Lost in the (hot) sauce

Three Local Companies Turning Up The Heat By Carter Ferryman

Boulder might not be the first locale that comes to mind when you think of hot sauce, but you’d better think again. Our hamlet in the shadow of the Flatirons produces flavorful sauces for any palette, from those who recoil at the suggestion of heat to those who test the outer limits of their taste buds.

To give you a lay of the land, we talked to three local hot sauce makers about their origins, products and recommendations.

Harry Robertson was, among many other things, a “latchkey kid.”

Growing up without much supervision during the day, this bright-eyed kid in Alexandria, Virginia, had the world at his fingertips. Those fingers were used for growing and cooking. Learning the garden and the kitchen. Food — what he put into it and could get out of it — became a passion.

“He talked about a crazy idea of having a replacement stomach, so he could eat more on Thanksgiving,” his ex-wife, Bettsee Gotwald, says.

Thanksgiving was, unsurprisingly, Robertson’s favorite holiday. On that day in 2019, Robertson passed away. But he left a legacy inside an 5-ounce bottle that Gotwald and their son, Sam Robertson — a full- time engineering student at CU — as well as Gotwald’s boyfriend, DeForest Sessoms, carry on through The Boulder Hot Sauce Company that Robertson founded in 1996.

Robertson’s vision remains on the company’s website today: “I have been lucky to work with manufacturing partners that realized early that I would not yield my dream of a clean homemade product for the sake of ease or profit.”

“The hot sauces are made with the same fresh ingredients that they were first created with,” says Gotswald. “The small batch philosophy will always be an element of our hot sauces.”

Poblano, serrano and habanero peppers, fresh carrots, onions and garlic, all prepped, grilled, smoked and processed by hand; these six ingredients, first grown in a warm, plentiful south-facing garden in South Boulder at the home Gotwald and Robertson shared, are nearly all they’ve needed to create BHSC’s only two sauces in nearly 20 years of small-business magic: Smokey Serrano and Harry’s Habanero.

“Another testament to [Robertson’s] desire to provide flavorful hot sauces is the motto on the bottle: Use a spoon, not a toothpick,” Gotswald says.

On the first anniversary of Harry’s passing, a long-time fan emailed Bettsee and Sam, describing the first time he tasted Harry’s Habanero. In the message, the fan reminisces about a blind taste test held at the Daily Camera offices where, upon realizing the wooden toothpicks being used to try the sauces were interfering with the flavors, he suggested to the panel that they use plastic spoons from the coffee table instead.

“I don’t recall anyone took my advice,” the message from “Bob the Burn Master” reads. “I always smile when I see my words on the back of your bottle.” The logo also carries the phrase, “I always sweat like this!”

“Harry loved the heat of peppers and hot sauces,” Gotwald says. “His physical reaction was beaded sweat on his bald head when he’d eat something with a good amount of heat.”

The bottle, inside and out, is a love letter of sorts, made out to the ones carrying on Harry Roberton’s dream, to the community that continues to buy it, and to those little beads of sweat.

Gotwald’s recommendation: “The sauces really go well with almost anything. I love Smokey Serrano on eggs. Sam got the cooking gene from Harry and uses the hot sauce in most of his cooking, including a taco night for his fraternity a couple of weeks ago. Some restaurants have used it for their chicken wing recipe. One of Harry’s longtime friends has been known to put it on ice cream and popcorn.”