresh peppers and all natural goodness. This sauce is extract free and believe me it smells like it!  You can definitely smell a very subtle hint of vinegar in there but it’s secondary to everything else. Vinegar is a part and not the whole.

This is a very aromatic sauce. It literally fills a room with it’s earthy and spicy scent.

CONSISTENCY AND TEXTURE:

I would say you immediately recognize the quality in this sauce when you pour it out of the bottle. That wouldn’t be an accurate statement however. You’re not going to simply pour Zombie Apocalypse.  This sauce is as thick as a horde of the undead that have cornered some fresh meat. This stuff has to be persuaded to leave it’s cozy bottle home. You’ll smack the bottom of the bottle, rap the neck with a knife and use every other trick in the book.  If you’re new to very hot sauces you probably shouldn’t be pouring this stuff anyway because it does pack a little heat, but more on that later.

Once you have finally coaxed the thick sauce out of the bottle you’ll be rewarded with sauce that looks as good as it smells.  It’s a thick and gritty sauce that you’ll even find seeds in from time to time. This looks like some genius  professional organic chef cooked it up with love in his kitchen.

I think what I love best about the appearance of the sauce is it’s thickness.  It’s absolutely ideal if you want a sauce that sticks to whatever you put it on.  It doesn’t run off of food like other hot sauces do. It’s perfect for coating chicken wings and other finger foods.

FLAVOR:

One of the great things about Zombie Apocalypse hot sauce is the wonderful flavor. This stuff doesn’t skate by on heat. Nor does it rely on vinegar as a main ingredient to give it any flavor.  This sauce tastes amazing. On first taste it has an earthy tomato-like flavor before you taste the peppers.  There is a little mandarin orange in the sauce to give it a very slight touch of sweetness but it definitely isn’t a sweet sauce. The tomato flavor is quickly over ridden by the rush of fresh pepper taste. Very shortly after the heat kicks in to wonderfully compliment the flavor.

I haven’t gotten around to using the sauce in a recipe so I can’t comment on how cooking with it changes the heat or flavor. I’m too busy enjoying it on chicken, pasta, pizza, sandwiches, vegetables and anything else I can think to slather it on or dip in it.

HEAT:

Let’s get to what you’re all really wondering about. Yes. This sauce is pretty darn hot. A Ghost Chili pepper can be 175 times hotter than a Jalapeño pepper so you know this sauce has to have some fire!  Now I’m someone who enjoys very hot and spicy foods so I may not be quite as susceptible to the heat as an ordinary person.  I have to think someone who doesn’t eat spicy peppers often is going to have a more difficult time tolerating the heat in this sauce.

My Experience With This Sauce:

I had never tried a Ghost Chili pepper prior to trying this sauce so I must admit I was just a little nervous. I had seen YouTube videos of others trying Ghost Chili Pepper containing products and watched them be brought to tears. I’ve seen overly dramatic reactions, red faces, sweating, crying and more. I was a little worried I couldn’t handle the heat. My son, coworkers, friends and family however couldn’t wait to eagerly gather around and watch me try this sauce.

Fortunately I didn’t break down into a sniffling,sobbing mess. I had milk at the ready just in case I wasn’t up to the challenge, but I’m proud to report it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Do NOT take this sauce lightly however.

I initially tried this sauce as a dip for some plain grilled chicken breast. I took about a teaspoon on my first bite. The aroma and tomato and pepper flavors were the first to hit. The heat holds off just long enough to lull you into a false sense of security.  As soon as the “this isn’t so bad” thought hits your brain the heat kicks in.

The heat starts off on your tongue about 15 seconds or so into the first taste. It continues to build as the heat spreads throughout your mouth.  It’s pretty insane how the heat just keeps building and building for a good 10 minutes before it levels off. During that time your lips will tingle and go numb. Your mouth and tastebuds definitely tingle and let you know they aren’t sure this stuff belongs in your mouth.  I did notice I was sweating a little on my forehead but nothing too intense.

After about 15 minutes the heat starts to go away on it’s own.  Milk can help a little at this time but probably wouldn’t do anything beforehand. I would advise you to stay away from drinking water because I suspect it would only make things much worse.

The cool thing about this sauce is you still pick up the earthy sauce flavor throughout the experience. At first the heat intensifies flavor and then as it builds it suppresses tastebuds slightly as your mouth becomes a mixture of tingly numbness. It’s a refreshing change to have a sauce that is super hot without forgetting flavor. To many sauces and product out there are just hot. Balancing intense heat with flavor is something this sauce does very well.

The Aftereffects:

Slight tingling and lip numbness from this sauce can go on for over 20 minutes after eating it. It’s actually a wonderful warm sensation that I enjoyed.  There’s a very little pain at first and subdued fire thereafter. The real trouble I had with this sauce was a case of indigestion/heart burn after eating it the first time. It felt like someone was sitting on my sternum for a good 40 minutes after I had this sauce the first time. Subsequent encounters with this sauce have not produced the same effect for which I am truly thankful because I love eating it.

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What We Love:

The Bottle: We absolutely love the zombie apocalypse label featuring the three founders of Torchbearer Sauces in cartoon zombie form.

The Appearance and Aroma: This stuff looks and smells as good as it tastes!

The Flavor: It’s Delicious

The Heat: Not to be messed with! This sauce is hawt! Not too hot to handle but hot enough to make you wonder if it was a good idea at first.

What’s Not So Great:

The price tag of $19.99 is a little steep but we understand why. Ghost chili peppers are not cheap. Secondly a bottle of this stuff is going to last a normal person a long time.   I’ve been through half a bottle but I’ve been putting it on everything. I’m not normal either.  Last but not least it’s worth it. While I would of course rather see a price tag of $9.99, I have to admit the quality of this sauce makes it worth the $19.99 price.

The Final Verdict: 4.75 Out of 5

I couldn’t give this one a full 5 brains because I feel the price is a little steep for the typical consumer. I totally understand why (it’s made with Ghost Chili peppers and is a high quality product made in small batches) but I still feel the average consumer and zombie fan will be turned off by the price. In the long run it’s worth it me. I’m totally hooked on the sauce and would be willing to pay for it once or twice a year to have this delicious hot sauce as part of my collection.  Other than the slightly high price tag this sauce is nearly perfect. It has a great aroma and flavor and just the right amount of intense heat! I’d highly recommend this to any zombie fan that loves spicy food!

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More Info:

About Torchbearer Sauces:

For more information on Torchbearer Sauces visit their website at http://www.torchbearersauces.com/

Be sure to like Torchbearer Sauces on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Where to Buy Zombie Apocalypse Hot Sauce:

You can buy Zombie Apocalypse directly from Torchbearer Sauces’ website. Visit their online shop here.  Torchbearer Sauces products are also available locally at many grocery stores, health food stores and markets such as Whole Foods Market. For a complete list of local vendors selling Torchbearer Sauces products click here.

Zombie Apocalypse Hot Sauce is also available via Amazon:

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