Top 5 Hot Sauces:
I don’t really have a strict top five favorite sauces, but there are a few that seem to always be in the refrigerator or in the pantry.
1. Sriracha
2. Crystal
3. Cabo San Luis’s hot red sauce (only available at the restaurant)
4. Longbranch Trading Company – Longbranch Original
5. Buffalo Chipotle

Hottest Item Ever Consumed:
The hottest thing I’ve ever consumed would have to be a Chabella burrito. Chabella’s was this dirty little take-out burrito place on Haight Street in San Francisco that built these huge bomber burritos that quickly became a light night favorite of ours. The cool thing about Chabella’s was that they built the burritos right in front of you on a service line and you followed the cook along the other side of the counter and told them what to put in it. They had three hot sauces, medium, hot and ridiculous. On one occasion a couple of us decided to go with the hot and ridiculous sauce, plus extra diced jalapenos. This was a mistake. I have never sweated so much or had tears running out of my eyes quite like that night. I was crying. I tried to douse the heat with water, beer, juice, milk, anything, but nothing worked. The only thing I could do was finish the thing and take the punishment it handed out like a man, a very scared man. The heat from that thing lingered well into the early hours of the morning, haunting me, and then all hell broke loose. I made a mad dash for the potty and let out a scream that…well, enough said, you get the picture. We made dozens of more visits to Chabella’s over the next couple of years, but never again went to the dark side of late night burritos.

Number of Hot Sauces Owned:
I have less than a dozen sauces in the pantry and refrigerator. Being a manufacturer, I do a lot of sampling of what is out there, and there is a lot out there. But I don’t always keep the sauces I try. Some just aren’t to my taste, some are way to hot for me, and some just plain suck. I’m certainly not a collector and only keep around what I eat.

Other Tidbits & Links:
I live in Paso Robles, California, with my wife Kim and daughter Mackenzie. We are located right smack dab in the middle of wine country, about 20 miles from the coast, and are self proclaimed winos and foodies. In our free time, which isn’t much, we enjoy wine tasting, exploring Central Coast destinations such as our world famous farmers markets, cooking, entertaining and attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo sporting events.

I also own Black Market Condiment Company, a recent start-up that produces gourmet pepper sauces, dry rubs, wet rubs, grilling sauces, grilling sprays, and a variety of other condiment type products. You can read more about that in my introduction post.

Number of Hot Sauces Eaten in My Lifetime:
I have no idea. If you include every taqueria, burrito joint, taco stand and Mexican restaurant I’ve eatin’ at, in addition to all the other places that make their own sauce, plus the stuff I’ve bought retail, I’d guess a few hundred, maybe more. I really don’t know.

Brief History:
When Nick put out the call for new HSB reviewers a couple months ago, I jumped on the opportunity, but admit that I really didn’t think I’d be chosen. It’s not that I have self confidence issues or anything. I just have never considered myself to be any sort of an expert or authoritarian on anything. And I’m not. I’m just one person with an opinion, or many opinions for that matter. In this case, my opinions are about fiery-foods, something I have a passion for. Food has always played an important role in my life. All of my grandmothers were excellent cooks and I guess you could say I became a foodie at a really young age. I used to spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen watching them create and somehow managed to remember a lot of what I saw. All my life I’ve enjoyed cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, particularly with foods that pack a punch, or at least a good slap.

I really got into the whole fiery-foods thing by accident. A couple years ago I decided to plant a bunch of different peppers and herbs in a vacant strip in our backyard. It happened to be a bountiful year and I ended up with more peppers than I could use or giveaway, so I decided to try my hand at hot sauces. I’ve always been pretty good at putting together marinates and rubs and grilling sauces from scratch, but I had never tried to make hot sauce. Having a bunch of freshly picked jalapeno, cayenne, habanero, and hot banana peppers, a free afternoon, and a bunch of beer and wine, I tossed all the peppers on the grill and began developing what would eventually become a very interesting journey and perhaps my future.

With all of those extra peppers I had, I created three hot sauces that were received very well by friends, family, and even a handful of strangers. This got me really excited about creating even more and late last year, with the support of my wife, I launched Black Market Condiment Company. The basic goal of Black Market is to provide a line of gourmet products that are loaded with attitude and tons of flavor, and also appeal to a very wide customer base. None of our products are or ever will be blow your head off hot, but they are also not without their fair share of fervor. We strive for the perfect balance of flavor and heat and believe we have found it. We will be launching our initial product line of three pepper sauces and two dry rubs in January 2007, followed by our 12 to 15 additional products releasing as business growth allows. Since we are always experimenting and developing new products, that number will certainly grow beyond what we are currently capable of handling, but it’s always good to have excellent products in your back pocket.

I hope you find my reviews on the HSB interesting and informative, but also fair. I know how a good review can make or break a product, so I promise to be sensitive to that while penning my thoughts and opinions. Thanks for the opportunity Nick. Cheers!