The 18th Annual Texas Hot Sauce Festival is Coming!

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It’s almost here!

Texas Hot Sauce Festival will be held September 22 & 23, 2018 on Saturday from 11am to 6pm and Sunday from Noon to 5pm at the Bayou City Event Center

What’s Gonna Be There?

Hot sauce, salsa, chips, dips, peppers, spices, marinades, rubs, jams/jelly, pickled products, condiments, soup mixes, chili mixes, wing sauces, … chunky, spicy, smooth, garlicky, sweet, fruity, peppery, smokey…  HOT  and  MILD!   Hundreds of hot and spicy products to try out from around the country.  There is also plenty of food and cold beverages, ongoing stage entertainment, a chile-dren area (including some free and some ‘pay as you go’ activities for the kids), retail vendors, arts & crafts and pepper merchandise.

Entertainment…

High River Sauces Presents the Chi-Town Hot Sauce Expo June 23 and 24, 2018

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Save The Date. June 23 & 24, 2018. Toyota Park in the Chicago, IL area. It’s Going To Be A Party!!

Chicagoland Will Never Be the Same!

Come to Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL for this two-day Fiery Foods Festival to get the ultimate endorphin rush. The weekend promises to be like no other. The 1st Annual Chi-Town Hot Sauce Expo features FREE Hot Sauce Tastings from the BEST Hot Sauce Companies around the World, The Stage of DOOM, Booze & Infuse Cocktail Competition, Guinness Book of Records Reaper Eating Contest, Chihuahua Beauty Pageant, Craft Beers, Specialty Cocktails & So Much More!!

More details to come soon. Get the latest updates at https://www.facebook.com/chitownhotsauceexpo.

Inferno Fest is Back, Heating Up the Chicago Area!

inferno-fest-2017HIGHWOOD IS HEATING UP: INFERNO FEST IS BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28th FROM 4:30-9:30 PM, EVERTS PARK

Highlights include assorted spicy food creations and Inferno Fest Eating Contest

HIGHWOOD, IL (JUNE 28, 2017) – Celebrate Highwood is fired up to announce the return of Inferno Fest on Wednesday, June 28th, from 4:30-9:30pm in Everts Park (130 Highwood Avenue). Back by popular demand, Inferno Fest will test the taste buds of the most fearless food enthusiasts with the hottest and spiciest foods and beverages. For those worried they may not be able to handle the heat, have no fear, the event will take place in conjunction with all the fabulous vendors at the weekly Highwood Evening Gourmet Market.

The 2017 Spicy Flave Awards

the-flave-awardsThe International Flavor Awards, in conjunction with the people that bring you the Annual “Midwest Fiery Foods Fest/ Bacon, Brew & BBQ Fest” are excited to invite you to compete in this year’s Spicy Flave Awards. The Spicy Flave Awards are held annually to honor hot & spicy foods producers from a variety of product areas such as hot sauce, salsa, BBQ Sauce, wing sauces, mustards, condiments, pickled products, beverages and much more. Again this year, entries are just $50 per category entered, pay for 3 and get a 4th free or enter 5 products for $250 and get your 6th & 7th FREE. 1 place winners in each category receive a hand-blown glass award and 2nd & 3rd places receive extra-large multi-color ribbons! Take a look at the categories and rules here:

www.theFlaveAwards.com

ALSO!! With your entry into the “Spicy Flave Awards” you’re given the opportunity to vend at the Midwest Fiery Foods Fest/ Bacon, Brew & BBQ Fest for FREE!!! You don’t need to attend the event to enter the contest. We feel this is an amazing and cost effective event that will allow companies the opportunity to introduce and sell products to attendees over the course of the weekend plus…

2017 Screaming Mi MI Award Winners!

screaming-mi-mi-champion-dirty-dicks-hot-sauceThe Screaming Mi Mi Awards were announced this year at the 5th Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo.

Grand Champion Winner!

CONGRATS To :

Dirty Dicks Hot Sauce

In addition to the prestigious honor of being the 2017 Screaming Mi Mi Grand Champion, Dirty Dicks also won:

50 Case purchase from Peppers.com distribution
Hot Sauce featured in June subscription of Fuego Box
Full Page Ad in Chile Pepper Magazine
1 Year of Free banner advertising on the Official Scott Roberts website: www.scottrobertsweb.com
Free 10 x 10 Booth at the 2018 NYC Hot Sauce Expo (or another High River presenting Expo)

A Big Time Congrats To All of the 2017 Winners!!

The panel of Judges that include celebrity chefs from CBS, FOX & Food Networks, writers from Bon Appetit Magazine, Rachael Ray Magazine, Food Network Magazine, Huffington Post, NYC Newspapers, NYC Food Bloggers, Sirius XM Radio, NYC Chefs and other industry professionals.

 

Screaming Mi Mi Winners Full Listing…

Announcing…the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Class of 2017 Inductees!

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Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Class of 2017

After a long period of anticipation, the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Foundation is very proud to announce the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Class of 2017. The Hot Sauce Hall of Fame will induct 4 people all of which have been very instrumental in the fiery foods, which will take place at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo on April 22nd and 23rd at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Brooklyn, NY.

This year’s group continues to celebrate and honor the biggest and brightest names in the industry. Here is your Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Class of 2017!

  1. Luther Hearn – Peppers: Luther has built one of the biggest distributors in the United States that specializes in Hot Sauce, BBQ Sauce and Salsa. Peppers.com was one of the original websites to sell hot sauce and related products.
  2. Dave Lutes – Hot Shots Distribution: Dave was founder of Hot Shots Distribution. One of the original hot sauce distributors and one of the biggest. Still operating for almost 20 years.
  3. Wilber Scoville: Wilbur was an American pharmacist best known for his creation of the “Scoville Organoleptic Test”, now standardized as the Scoville Scale. He devised the test and scale in 1912 while working at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company to measure pungency, “spiciness” or “heat”, of various chile peppers based on the amount of the chemical capsaicin found in them.
  4. Buddy Taylor – Gator Hammock Hot Sauce: Buddy started this influencial hot sauce company in 1989. Buddy has created a full line of sauces that have won numerous awards within the fiery foods industry. With over 25 years in the business, his sauces are available nationwide.

The Hot Sauce Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony will be held on Saturday April 22nd  on the main stage of the NYC Hot Sauce Expo.  Inductees will receive a distinctive Red Jacket and a Hall of Fame Ring.

For More Information Please Contact Steve Seabury: steve@highriversauces.com
Info on the NYC Hot Sauce Expo: www.NYCHotSauceExpo.com

Help Support Tasting the Heat!

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Tasting The Heat is currently the best media show ANYWHERE that does hot sauce reviews, interviews and live shows for small batch gourmet hot sauce and spicy food makers. I consider Tasting the Heat host Kendall Stadler to be the man who is most suited for picking up the mantle once held by people like Brian & Marilyn Meagher and also myself with our various fiery foods industry podcasts and YouTube videos.

Kendall is currently raising money to help cover the costs of attending the New York Hot Sauce Expo, April 22 & 23-2017. This is one of THE premier fiery food events on the planet! If your’re a fan of Tasting The Heat, we’re sure you can easily imagine the excitement of being able to deliver live interviews with sauce and fiery food makers, as well as showcasing some of the products…

Fiery Foods Challenge 2017 Winners List

Fiery-Food-Challenge-Golden-Chiles-ZestFest-2017-Awards-WinnersCongrats to the winners of the 2017 Fiery Foods Challenge, AKA the Golden Chile Awards, which were announced at this past weekend’s ZestFest 2017.

Thanks to John “CaJohn” Hard of CaJohn’s Fiery Foods for providing the list.

The Winners

Barbecue Sauce: Alcohol Infused – Consumer Ready
Born to Hula, LLC Imperial Apple Barbecue Sauce 1
LaRae’s Bar-B-Que Sauce, Inc Tequila Garlic 2
LaRae’s Bar-B-Que Sauce, Inc Tequila Sunrise 3

Barbecue Sauce: Exotic – Consumer Ready
C & J Farms Jalapeño Honey 1
Moore’s Marinades & Sauces Moore’s Honey BBQ Wing Sauce 2
Southern Belles BBQ Blueberry Blues 3

Barbecue Sauce: Fruit Based – Consumer Ready
Johnson Berry Farm Strawberry Stinger Ghost Sauce 1
Culley’s Culley’s Rib ‘N’ Chik’N 2
Southern Belles BBQ Blueberry Blues 3

Barbecue Sauce: Mustard Based – Consumer Ready…

Houston Comes Alive This Fall with the Texas Hot Sauce Festival!

texas-hot-sauce-festival-september-2017I’m ecstatic to report that a hot sauce festival is once again happening in the Houston, Texas area this coming Fall!

Since show producer Carol Borge lost the rights to the name Houston Hot Sauce Festival last year, both disappointed chileheads and fiery foods vendors have wondered if this beloved annual event would cease to exist or if it would ever return in some shape or form. Carol is indeed roaring back with a show that promises to be bigger and better than ever with the new Texas Hot Sauce Festival!

Borrowing the mantra of its predecessor event of “Always in September,” the Texas Hot Sauce Festival will be held on September 23 and 24, 2017 (with Saturday hours of 11am – 6pm and Sunday hours of noon – 5pm). The locale for this new THSF will be the Bayou City Event Center at 9401 Knight Road, Houston, TX 77045…

2017 Screaming Mi Mi Awards Are Coming!

screaming-mi-mi-awards-nyc-hot-sauce-expoIf You Want To Be The BEST Then You Have To WIN The BEST!

The NYC Hot Sauce Expo is pleased to present the 2017 Screaming Mi Mi Awards Show on April 22nd. Each year hundreds of hot sauce companies from around the globe compete and try to win the most esteemed and most admired award in the hot sauce industry. Past winners have been featured on TV, national magazines, newspapers and blogs which has lead for their product distributed by wholesalers and national retail outlets.

This year the Screaming Mi Mi Awards have partnered with Peppers.com, Fuego Box, Chile Pepper Magazine and the Scott Roberts hot sauce blog. These companies are the most respected and leading outlets within the hot sauce community. “I wanted to maximize the profile of the winners and there is no better way than to partner up with these amazing companies” states Seabury organizer of the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. “I want spicy connoisseurs to have easy access to the BEST Hot Sauces in the World and the BEST are Screaming Mi Mi Award winners” adds Seabury.

The 2017 Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Final Ballot

Hot-Sauce-Hall-of-Fame-Crest-LogoThe Hot Sauce Hall of Fame is proud to announce the 3rd Annual Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 2017. With almost 800 nomination ballots voted on from the Selection Committee, the Hall was able to determine the Top 10 people for the final ballot.

This year the Hall will induct 3 people to the Class of 2017 on April 22nd at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo‘s main stage. The Class of 2017 will receive a distinctive Red Jacket, Hall of Fame Ring and will be enshrined with legendary of honors into the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame…

Pepper Palace Joins Forces With ZestFest To Help Market and Promote Best Spicy Food Products

zestfest-ffc-marketing-with-pepper-palaceDALLAS – Dec. 10, 2016 – PRLog — As an industry leader, Pepper Palace is interested in mentoring smaller companies and encouraging their participation in ZestFest and the Fiery Food Challenge as a way to grow their business and promote the fiery food industry. The Fiery Food Challenge is a featured event at the annual spicy food show, ZestFest, produced by Spicy Food Productions, LLC.  Each year a panel of expert judges comes to ZestFest in search of the best products in the spicy food category.  Last year’s 20th Anniversary Edition of the Fiery Food Challenge was dominated by the products entered by Pepper Palace.  This year Pepper Palace has decided to hold off from entering to allow new and developing artisan companies an opportunity for increased exposure and the chance to win the prestigious Golden Chile award.

Pepper Palace was founded by Craig and Tanya Migawa in 1989 as a kiosk in a Central Wisconsin Mall and soon expanded to include two inline retail locations. After successfully operating in Wisconsin for eight years, a family trip inspired a move south to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Pepper Palace opened their first Gatlinburg location in 1997 in a small storefront on the outskirts of town. Several moves were made to better, larger locations until finally reaching its current location in 1999, a 3000 square foot spot in a prominent Gatlinburg Mall. This was, and continues to be, the largest spicy themed specialty retail location in the world. Pepper Palace entered the online arena in that same year by launching pepperpalace.com.

Pepper Palace began expansion efforts by…

Firetalkers – Interview with Guinness World Record Carolina Reaper Eating Champ Greg Foster

greg-foster-guinness-world-record-holder-carolina-reaper-chile-pepper-eating-contestJust a few weeks ago at the first annual Arizona Hot Sauce Expo, daredevil chile pepper eater Greg Foster of Irvine, CA break the Guinness World Record for consuming the largest amount of Carolina Reaper chile peppers in one minute.
Greg was able to set a new record by munching down a mind-blowing 120 grams of Carolina Reapers (which came out to be 16 pepper pods) within 60 seconds. These Guinness World Record Reaper Challenges are held at all of the hot sauce expos produced by Steve Seabury and High River Sauces, which included the aforementioned Arizona Hot Sauce Expo, plus the NYC, California, and Portland Hot Sauce Expos.

For those of you who don’t know, the Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper peppers are the Guinness World Record hottest chile, and average at around 1,569,300 units of the Scoville Heat Scale. Carolina Reapers were developed and grown by Ed Currie of the PuckerButt Pepper Company.

So how exactly did Greg did it? I recently chatted with him and asked him how he got into fiery foods, what he did to prepare himself for this challenge, and what it was like to go through the nuclear heat pain after consuming all of those chile peppers…

The NYC Hot Sauce Expo Celebrates Its 5th Anniversary

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2016

The NYC Hot Sauce Expo Celebrates Its 5th Anniversary

New York’s own High River Sauces proudly presents the 5th Annual New York City Hot Sauce Expo on April 22nd & 23rd 2017. The NYC Expo will feature up to 45 artisanal hot sauce makers from all over the United States and as far as Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and South America. The NYC Hot Sauce Expo has grown into an International Hot Sauce celebration. Witness the action packed event with hot sauce tastings, eating challenges, spicy food vendors, craft beer, spicy cocktails and plenty of odd ball entertainment for the whole family…

Blast From the Past – CaJohns Open House Diary and Photos

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The following is my recollection from the CaJohns Open House event from Monday, August 2, 2010. These open houses were held at the CaJohns Fiery Foods facilities in the Columbus, Ohio area the day after the Weekend of Fire Hot Sauce Expo. These were CaJohn’s way of providing excellent free food and commeraderie for chileheads owners of sauce companies. In addition to the post-WOF open houses, these get-togethers were also held in conjunction with other events such as the Columbus North Market Fiery Foods Festival, and were an absolute blast for anyone attending!

Having been guided by my iPhone’s GPS/Map app, I was the first visitor to arrive at the new CaJohns facilities in the northern Columbus, Ohio suburb of Westerville. Not knowing where to park or even if this was even the correct building, I pulled the Roberts family truckster into a large back parking lot. I noticed the familiar white and yellow CaJohns van pulling out of a spot and heading around to the front of the building and I followed suit. John “CaJohn” Hard bounded out of the drivers seat and gave me a welcoming handshake. For a few minutes he chatted about the chile pepper plants (among them some Bhut Jolokias) that were planted out in front of the building before we darted inside.

CaJohn first showed me the impressive trophy for the inaugural Reviewers Cup, a competition to see which hot sauce blogger was able to taste and identify ingredients in food most accurately. He confided in me a couple of hints as to what the contest would have in store for us. Prior to this, I had no idea what to expect (would we sample hot sauces? A dish of a multi-ingredient, mish-mash of components such as chili or jambalaya? Or would Chef Steve concocted something special and completely unanticipated for us?). CaJohn said that it would be simpler and that blogger participants would taste ingredients common to hot sauces and salsas. Hmmm…