Handmade gourmet popcorn from Colorado. YEEEE HAWWWW!
I spied this product at Marczyk's here in Denver. I was on a mission of cheese and ended up with more chocolate bars for the library and this little product up by the register daring you to buy it.
Too Haute Cowgirls is the brainchild of Deanna Liebl and Amy Tarrant. Via their website:
Once thought of as recession proof, the wedding industry even took a hit when the economy softened in 2008, so discovered pastry chef, Deanna Liebl, wedding cake designer extraordinaire near Aspen, Colorado. With a less-hectic wedding season in 2009, New York Culinary Institute of America-trained Liebl had more time to experiment with new products for her brides. She called on Amy Tarrant, pastry graduate of the Culinary School of the Rockies and fellow unrepentant popcorn addict, to help create a selection of unique chocolate covered popcorn flavors to offer as wedding favors.
And the description on the back of their packaging.
This perfect popcorn confection starts with Too Haute Cowgirls’ own special caramel corn drenched in rich dark chocolate, tossed with toasted pecans, and dusted with their own special blend of chili seasoning. Y’all better step back cuz this might hurtcha!
Montezuma drank 50 cups of chocolate per day. It was thick, dyed red and flavored with chili peppers. The first commercial chili powder was created in 1892 by a German immigrant in Texas who gave our cowgirls their first taste of the fiery red seasoning which he called “Tampico Dust”. Chili was made popular by the “Chili Queens” of the Alamo City. In Texas, prisons are ranked by the quality of their chili and even Jesse James refused to rob a bank in McKinney, Texas because that was where his favorite chili parlor was.
Chili Con Chocolate is Too Haute Cowgirls signature caramel popcorn recipe drenched in chocolate with toasted pecans and a special chili powder blend. Right out of the bag, the popcorn smells savory and salty. It's all chili powder. There is no listing of what spiced they used but I am guessing maybe a little hint of cumin, chili powder, and a smidgen of cayenne for a bit of heat.
The popcorn doesn't look as shiny as the photos on their website. But that doesn't really matter when you taste it. It's pretty much like crack. It's ridiculously good and highly addictive. It's balanced with a very good heat level. I am a wuss about all things spicy, but this has a nice slow building heat and it's delicious. It tastes sweet and salty, savory with the chili spices, and chocolaty. But also buttery from the underlying caramel coating. At first the taste is all buttery toffee and chili spices, but eating more of it it blends in all flavors meant to be there. It's an all of the above kind of flavor range. The only thing missing from my bag were the toasted pecans. In the images on the website it looks like it's balanced with the popped corn and pecans. I didn't get any. That's a real bummer. But honestly the popcorn on it's own is so damn good, I hardly noticed until I started researching Too Haute Cowgirls.
Image via Too Haute Cowgirls
Bottom line is, you need to buy this product stat. They offer cowboy cowgirl inspired gift sets on their website. They also offer a variety of different kinds of popcorn including a bacon one. Yes, a bacon one. And they also make brittles. I will say it's not that cheap at suggested retail price of $9.95 for a 5.5 ounce bag of it. But it is a handmade product locally made and it is as addictive as crack/cocaine, so I will probably end up selling the cat to buy more of it.
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