Jim from Mild to Wild has been posting a few comments here on the HSB and teasing us with his collection. Finally, he sent in photographic proof of the famed Beyond Death. Sorry eman.
Pic one is typical of my collection- just a random assortment of sauces stuck on a shelf. As you can see in the right corner though, most of them are signed. I’m particularly fond of the Hellenback as its’ premier was made entirely of my Red Savina® Habaneros. They and Blair were my first two commercial chile pepper buyers. The bottle is signed by both of the Two Chefs (Eric Walton & Bev Coit). Tragically, Eric died about a year later. That one is priceless to me.
Pic two is more of the same 🙂 The small, unlabeled bottle next to the Blown Away is CaJohn’s pre-release beta test of the Mamba. The Pepper Smack (two to the left) is from the first batch that I made for John and uses a bottle style that has been long discountinued for that sauce.
Bottom shelf are goodies that ChileHeads from around the world occasionally send me. The two vials on the third shelf (back towards right) contain analytical grade, technically pure Capsaicin (16 mil).
And yes, I’ve tried it 🙂
Pic three contains some of the more valuable items, including ‘the’ bottle (top right). The bottom row of Blairs stuff is all signed. The Blown Away (initial release) was done with my chiles as I believe was the Possible Side Effects. Part of the price of doing business with me over the years is that I’ve requested the sauce makers who use my chiles to send me a signed bottle of their creation. This has numbered well into the hundreds. As a result, many of them were just given away to make room for more. I believe that is what happened to most of my Dave’s signed stuff. Little did I know 🙂 Bottom right (beneath some of my awards) is a #278 signed 2 AM. I believe I had them from about #272 to #284 but gave most of them away to help promote Blairs’ stuff. That’s what also happened to the 8 or 10 cases of Beyond Death that I had back in the mid 1990’s. Sorry eman 🙂
Pic four is the bottle, I guess. You can see the Blair signature just above a note by him that says ‘no more’ I believe and just below ‘worlds last’. Blair was one of my very first chile pepper customers. Back in those days (early 90’s?) I’d essentially get paid for the chiles in sauce which I would then sell to make my money. I was particularly fond of the Beyond Death, believing it to be the best tasting extract sauce I’d ever come across. I was pushing it pretty heavy when Blair informed me that he was going to discontinue it to make room in the line for the Sudden Death. I asked him how much he had left and bought all 27 cases remaining. He almost immediately bought 4 cases back for a market place in Boston? that threatened him. I kept one bottle and pretty much disposed of the rest through the years, telling him I was keeping one for him to sign as the last should I ever get the chance to finally meet him in person. I finally met up with him a couple of years later at the Fiery Foods Show in ABQ and the deed was done. With the stroke of a pen, emans doom was set, little beknowst to us all 🙂
Pic five shows part of the rail that lines the top of my office, as well as a portion of my products sitting ready for mail order. Of note on the top rail is a *ton* of signed CaJohns stuff on labels & bottle types that are no longer used. Out of site is a near entire case of his ‘Liquid Ax’ with the Suncoast Pepper labels still- that sauce was discontinued ages ago. Phamous Phloyds early BBQ sauce is signed in the center (above the CaJohns clock). To the far right (red & yellow label) is a signed bottle of Alternative Medicine by Mary Going (the original Fire Girl). I made that sauce for her. You can also see a bit of my fire department stuff. The white hard hat on the right was worn by a poice officer at ground zero. He sent it to me along with his duty jacket. The beat up fire helmet next to that is the one I wore to work for years (till I was promoted and given a new one). Going in order to the left is an antique one from Denmark, and old one from England, and an antique one from these parts. I’ve probably as much fire department collectable stuff as hot sauce 🙂
What makes my collection a bit unique I guess, is that I’m connected to nearly every single sauce you see in the pictures. I’ve either sold them the chiles for their sauce, bottled the sauce as a co-packer for them, and/or let them private label one of my sauces as their own.
Probably the most famous person you’ve never heard of 🙂