Caramba! Chili Fuerte
I vaguely remember someone saying that pizza and taco lovers are divided into two groups – the purists are the ones who consume their meal as-is while the nonconformists enjoy it with hot sauce. Well, I won’t claim to be a purist because when it comes to pizza because I need to slather quite a bit of hot sauce on it!
However, finding the right hot sauce isn’t as easy as it sounds. I actually prefer this condiment to have a thick consistency as opposed to the watery ones that are easy to find.
[It is, after all supposed to be hot sauce, not hot water, right?]
Fortunately for me, the more mainstream pizza and taco places here use a formula that is thick. The problem is they tend to be stingy by never providing enough of the stuff. To make matters worse, the size of the sachets appear to have shrunk over the years. Worst of all is that sometimes these sachets hold ketchup instead of hot sauce!
[Gasp!]
Table of Contents
The Quest
As you can probably imagine, these three developments have forced me to go on a quest for a dependable source of liquid spice. I have combed the shelves of groceries and hopped from one street stall to another in my travels only to be disappointed.
[Hmm… Now that I think about it, it’s like the olden days when Spain sought spice outside of Europe…]
There have been times when I successfully found that rare elixir once in a while along the side of the road outside of Metro Manila, but when I would return for more, they just weren’t the same.
In my desperation, I had turned to other sources of spice, like dried chili flakes and even raw pepper. Unfortunately, the former just tasted like dried leaves while the latter lacked the thick sauce my palette desires.
It came to the point that I finally gave up looking for thick sauce and sadly agreed to settle for the watery version.
[I’ll give up anything just for something truly spicy!]
When this happened, I shifted my search to the imported stuff, only to be left wondering if foreigners have a lower tolerance for spice or if the products they sold had lost their zing because every popular brand I tried tasted like it was watered down. Even the brands advertised as extra hot could not hold a candle to the free stuff that pizza joints dished out.
The Solution
Well, it may have taken several years but I finally found what I was looking for! It was more of an accident actually as I was searching for Chili Garlic Sauce for my Siomai and Shark’s Fin dumplings at the time.
[More on finding the right Chili Garlic Sauce at another time…]
I ended up trying it on a whim because with a name like Caramba! Chili Fuerte, what’s not to like? After dripping a bit of it on the pizza I got one afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised that it was, indeed, hot as advertised.
So how hot is it? Well, it is hot enough to get my scalp dripping with perspiration after a single bite but not too hot that it overpowered the taste of the pizza or burned my tongue in the process.
Hardcore people, such as those who consume Siling Labuyo, or the small Chili Peppers, as a snack may find it to be tame though. But for those like myself, it is more than enough to satisfy any spicy craving.
Apart from this, Chili Fuerte comes in slightly bigger bottle than the foreign competition. This means that I have never run out of this precious elixir when my hot-sauce-loving relatives come over because there has always been enough for everyone.
Final Thoughts
So does this mean I have stopped looking for thick hot sauce? You bet your sweet bippy I have! Gone are the days when I only consumed the thick stuff.
[I am a convert!]
I’m so happy with it that I now tell the pizza joints to allocate it to next customer. In exchange, I ask for a few more napkins because all that hot sauce makes for messy eating.
Before I go, this particular 150-milliliter bottle was purchased for PhP 89.95 in Unimart last week. At this size and price, I’d like to think that it is competitive enough with other brands, especially the imported ones that come in at nearly double the price, half the size, and a quarter of the spice.
So, if you are like the Spaniards of old, seeking spice to top your pizza and taco, give Caramba! Chili Fuerte a try. You just might be as pleasantly surprised with it as I was.
Who among you love chocolate? Please raise your hands. For those who love it, do you enjoy taking it in syrup form, especially with things like ice cream? Another show of hands please. Now for those who also take it in syrup form, do you prefer it to be bitter tasting? A final show of hands please.
After being pleasantly surprised with 
