Are We in the Midst of a Hot Sauce Blog Renaissance?

Scott Roberts September 28, 2010 at 8:00 am food Digg this Article

Are We in the Midst of a Hot Sauce Blog Renaissance? Nearly two years ago, it was suggested on The Hot Zone Online by Joe and Linda Levinson that the chilehead blogging world was entering a slow-down period. At the time, I agreed with their assessment. And subsequently because of the cooling-off, it lit a fire under me to focus more of my little blog's focus on my spicy food obsession than other topics (in hindsight, it proved to be a wise decision because previously my subject matter was all over the map).

Since then, newer blogs have burst onto the hot sauce scene. Sure, a few sites have already dropped off the radar, a couple are rarely updated and have grown stagnant ('tis the nature of the interwebs), but there are now more quality chile pepper and fiery foods-focused blogs than I can ever recall. As a huge fan of many of these web destinations, I am ecstatic, for I can feed my spicy cravings with more reviews, news, photos and commentary virtually every day without skipping a beat.

Even more exciting is the prospect of Nick Lindauer re-introducing the original Hot Sauce Blog, something hinted at when Doug Spiros of Peppers and More and I recently talked to him.

Additionally, the amount of hot sauce and chile pepper eating videos has exploded. Just look at YouTube and do a search for "ghost pepper", for example, and you'll find enough entertainment (some better than others) to fill your next several evenings.

What do YOU think? Are we entering a new "golden age" of chilehead blogs with real substance, or is the hot sauce landscape pretty much the same as it ever was?

The Newer Crop

Here are some younger hot sauce blogs I've recently come across. With consistent and regular updates, I think they have real potential to become great resources:

The Blog of Burn
Link: http://blogofburn.blogspot.com

Hot Sauce Addict
http://hotsauceaddict.com

Chile Bomb
http://www.chilebomb.com

Update 10/5/10: 2 Hot 2 Eat
http://www.2hot2eat.com

Previously Suggested Sites

Thrice I've made lists of a smattering of my favorite blogs, forums and general informational websites that fit in the fiery foods paradigm:

Hot Sauce and Hot Pepper Sites You Should Not Miss
Peppers and More - http://www.peppersandmore.com
The Hot Pepper Forums - http://www.thehotpepper.com
Hot Sauce Daily - http://www.hotsaucedaily.com
The Hot Zone Online - http://www.thehotzoneonline.com
Taste the Fear - http://www.tastethefear.com
Fiery Foods - http://www.fiery-foods.com

More Hot Sauce and Hot Pepper Sites You Should Visit
The Chile Foundry - http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk
Mex Grocer Blog - http://blog.mexgrocer.com
Eat More Heat - http://www.eatmoreheat.com
The Hot Sauce Weekly Podcast - http://www.hotsauceweekly.com
TheChileMan.Org - http://www.thechileman.org

Newer Hot Sauce Chile Pepper Blogs to Be On the Lookout For in 2010
Hot Sauce Guru - http://www.hotsauceguru.com
Good Hurts - http://goodhurts.blogspot.com
Fresh Hot Sauce - http://www.freshhotsauce.com
I Love It Spicy - http://www.iloveitspicy.com
The Chilli Review - http://www.thechillireview.co.uk

Comments

FIREHEAD THOMAS
2010-09-28 08:22:15

It's not only a lot fo fun to give an opinion about the spciy foods we love, but I have also learned (and continue to learn) alot from everyone involved!! Plus, the majority of the people in this industry are the best of quality!

Scott Roberts
2010-09-28 12:13:35

Amen to that, Thomas. There's always going to be a little bickering here and there, but the vast majority of the time it is an absolute pleasure to deal with people in this industry. There's an amazing spirit of brotherhood that I believe is unmatched elsewhere.

Austin Spice Girl
2010-09-28 16:33:47

I think more and more small businesses are realizing the impact of online communication. I know I had talked to Craig (owner of ASC) about updating our site and creating a blog years ago but we just finally did this year. We were a smaller co & while we have a huge passion for food we were getting so wrapped up in day to day operations that we were missing this crucial online element without even realizing it. Even now it's hard to keep up on everything and create blog content.
I do think spicy food has gone much more mainstream in the last few years, too. It used to be the illusive chili head; a creature easy to find at fiery food shows but hard to locate just on the street or at a restaurant; now even McDonalds and Taco Bell are catering to the spicy food lover. I think we'll be seeing & hearing a lot more from the spice lovers of the world in the near future and it's due to great blogs with fabulous content like yours that make that possible!
Thank you for being an inspriation! And for the suggested sites. Quite a few I didn't know about!

Scott Roberts
2010-10-05 14:17:55

After seeing a comment left by Steve Smith and looking at the links up above, I just realized that I had forgotten http://www.2hot2eat.com! I'll add that in "The New Crop" section.

Shawn
2010-10-08 20:36:00

Thomas took the words out of my mouth. Everyone that I've met has been great. I think that there is definitely a jump in everything spicy, and it's just not add filled pages. The quality of the websites and blogs are so much more than they used to be.

Matt Kay
2010-10-17 00:26:50

Scott,

Although I'm a fairly new participant in the scene and in the food community as well, I've been lurking around for years. I've noticed that chile-mania has become more mainstream but I'm not so sure the number of quality resources has grown proportionately. I've seen that in itself as an opportunity to jump into the mix and have some fun while doing it.

While there has long been a good deal of quality wiki style information and hot sauce blogs/industry news sites like yours I think the rest of the scene is going in two directions at once. There are some informative chile eating videos but a good portion are Jackass style Bhut Jolokia dares. I think that type of one-up-manship may have always been part of being a chile lover but it's reaching new audiences and doing it in new ways - which is cool.

On the other hand there are foodies that are starting to become interested in chiles. The foodie route is the route that I'm trying to take (although I may have a Jackass-esque sense of humor sometimes). I don't think there was a single time in the past twenty years that I've ordered pizza and neglected to drench it in some type of hot sauce but I think people want more options these days. So I'd really like to think that we're entering a golden age and I'd like to think that I'm contributing to it in some positive way.

Cheers!

Scott Burn
2010-10-25 13:05:04

Scott...this is Scott from the Blog of Burn. Thank you so much for the shout out. That's awesome.

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