The fine folks at Tonguespank.com were kind enough to provide some extremely manly booze-infused spices for me to try out. If you haven’t heard of them, they are a Chicago-based bottler of awesome, using Kickstarter to help fund their expansion.
If you have heard about of or wanted to know what kickstarting is about, check out their kickstarter page at Tonguespank Kickstarter.
Kickstarters are companies that use word-of-mouth to get funds to help get their products launched. The crowd-sourcing movement was accidentally started by prog-rock keyboardist Mark Kelly of Marillion who floated an idea to their fans of pre-paying for their music after parting ways with their label. Tonguespank hits the nail on the head of kickstarting by offering excellent incentives, community and feeling like you are part of something special and exciting. (Mark Kellys Ted talk on crowdsourcing here).
Tonguespank isn’t out pushing the umpteen-hundredth iphone case or speculating about some indie film project on kickstarter. They are making something you can tell they love, their supporters love, and I now love. So, on with the review:
Booze, spices? Yes please! I love to cook with pepper heat and their selection of spices spans from a rich smoky blend to a Moruga Scorpion blend that will please the hottest chili-head.
Here’s the rundown:
- Smoky Bourbon
- Wasabi Sake
- Garlic Grappa. (Ya I had to look Grappa up too)
- Scorpion Bourbon.
I put the Wasabi Sake and Garlic Grappa on some chicken tenderloins like a rub and let them soak it in overnight.
I mixed 1 teaspoon of each into 1/4 pound of 80/20 burger meat and let it stand with some salt and pepper for a couple hours. Grill 5 minutes per side.
This is the only pic I could get of the chickens. The Wasabi Sake is my favorite one for chicken. They looked and smelled so good they went straight from the grill to fork, to ravenous mouths. The Garlic Grappa blackened up a little cajun-style and tasted great.
The aroma while cooking was divine. The Garlic Grappa burger was of course, great. I threw some Tillamook pepperjack cheese and an egg over that Scorpion Bourbon patty and it was ready to go! The scorpion spice actually comes on fast and makes an excellent hot-pepper patty.
So if you want to get in and get some great spices, get the tonguespankers!
