The holiday season is a time that families and friends gather to celebrate their life and friendship over a meal. During this time of the year, consumers will be interested in making or purchasing dishes that add flavor to their holiday celebrations. Some of the more common types of chile and spices used in these holiday dishes include: (more…)
Every business is looking for ways to minimize costs while maximizing profits. One of the most common ways that businesses miss out on savings is on shipping and storage costs. When you’re in the restaurant or food distribution business, you can’t afford to pay to ship and store something you don’t need. Purchasing dry chile products is a way to eliminate these unnecessary costs because it is:
Let’s say that you were interested in purchasing 1,000 pounds of bulk fresh green chile. You’d not only be paying to purchase the fresh green chile, you’d also be paying for the water that is contained in the chile. And water is heavy and expensive to package and ship. Further, because it is “fresh” produce, you would need specially designed containers and refrigerated trucks to move the product from it southwestern source to somewhere in the U.S. The further the distance, the more expensive your load. You shouldn’t have to pay for what you don’t need. By purchasing dry chile products, you have the ability to ship only the product you need at a much more economical price.
If you took that same 1,000 pounds of fresh green chile and stored it, the space requirements to store the product properly (usually refrigerated or frozen) would be enormous. And fresh chile only stays good for a week, longer if refrigerated or frozen. Freezing chile, particularly roasted green chile from New Mexico is a recent development (less than 100 years).
If you are unable to use all of the chile before it goes bad, you’ve used up a large amount of perfectly good space for a product that cost more than you were able to make with it. Dry chile takes up much less room and has an indefinite shelf life that can be used whenever you need it until you need to order more. Nearly 90 percent of the fresh product is water. So your 1,000 pounds would translate to just over 100 pounds of it dry equivalent.
And whether you need 10 pounds of bulk dried chile powder or 10,000, The Chile Guy has hand selected product at wholesale prices. We can ship anywhere in the world! Check out our wide selection of dried bulk chile products online or call us at 1-866-768-7865 with questions about our product or the ordering process.
November is more than just a month to remember all that we are thankful for; it’s also important because of the celebration of the Day of the Dead. In the restaurant and food distribution industries, the Day of the Dead marks an important opportunity to celebrate culture through food.
Traditionally, the Day of the Dead has been a day reserved to honor relatives and friends who have passed away. Marigolds and sugar skulls line roads and honors built in memorial on November 1st and 2nd. This day is an important day of remembrance and family activities for people all over the world.
The Day of the Dead falls on October 31st, just like Halloween. Halloween is the eve of November 1, or All Saints Day, in the Catholic Church. Although they fall on the same day, the celebration of Day of the Dead had religious origins and pre-dates Halloween. The Day of the Dead is still a very important holiday in much of the world. Basically, Halloween is commercial version of Hallowed Eve!
The traditional Mexican dish, mole, is prepared regularly throughout the year, but consumption increases around the Day of the Dead due to increased cultural celebrations. In order to make mole, recipes always call for chile, such as:
Mulato
A traditional Mexican chile, the mulato is similar to the Ancho, but reddish brown in color. The Chile Guy offers mulatto in whole pods and powder.
Ancho
With its earthy flavor and mild heat, the ancho chile is often used as a base for the mole. The Chile Guy offers ancho in powder, dried whole pods and flakes.
Negro Pasilla
A mild to medium flavor adds a little heat to any mole or Mexican sauce. The Chile Guy offers negro pasilla chile in dried whole pods or powder.
In addition, the famous Chihuacles (particularly the Chihuacle Negro) and the Pasilla de Oaxaca are used in some mole recipes. Can’t get Chihuacle Negro? They are rare and expensive and not grown commercially. You can get them by buying ready-made mole from Oaxaca sold in small 8 oz. containers or food service 10 lb. buckets. You just add broth and some of your own flavor enhancers, more chile or nuts and you have a mole! You also might want to add Oaxacan Chocolate to your own mole recipe. All available from The Chile Guy!
To make authentic Mexican mole, you need a variety of chile that might be harder to find in some parts of the United States or world. That’s where The Chile Guy comes in.
The Chile Guy is your expert worldwide chile selector, provider and distributor. You can even repackage the chile and distribute our chile as you see fit. Whether you choose to put the chile directly into a menu item or distribute it to your food service partners, you can count on us to deliver the best quality product. Visit our shopping cart or call us for more information.
The ghost chile. The scorpion pepper. The bhut jokolia. Whatever you call it, the ghost chile is widely known as one of the hottest peppers in the world with a Scoville heat rating of approximately 1 million. To put that in perspective, the spicy Habanero fits on the scale from 150,000 to 300,000. If you want a pepper that will light up any dish or recipe, the ghost chile is sure to please. (more…)
Chile peppers are produced and consumed all over the world. But, for example, just because green chile can be grown in more places than New Mexico does not mean there isn’t a difference in quality and heat. Determining the quality and origin of the chile is a way to give authenticity to your product, which in turn increases its desirability to the end consumer. (more…)
Always a regional favorite, the New Mexico green chile has proven to be more than just a locally-known cuisine. Recently, the New Mexico green chile was named as “America’s Top Regional Food” by USA Today and 10Best.com. The New Mexico green chile, which is really a variety of the Anaheim chile, or if you are from New Mexico, the Anaheim is a variety of the New Mexico Chile. It is known for its mild to medium heat and flavorful taste. (more…)
All chiles are not created equal. Each chile has its own unique flavor and heat that makes it different from the rest and perfect for one dish and not another. (more…)
A common topic that people ask The Chile Guy is about Habañero peppers, most specifically Scotch Bonnet Peppers. As one of the spiciest products available on the market (the pepper scores between 150,000 and 300,000 on the Scoville rating system when the Jalapeño only scores between 2,500 and 8,000), the product is often in high demand around the world. (more…)