Today, I embark on a journey. Or rather, my bottle of Rum does. I have decided to start an experiment. As with everything, it all starts with a story...
Fraser, a close colleague of mine at work discovered that Tesco sold the World's Hottest Chilli, the Dorset Naga. He decided to buy a packet of them and, at work one lunchtime, a few of us ate a bit each. This was, obviously, the hottest thing I have ever had the displeasure of tasting! When I first bit into it, the sensation was instant, it was violent and my face dropped instantly. So did Fraser's and all of my work colleagues who tried it. Several glasses of milk later, we gradually returned to normal. Steve, another of my colleagues, was dared to eat some. He agreed, on the basis that we try some of his Chilli Rum the next day. We had already tried the hottest chilli in the World, what could go wrong? Sipping a small amount of the Chilli Rum the next day, I found out! The Rum had been made by a barman somewhere in France that Steve had visited and he bought some, not because he liked it, but because he liked to torture people with it. The Rum that Steve had had been infused with the chillies for over 10 years. The Rum might have been the same hotness as the Chilli itself but the thing was that the chilli only touched certain spots on my tongue but the Rum went ALL OVER! More milk and the thought cropped on me... combining the both would make for some seriously hot stuff!
So, I begin! I will make a Chilli Rum with the Dorset Naga Chilli. I will write this blog once a week, on a Monday night, discussing any changes to the look of either the Rum or the chillies, any events in the chilli rum world and the weekly taste test! This week's blog will describe how I went about making the Naga Morgan Rum.
STEP 1: Procuring the ingredients.
I purchased a small bottle of Captain Morgan Rum and four packets of Dorset Naga Chillies (each contains two chillies) from Tesco. I used only 5 chillies for the small bottle of rum. The last one I tried to get my dad to eat for a laugh. More on that next week, hopefully!
STEP 2: Making the Chilli Rum
I wasn't quite sure whether it would be best to chop the chillies up altogether or just split them and put them in mostly intact so I did both. Two Chillies have been chopped up and put into the bottle to let the seeds and juices flow throughout the bottle and the three other chillies have been split open but remain mostly whole and have been crushed into the top of the bottle. I replaced the lid and shook the bottle. On the packet of the Nagas it told me that contact with the skin could cause skin irritation, so I wore Magnolias throughout!
STEP 3: Branding
A keen mind for marketing leads you to have far too much ambition for things so dull as this, so I decided to take the labels from the Nagas and the Rum and do a Mashup! The result is better described with a picture:
and the NAGA MORGAN CHILLI RUM was born!
I hope you can all join me next week for the first taste test...
