I review a lot of good products on this site. As a matter of fact, regular followers of The Dry-Rubbed Rat may be a bit suspicious regarding the fact that I have never posted a bad review. Well, there are a couple of reasons for that. First, due to time constraints, this site gets the lowest volume of content, of all my sites. I just am not pushing a ton of product reviews here. Second, I’m pretty selective on what products I review. I try to reach out to companies who have interesting and/or yummy looking products.
All that to say that Salsa Maya may just be the most interesting, the hottest, and the most flavorful product I have reviewed yet. Salsa Maya is an habanero aioli and it’s amazing.
I’m gringo through and through, born and raised in eastern Canada. “Spicy” to me used to be “salt and pepper”. Having lived in Arizona for nearly 17 years though, my palate has toughened up and I usually choose “medium” spicy – whether it’s Thai food, Mexican, or whatever. Habanero anything is a bit intimidating to me. That being said, I was intrigued. I reached out to the folks at Salsa Maya via their Facebook page and pretty soon Victoria Gonzalez kindly had a bottle on the way to me. I had a feeling about this, and couldn’t wait to try it. Honestly, my first taste was mixed in with a little bit of plain jasmine rice my wife and daughter had cooked up for something else. I was hooked!
Photo courtesy of Salsa Maya
The flavor profile in Salsa Maya is very complex (to me). My wife and I had a discussion at the dinner table. I said “I love this stuff, but I’m not sure I can describe it”. Make no mistake, it is hot. But it’s not overwhelmingly so. The garlic and the creaminess of the aioli smooth out that heat so it’s not simply hitting you in the face. If you’re an aficionado of hot stuff, you’ll like this. If you can handle up to “medium” in the spiciness category, I think you will be able to enjoy this too. There are a ton of flavors bouncing around in this smooth, creamy heat. I’m loving it honestly, and using it on everything.
I made a fried egg and pastrami sandwich today (my “cheat” meal for the weekend) and smeared it all up with Salsa Maya, My wife mixed it in with tuna the other day to make a tuna salad sandwich. This is gooooood stuff….
Wondering what you’d do with it? Salsa Maya has taken some of the mystery out of that conundrum by providing a recipe page on their website along with product info, nutritional values (calories and all that stuff) and some pretty interesting information about the health and dietary benefits associated with habaneros.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how many different things this will work with. I think I’ll be ordering some more soon. If you’re looking for something hot, or something different, or something that pairs well with everything from steak to fish to sandwiches – I really, really recommend you try some Salsa Maya.
Thanks again to Victoria – look for a company profile and interview coming up in the future.
