The Taste?
Chicaoji Sauce uniquely features a blend of goji berries and cacao with smoky chipotles. Its complex flavor combines with a great diversity of foods as a condiment and as an ingredient in recipes. The mildly spicy heat level complements rather than dominates the flavor of food. Chicaoji deliciously weaves together sweet, sour, salt, bitter, savory and spicy.
Chicaoji touches the entire palate. It goes with dang near anything and makes just about any kind of food taste better.
- The complex sweet and tart of the goji berries balances with the rich chocolate-ty bitterness of the cacao.
- Maple syrup’s sweetness balances apple cider vinegar’s tartness.
- The complex flavor of Celtic Sea Salt weaves all the flavors together.
- The smoky chipotles provide a “medium” heat level of spiciness, accenting rather than dominating the complex flavor. People who “don’t like spicy food” often enjoy Chicaoji’s heat level.
How spicy?
Medium.
Ingredients?
Chicaoji is made with GMO-free, gluten-free and certified organic ingredients. It contains no artificial colors, flavorings, preservatives or additives of any kind.
A brief description:
- Goji berries are little red fruits used for many centuries in Chinese medicine, very high in vitamins and antioxidants with a sweet, tart, and slightly bitter flavor; a “Superfood” commonly used in health beverages, trail mixes, and really yummy chocolates.
- Cacao Nibs is the seed used to make all chocolates. Raw cacao has a very complex, somewhat bitter flavor and smooth texture. Cacao is naturally higher in antioxidants than most foods.
- Chipotle Chiles are smoked jalapeños used for their deliciously complex flavor and spicy heat. The smoking process enhances and preserves flavors lost in dried chilies. Many who “don’t like spicy” foods like Chicaoji.
- Apple Cider Vinegar provides delicious nourishment.
- Maple Syrup -I switched from using agave syrup to organic maple syrup in late 2021 because customers requested it and because maple syrup production is a more sustainable source of good food. (The agave version is just fine, I’m just not making it any more. I will continue to sell it on my website until it is gone.)
- Celtic Sea Salt® is whole salt from a pristine coastal region of France containing a natural balance of minerals and trace elements that help create electrolytes. It is hand harvested and dried by the wind and sun. Celtic Sea Salt is recommended by health professionals and culinary chefs.
- Water
Why these ingredients?
I believe food is medicine. I selected Chicaoji’s ingredients because of their flavor, nutrition and reputation for being beneficial to health. Let me be clear, I do not make any health claims for Chicaoji. The food itself makes all necessary claims by being what it is.
Our food choices affect our health. I selected excellent ingredients for Chicaoji.
The change to maple syrup adds Chicaoji to the menu for People who follow the Paleo Diet. I have been told that Chicaoji also fits in with the FODMAP diet too.
I chose all organically produced ingredients for their quality and sustainability. Organic food production is important to us as individuals and as a society. Supporting sustainable and organic food production gives each of us a powerful vote for sustainable and organic farming. Our choices make a difference. How we spend our money may be the most powerful vote we possess in this society.
Where’s home?
Lopez Island, Washington. See Story of Chicaoji.
Refrigerate?
No, Chicaoji is certified shelf stable before and after opening.
What is up with that name?
I invented the name using the main ingredients:
- CHIpotles
- caCAO
- goJI
became…CHI~CAO~JI Pronounced “chick-OW-jee” .
The name illustrates a lesson learned by a start-up entrepreneur, i.e., the difference between “clever” and “smart”.
It’s “clever” to create a new word by mixing up fragments of other words but…it’s not so “smart” to name a product that people struggle to spell or even say! However you say it, it’s still pretty darn good sauce.
About this video:
A guy named Len stopped by one day to pick up some sauce. He asked a few questions and as I answered he asked if he could record my answers. Come to find out, he’s Len Davis, a professional videographer, who did a great job of sifting out my “er’s and uh’s”.
This gives you a good idea of why I’m doing this Chicaoji thing.
Food is Medicine!
