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San Diego Chile Grower Grows World Record Hot Chiles
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Jim Duffy, a grower of the rarest and hottest chiles and owner of Refining Fire Chiles, grew the hottest chiles on record in 2010.
Scott: So why no official record with the Trinidad Scorpion?
Jim: It's a long story and time to tell it. After sending one of my Trinidad Scorpion Peppers to Dave DeWitt in New Mexico in 2009, the journey began. Dave DeWitt is called "Pope of Peppers" and is the author of many chile pepper books. Dave gave the pepper to his long time friend Marlin Bensinger, a chemical engineer and one of the foremost experts on capsaicin science. Marlin tested it and it came in higher than the Bhut Jolokia.
So in 2010 I grew some Trinidad Scorpion and Trinidad 7 Pot plants for Marlin to put into the fields in New Mexico.
Marlin drove out to Lakeside, California just east of San Diego to...
Review - Uncle Dennis Pepper Sauces
Over five years ago, Dennis O'Shields hatched the idea of creating spicy products that met "dietary needs of a modern family" by introducing sauces that were very low sodium, gluten-free, made with all natural with fresh ingredients, contain zero calories, and have no preservatives or no artificial colors or flavoring. One may think that's a pretty tall order if you want to make a hot sauce truly taste great. But O'Shields, AKA "Uncle Dennis” was up for the challenge.
He had sent me three hot sauce of increasing heat levels to review: Smokin' Fire Sauce (medium heat), Ragin' Fire Sauce (hot heat), and Searin' Fire Sauce (extra hot heat).
Ring of Fire Hot Sauces to Be Sold at Bass Pro Shops Nationwide
Good news for fans of Ring of Fire hot sauces. Our good friends Mike and Diane Greening of Mike and Diane's Gourmet Kitchen have recently announced that four different flavors of Ring of Fire are going be available for purchase at every single Bass Pro Shop - a total of 53 locations - across the United States. So if you have one of the outdoor recreation chain stores in your neck of the woods, be sure to go in and stock up on some of the tastiest pepper sauces this side of San Diego, CA.
Boom Hot Sauce Aids Health and Support Artists
The Innovative Company has just released Boom, a cayenne-rich hot sauce that offers potential health benefits and a chance to share royalties with artists. The sauce’s explosive label was created by a contest-winning artist, whose design will enable him to receive royalties on Boom’s sales. Innovative has teamed up with the Connecticut Art Directors Club to find artists to design labels for its new products.
Sudbury, MA (Vocus/PRWEB) February 24, 2011
The Innovative Company, the brainchild of three award-winning hot sauce entrepreneurs, has just released its newest hot sauce product, Boom. The sauce's main ingredient is extremely hot – and extremely healthy – cayenne pepper. The explosive Boom label was created by a contest-winning artist, who will reap royalties from the sale of each bottle of Boom. The Innovative Company initiated the contest to showcase New England artists and let them share in the profits from their work. The company worked with the Connecticut Art Directors Club to set up the contest...
Chile Pepper Themed Sudoku Books
Here are a trio of sudoku puzzle books I caught at Target recently. I've never gotten into the whole sudoku craze nor did I purchase these, so I can't attest for how good or challenging these books are.
Okay, admittedly calling these "chile pepper-themed" is a huge stretch. Don't expect to buy these and see peppers dancing about margins in the various pages between puzzles - the name and chile pictures on the cover are only supposed to represent the difficulty level of the puzzles contained within.
One aspect I find interesting is that the green cayennes used in the word "Mild" are actually hotter than the red jalapenos in the "Hot" one. That's just being nit-picky, though.;-)
If you can't find these at your local Target, Wal-Mart or bookstore, you can purchase these on Amazon.
National Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show 2011 Commercial
Here's the new TV ad for the upcoming 23rd Annual Fiery Foods and BBQ Show:
Mild to Wild Pepper and Herb Co Changes Ownership
Anyone who's been keeping up on the fiery foods biz in the past ten years knows Jim Campbell, easily one of the all-around nicest and brightest guys in the industry. In addition to being a full-time firefighter and Mild to Wild Pepper & Herb Company. It's been known that for over a year Jim has had to put more focus on his daytime job, leaving very little time to dedicate to his hot sauce business (and his Open Fields chile pepper gatherings), leading many to speculate on what the future may hold for the Mild to Wild company.
Jim has released some official news concerning this...
Review - Buffalo Wild Wings Jammin' Jalapeno and Thai Curry Sauces
It's new flavorings time at Buffalo Wild Wings, and when I got word of two new sauces they were offering - Jammin' Jalapeno and Thai Curry - you had better believe that I wanted to try them. The Jammin' Jalapeno sounded intriguing, as its marketing description was, "Spicy jalapenos, blended with a touch of tequila and a hint of lime. Sweet heat." Yet it was B-Dubs' spin on another Asian flavor that got me walking through their doors. Of course, with most of their new sauces, they come attached with all the standard phraseology to go along with it, e.g., for a limited time only, etc.
Full 2011 Fiery Foods and BBQ Show Info
It's almost that time of year - the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show! I'm a bit down that I cannot attend this year, but I still hope everyone else who gets to go - including any and all bloggers, hot sauce reviewers, members of the online chilehead community, other attendees, and vendors - have a great time!
The following is a press release sent out by FFS producer Dave DeWitt's PR agency. It provides a general overview of happenings at this year's event as well as dates & times and ticket prices.
Review - Burger King Jalapeno and Cheddar BK Stuffed Steakhouse Burger
It's getting danged near impossible in this day and age to sample every single fast food offering that contains or is branded with some type of spicy components. Fiery foods (at least on a mildly-burning level) are beginning to saturate the general snack and QSR industries at a dizzying speed.
There's a new sandwich from Burger King in the Stuffed Steakhouse Burger. This one is billed with having "Jalapeno and Cheddar" cooked right in the patty. I was mildly disappointed with their spicy burger from two years ago in the Angry Whopper - the taste was alright but the supposed "heat" or "angriness" was laughable. With the I wanted to give BK another shot at fiery foods redemption with this Jalapeno and Cheddar BK Stuffed Steakhouse Burger...
Happy Valentine's Day!
I'm wishing everyone out there peace and love today!
Review - Buddha Bill's Hot Sauces
Bill and Jake Lawrence are a couple of brothers based out of Cincinnati, Ohio who are taking a stab at the fiery foods biz with some of their own pepper-based sauces (they've also talked about creating salsas and marinades as well). They've sent me five unique-sounding sauces they've produced - Ginger Apricot Fire Sauce, Tequila Lime Hot Sauce, Pumpkin Harvest Hot Sauce, Hickory Roasted Pepper Sauce, and Peach Habanero Hot Sauce - to get my humble opinion on them.
Ginger Apricot Fire Sauce
Ingredients:
Orange habanero peppers, apricots, apple cider vinegar, water, ginger, onion, salt
I thought it had a great texture and look. Ginger Apricot Fire Sauce boasts a medium-thin consistency with a slightly seedy and pulpy feel and look. Both the scent and the initial taste carried a high-end tartness...
Top US Chile/Hot Sauce Websites February 2011
It's been quite a while since I've done a Alexa tally on what were the top hot sauce/chile pepper blogs and chilehead forums originating from the United States. So here are the most visited online destinations in February 2011 going from a rolling three-month period of Alexa traffic rankings.
During the last few months of 2010 I had neglected my own blog to take care of personal problems, therefore traffic dropped off considerably. The excellent and highly-trafficked TheHotPepper.com forums raced ahead to grab the top spot. HotSauceBlog.com, for the most part defunct since October of 2008, still pulls in a significant amount of traffic due to many sites still linking to it to land at #3. Popular spicy food sites Fiery-Foods.com and TheHotZoneOnline.com round out the...
ZestFest 2011, A Defcon Perspective
Well, another Zest Fest is in the record books. During the show, the Blogger-In-Chief, Scott Roberts had asked me if was doing a write-up of the show. Considering I hadn't done one in a while, I figured why not. With the funny things that happened during the weekend, it could be quite humorous. So, without further adieu, I give you "Zest Fest 2011, A Defcon Perspective”.
We were looking forward to doing this show for a long time. It's our favorite show we do, and we always have a good time. This time we had booked our flights months ago, not realizing it would get very interesting as the show dates marched closer. We were to fly out on Thursday, January 27th, at 7am, Nature had other ideas planned for us. As the date drew nearer, we assembled our Pallet of Doom and shipped it off to Texas. About a week before we were to take off, a discussion of an approaching monster winter storm system came up more and more. By Monday, my concern increased, as we were supposed to get friggin' slammed again by snow, an occurrence that has been more frequent than usual this winter (I haven't seen my lawn in 2 months). Maggie contacted Continental Airlines, and we were able to move our flight back one day, to Wednesday, AT NO CHARGE! This amazed me, and I thought, "Perhaps this is a good omen of things to come”.
2011 ZestFest Diary
I had comfy journey into Dallas-Fort Worth from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and I was fortunate enough to catch a flight that was abnormally early in its arrival time. Collecting my suitcase (half empty with cardboard boxes and styrofoam peanuts to take sauces on my way back home) and grabbing my rental car, I was psyched about venturing to the new Irving Convention Center at Los Colinas and arriving earlier than anticipated.
Well, thanks in part to both the Google Maps on my iPhone 4 and the lack of ANY freeway exits or signs pointing to the Convention Center, I could not immediately get to the new venue. After bouncing back and forth across the highway, I decided to get off an exit further up ahead and drive around in a few circles. I eventually ran into Los Colinas Blvd and thankfully headed towards ZestFest's new home, but not after having wasted 20-25 minutes...
