HSBers Show Their Stuff at ZestFest!

Nick & the Ex (aka the wife)
Nick is the enabler behind this madness and the Ex lets him. 🙂 She’s just getting into the hot world folks, go easy!

John (aka huvason)
Everyone shout: Fat Kids Sauces!

Ryan (aka Angry Ryan or Angry Pepper)
Located in Oregon, Ryan is the man behind AngryPepper Graphixs. Some of his work includes the label design for Fat Kid Sauces.

Chris K & Kristi
The first couple to have met and become engaged via the HSB! Chris K has been a longtime commentor here and as a moderator has been dubbed “Chris K from the Blog”. Kristi is one of the Three Hot Tamales and Chris’s direct link to the inner workings of the hot sauce world.

Sonia (aka Mrs. Ryan or Sanyo)
The most “vocal” wife on the HSB, Mrs. Ryan deserves major props for putting up with all the drunks at ZF and for coming out with her own line of sauce under the Mischief moniker.

Eric (aka eman or Captain Capsacin)
Noted for his impressive collection of Blair’s bottles, eman has recently gone above all chileheads by giving his daughter the middle name “Blair”. eman is also the brains & brawn behind the Team HSB shirts that made an impressive showing at Zest Fest.

Paul (aka pmac)
Not the chilehead one would think, pmac can’t handle the hot stuff (unless it’s mrs. pmac 😉 ).

Paul (aka thebigshow)
Paul from CT, the man drove to ZestFest (and more then one Defcon Day). The man lives up to his blog name – he’s one big dude!

John (aka CaJohn or CJ)
CaJohn took home more awards then anybody at the show and produces the ultra sexy Caveat Emptor bottles. His wife, Sue, is actually Wicked Wanza.

Jim Campbell (aka buns o steel or mash maker to the stars)
Jim is the man behind the Red Savina Habanero, Open Fields and the majority of sauce makers mashes. He also just climbed a whopping 106,377 steps in the name of charity.

John (aka Creator or Defcon Creator)
A surprise visitor to Zest Fest, Creator flew is for one night just to hang with the chileheads before heading out the next day to cook wings for another event. John is the man behind Defcon Sauces and the semi-monthly Defcon Days, not to mention the glowing Zero Batch 3’s.

Vic & Wendy
Vic & Wendy’s hot sauce collection take up an entire room and then some, these folks drove all the way from Florida to enjoy Zest Fest.

Brian Moon (aka locolunabrian)
Brian is the man behind Loco Luna Hot Sauces (his Meet Your Maker interview can be seen here) and his first reserve debuted at Zest Fest. You may still be able to pick one up if you ask him real nice…

Aaron (aka picanteput)
The sleeper at the poker game, Aaron came all the way from Alabama and partied it up with the HSBers.

Randy (aka MSK or Teal)
MSK is the proud owner of the world’s largest signed hot sauce collection, some of which can be seen on his site MississippiSauceKing.Com. And I dare say, he has the most frequently signed head as well!

Doug (aka the truth)
The truth is behind Jersey Boyz Jerky (and chris k from the blog is behind him (well, sometimes))

Lisa (aka one hot tamale)
Lisa is 1/3 of the Three Hot Tamales team – and very generous in sharing Dougie with Chris K from the blog. And to top it all off, Lisa remained on the bull the longest (by a long shot) on Friday night.

Jodie
Hmm, what to say about Jodie? Well, she’s one of the Three Hot Tamales, along side Kristi and Lisa and she wears her ribbons proudly (can’t say anything else without getting in trouble) 😛

Steve (aka The 5th Tamale)
Steve has become the 5th Tamale, but I think he’s going to need a bigger shirt. He’s huvason’s brother by the way. Seen here with the wife (aka the 4th Tamale).

Danny Cash
The mohawk is real and the stories are true – Danny Cash & his crew liven up any party and prove it by teaching folks how to drink two beers at once!

Scotty B
The man behind Scotty B’s Hot Sauces – Scotty proudly took home two Golden Chiles and a 2nd place ribbon on Friday night and knowing his line of sauces, there’s plenty more to come.

Craig (aka Cheffy)
Cheffy drove down from Iowa and brought with him some of his delicious BBQ and BBQ Sauces. He’s the Cheffy behind Cactus Bob’s BBQ Corral (located in Iowa) and after tasting some of his BBQ, it’s definately worth a road trip!

Fernando
All the way from California, Fernando, Mrs. Fernando and Baby Armando were a blast to hang out with. Be careful with baby Armando though, he’s been trained to steal your beers 🙂

Jim
Jim has been a long time reviewer here on the HSB and as a Dallas local, he decided to pop into ZF and say hi to the crew.

John (aka Pepperman)
The only guy with the cajones to propose to his girlfriend (now his wife) in front of a room full of chileheads – he’s also the only guy that gets conned into wearing the Danny Cash Pepperman suit. But as a bonus, he’s got a belt to hold his beer!

Jack (aka AJ, or Arizona Jack)
The maker of eBay’s best selling jerky, Arizona Jack also has a strong penchant for poker and guitars. If your a major jerky consumer like some of us, just ask him to whip up an extra large batch (I’m talking 2lbs bags) and he’ll gladly help you out.

Mrs. Eman & Baby Isabella
A hot sauce collector in her own right, Mrs. eman deserves a medal for caring for a baby during ZF with all the craziness going on. Baby Isabella was definately one of the highlights of the show!

Dan (from BLP Labels)
The man looks like he’s 20 but in fact he’s 40! (so much for partying with chileheads making you look your age) If you need labels done right, check out BLP Labels and ask to speak to Dan or Mike.

Lee
Lee is a part of the Danny Cash crew and is infamous for trying CaJohn’s Black Mamba without listening to the warnings.

Steve (aka Chile Chef)
Steve is part of CaJohn’s crew and as the operations manager, he’s seen a lot of sauce in his day.

Travis (aka Scotty B Junior)
Travis worked his butt off during Zest Fest, manning Scotty B’s booth and lifting all those awards! He’s an HSBer in training (Scotty won’t quite let us take the kid out) and future sauce maker.

Captain Thom
Captain Thom makes the chilepepper keychains that HSBers are so fond of and he makes a killer smokey pepper vinegar (not to mention numerous other sauces and spices). His meet your maker interview can be found here.

Whew, there you have it folks – a semi-complete listing of all the HSBers at the show. This post took me almost 2 weeks to put together and if I didn’t get a picture of you up there, please send one in to add. I scoured all the pics sent in to date and hope I didn’t miss anyone, but if I did, just let me know and I’ll add you to it.