The Papaya 3x Faya has been long overdue in the pipeline for two reasons: Papaya Faya being by far the best-sold, and people demanding a very hot sauce from Pastiche. So, we want to give the people what they want!

With the traditional Papaya Faya, we have been using papaya puree with mixed results. When first starting out, the puree we got seemed perfect. We made the sauce and bottled everything up. We could only notice minor separation issues in some of the bottles. A few batches later, and the same sauce started separating a lot more. The recipe and production methods have stayed the same, so we can only conclude that the puree we got had a different consistency. After not being able to solve this issue with the puree supplier, we had to resort to a change.

Instead of puree, we opted for papaya blocks, which in retrospect was the obvious choice to start with. We simply thought pureed would save up the hassle (and machine wear) of pureeing 60kg of papaya every single time.

For the production of Papaya 3x Faya, we opted further for the use of 0.05% of Xanthan gum, to make sure there is zero separation in bottles. We don’t mind separation, but it seems customers still buy with their eyes, especially when they can’t try a hot sauce that’s on a shelf.

The only real difference between Papaya Faya and the Triple variant is that we swap out red habaneros for Carolina Reapers, maintaining a 1:3 ratio with Madame Jeanette Peppers.

From using papaya blocks, it’s clear that the sauce ends up a lot more fibrous compared to if you start out with the puree we got. It even seems like the 0.05% of added Xanthan gum was too much. While the sauce is still pourable, it seems too thick now, which is kind of a good problem to have.

The final tally is that the sauce does have an amazing taste and heat level but should be a little more viscous. For now, we will sell this batch that still is a damn fine hot sauce. But the future batches will have a little less Xanthan and perhaps a more pureed form of the papaya blocks we use.

The Papaya Triple Faya is coming soon to the webshop.