Posted March 11, 2006 by Nick Lindauer in Makers

Introducing: The Three Hot Tamales

Wayyyyy back in June of ’05 I received an email from “TheTwoHotTamales” requesting information for the HSB review process. I probably fired off our standard review request email and went on my merry way. Then November comes along and across my desk comes an email from Lisa of the Three Hot [tag]Tamales[/tag], again requesting information on the [tag]hot sauce[/tag] review process. Not knowing which Tamale originally emailed me – I sent off another of our standard emails. More time went by and nothing came to our door and frankly, I was busy with a bazillion other sauces.

Finally, the 2006 Fiery Foods Show rolled around and low and behold, the Three Hot Tamales were there. MSK and I rolled up to their booth on Friday and just looking at them I knew I was in trouble. Before I could even get my name completely out to Kristi, Lisa flew from the back of the booth with “Hey, your that guy from the blog! You never emailed me back!” Of course she was misinformed – apparently Jodie does some filtering of the emails or something that almost caused me some physical pain (ala Lisa).

But once we got that sorted out, Kristi sold me their entire line of products and Lisa began to forgive me. So, I got the SNS order in on Friday, before the hordes could descend and suck the Tamales dry – and it’s a good thing I did because they became the hit of the show. Fiery Food Shows tend to be male dominated in nature, so 3 girls in one booth with their own (award-winning) line of hot sauces created quite the stir.

As soon as we get the Tamales products on the Sweat ‘N Spice website, we’ll have full reviews of each here on the HSB – they are each quite deserving of their own spotlight. But let me tell you, these are some damn fine products. The Rub Me the Right Way was definitely my favorite rub all weekend (so many jokes…) and the Make Me Moan Mango Habanero definitely made my tongue stand up and take notice. None of their products are overly hot – but even without the hottest products at the show, the Tamales had the hottest booth hands down.

Notice the HSB on the laptop in the background?

The motto of their specialty food company, Three Hot Tamales, is: “We Make Grown Men Cry.”

But the Hot Tamales — three Garfield moms who couldn’t find enough spicy food in North Jersey — say their hot sauces won’t hit you like a blast furnace, because they don’t use searing capsaicin extract. Instead, fresh habañero and jalapeño peppers provide flavor first and then spice.

Co-owners Lisa Derr, Kristi Smith and Jodie Charney are proud that their Cry Baby sauce was judged No. 1 for 2006 in the habañero division by the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show and their Make Me Moan Mango grabbed third place in the fruit category. They launched their business in June.

On Sunday, after all the hoopla of the weekend MSK & I were dragged into the Tamales booth for a photo op. With 3 women telling us to get on our knees, I thought MSK’s head was going to explode. All weekend and he saves his biggest grin for last – girls you made the day for both of us.

They can’t get enough HSB!