You may have already read on Blair’s website or within the comments section of the uber popular Blair’s 2005 Holiday Reserve post that the Blair’s 2005 Reserves have been shipped. They are arriving today to eager collectors hands.

The red, black & white wax matches the super-sized 2004 Blair’s Holiday Reserve. Those that will be recieving a B-99 can expect those collectible bottles to begin shipping on or around 1/2/2006.

The HSB has been recieving reports throughout the day from those that have recieved their Holiday Reserves today. So far we’ve heard from:
#3 – Eric
#4 – Randy aka MSK
#7 – For sale on eBay
#8 – Mike
#9 – Mad_Reilly
#12 – Paul
#13 – Joe & Linda
#16 – thakswet
#19 – NoSauce2Hot
#24 – For sale on eBay
#33 – C Gurholt
#37 – MikeG
#38 – The Creator
#42 – DK
#44 – For Sale on eBay
# 46 – For sale on eBay
#48 – Adam
#51 – For sale on eBay
# 66 – Chris K
#86 – Cheffy

If you’re not already a subscriber to Chile Pepper magazine, I suggest you sign up in time to get yourself a copy of the upcoming hot sauce issue (March/April ’06). They are really doing a lot of research for this issue, interviewing several manufacturers and even several collectors. Can’t wait to read it!

I must say, some of the design changes that have been made to this latest issue (the 20th Anniversary Issue) are quite spectacular. They are really putting a lot of work into ‘heating’ up the magazine.

And don’t forget to sign up for their hot gift basket giveaway.

Baumer Foods, maker of Crystal Hot Sauce, won’t return to Orleans

The Associated Press – The Baumer Foods bottling plant, where Crystal Hot Sauce and dozens of other condiments were made, won’t reopen in New Orleans after suffering significant damage from Hurricane Katrina.

President and owner Alvin Baumer Jr. said he does not have a new site selected for the 250-employee plant. Another casualty of the storm: Baumer’s iconic Interstate sign.

The left side of the art deco and neon sign, which features a smiling cook stirring a huge pot of strawberry jam, was ripped away. With the company’s 60-year-old bottling plant inundated with as much as 5 feet of water, Baumer had to turn to private-label bottlers for help.

Four different companies are bottling the hot sauce along with Baumer’s relatively new product, Hickory Liquid Smoke, and two steak sauces.

Even before Katrina, Baumer had been seeking a new location for the plant. He said Tuesday that he would not reopen the site and will continue using private bottlers until he can build a new plant or buy and retrofit an existing building.

Though he wouldn’t discuss locations, Baumer said the site would not be in New Orleans, where the company has operated for 81 years.

For now, most of Baumer’s 250 employees are scattered to the winds. He has been trying to contact them and thinks that if he can get a plant up and running and the employees can find a place to live, most would return to the area.