I’m SteveM and it’s a thrill to be joining the reviewers at HSB! I’m writing to you from just outside the nation’s Capitol in Northern Virginia. I’m a self-taught cook and wine enthusiast, but the thing that really gets me going is a good hot sauce.

Mind you, I wasn’t born with a hot pepper in my mouth. In fact, my first experience with the capsicum as a youngster was not unlike someone being attacked by a pack of wild dogs and fearing them for the rest of their life. As a teenager, I inadvertently ate a whole piri-piri that was hidden inside a sardine. I swore off anything hot for the next 15 years. But when I moved to Virginia from my home town of Boston in 1984, I worked with a guy from Texas who introduced me to hot sauces. Twenty or so years later, my annual hot sauce consumption quite likely generates enough endorphins to power a small city.

My taste in hot sauces generally runs more in the direction of enjoying the flavors, rather than striving for such a degree of olfactory punishment that the subtleties are lost in the blast of heat. That orientation toward flavor will hopefully be reflected in my reviews. That’s not to say that I can’t take the hot stuff, and I look forward to tasting whatever Nick wants to throw at me.

I am constantly looking for the best pairings of food and wine. Similarly, I like certain types of hot sauces with certain types of foods, but I’m always willing to break with convention and try some outlandish combination. Variety truly is the spice of life and I try to practice that every time I fire it up in the kitchen. Look for some of my recipes in future reviews.

Well, it’s back to the tasting room. I’m hot to get started!

Top Five Hot Sauces
1. Scott’s of Jamaica “Hellfire” Hot Pepper Sauce (Scotch Bonnet)
2. St. John Spice Co. XXX Calypso Hot Sauce
3. Marie Sharp’s Habanero Pepper Sauce
4. Trinidad Charlie’s West Indian Pumpkin Pepper Sauce (the mild one of the bunch)
5. Everyday sauce – a tie between Texas Pete and Tabasco

Hottest Item Ever Consumed
While traveling in Spain at the age of 16, I bought a harmless looking tin of sardines. I didn’t know what “con piripiri” on the label meant. One day, after returning home, I opened the tin and bit into a sardine, not knowing that it was stuffed with a whole piri-piri. I died a thousand deaths and swore off spicy foods for the next 15 years.

Number of Hot Sauces Owned
Approximately 160 sauces from all over the world, many brought by traveling friends and relatives from as far away as Africa and Australia. I don’t collect any sauces – just open and enjoy the burn.

Other tidbits:
Favorite pepper for taste and heat: the Scotch Bonnet
Favorite pepper for good looks and heat: the Chocolate Habanero
Favorite mild pepper that I cook with: the Poblano
Most frequently eaten pepper: a grilled Cubanelle on top of my cheeseburger

Do I make my own? You bet! At the holidays, I bottle two kinds of condiments to give as gifts – first, I make Sherry Peppers, with Jalapenos, black peppercorns, pinch of sea salt, dash of rum, dash of sherry vinegar, and a base of good Spanish Amontillado Sherry. My other “sauce” is Habaneros and Serranos steeped in a secret blend of Apple Cider and Rice Vinegars, aged for at least 60 days. My last effort (Dec 2006) was the hottest ever, and was dubbed “The Brutal Batch”. It mellows over time. I use the Spanish “solera system” to age my sauces, whereby I keep adding peppers and liquid to the existing batch so that some of my bottles of sauce have components that are going on 12 years old.

Number of Sauces Eaten in My Lifetime:
I only started liking hot sauces 20 years ago, and loving sauces 10 years ago, but I estimate that I have consumed approximately 100% of my body mass in peppers and pepper products. To look at it another way, the number of Scoville Units consumed is in the Billions.