HOT SAUCES ARE HOT !

10 Hot Sauces That You May Have Never Heard Of

By: “Gameday” Steve Long, InsideTailgating.com

So you are an experienced tailgater and cook. You have competed in BBQ competitions, been the grillmaster for your tailgate, and have seen your fair share of grilling shows on TV. You are an expert at things like different cuts of meat, chicken, bbq, bbq sauces, and you might have all of the cool gadgets that go along with being a professional parking lot chef.

But what do you know about Hot Sauce?!

It is a condiment that is widely popular across the Tailgating Lots and perhaps the most used condiment in parking lot dares. You might know a good bit about the typical grocery store brands, but there is a complete world of hot sauces and brands that you may never have heard of.

Recently, it came to our attention that we actually have an expert hot sauce maker and pepper grower right in our own backyard! His name is Smokin’ Ed Currie, and he is the Founder of PuckerButt Pepper Company, which is just down the road from our offic es in Fort Mill, SC. He is a longtime pepper fanatic who started growing peppers to study their effects on cancer and heart disease. After a few years of study, Ed decided to take it to the next level by using his pepper knowledge to build his own hot sauce brand.

We had the chance to talk with him about what he has accomplished Smokin’ Ed Currie thus far and got the inside scoop on a few hot sauces you probably haven’t heard of. We also collected a few interesting stats on the elusive pepper and what makes them taste spicy and HOT. Oh, and did we mention that Ed holds the world record for growing the HOTTEST pepper ever? Yep. THE WORLD’S Hottest PEPPER!

A little background on Smokin’ Ed

from www.puckerbuttpeppercompany.com

In the early 80’s, Eddie Currie, Founder of the Pucker Butt Pepper Company, started investigating the possible correlation between personal lifestyle habits and disease. This overwhelming interest was born from Eddie’s family history of early death from heart disease and cancer. Eddie found that indigenous populations from around the world, who eat hot peppers with meals, have extremely small instances of these diseases, and this prompted his focus on peppers as a beneficial food alternative. Within two years, he was raising plants at the homes of family members and neighbors, with production reaching 800 gallons.

Over the years, Eddie’s passion, some might say obsession, for peppers has grown. He has created unique hot sauces, salsas, mustards, and jellies that are both delicious and healthy, and he now hasmore than 5,000 plants and 600 unique seed species. When his wife, Linda, realized what he was spending on growing seeds and canning pepper products, they both realized it was time to start charging for their product. And the rest, as they say, is history …The Pucker Butt Pepper Company was born. Since then, PBPC been getting some nationwide attention for Ed’s study and efforts. Smokin’ Ed has also recently been featured on CBS for his work on using peppers to help cure cancer.

You can find his video on CBS.com, as well as on our site at insidetailgating.com.

Myth: MILK is a good way to help eliminate the stinging effects of hot sauce and peppers.

Ed grows peppers for hundreds of hot sauce and spice companies. His peppers have gone into the recipes of spicy products that have been making mouths burn across the U.S. But there is one pepper in particular that is giving him some attention from the chilihead community, the media, andGuinness (World Record Guinness, not the Stout Guinness). His Carolina Reaper has been measured in by laboratories to reach a mouth blazing 1.6 Million SHV (you’ll find out more about SHV a little later).

During our conversation with Smokin’ Ed, he told us a little about the hot sauce and pepper culture. Fans of the hot spice industry, appropriately called “Chiliheads,” help to promote the industry in a cult-like fashion by frequently attendingfestivals, fairs, and putting some of the hottest sauces in the world in their mouths. Chiliheads support hot sauce makers by sacrificing their mouths and tongues, and... they LOVE it! As a matter of fact, when you eat a hot pepper or hot sauce, the capsaicin actually helps to release endorphins into the bloodstream, which is the same chemical that people get from seeing their team score a touchdown. So needless to say it can be addictive.

We are going to give you a rundown of 10 hot sauces that you may never have heard of before and open your eyes to new sauces and products that will surely delight the guests at your tailgate (or make their eyes water). You never know, you might be able to get your crazy friend Dave to challenge himself with one of the hottest sauces he’s ever tasted! But before we dive into some of these “underground’ hot sauces let us explain a little about the science and chemistry of the pepper and how it gives hot sauce that spicy taste.

So…What Makes a Pepper HOT ?

Fact: Spice heat is measured by a process that uses high performance liquid chromatography or HPLC.

We hope you are ready to learn something! The heat sensation from a pepper depends on the amount of capsaicin compounds in the pepper. Chiliheads and experts in the spice industry express that heat sensation in “Scoville Heat Value” units, or SHV. Chemists use what is called High Performance Liquid Chromatography to determine the Scoville Heat Value of each test subject or in this case…pepper. Pure capsaicin has a Scoville Heat Value of 16 million, and you can’t and shouldn’t eat it straight. Like we mentioned before, Smokin’ Ed has a pepper hybrid that he has developed called the Carolina Reaper that has clocked in with a SHV of 1.6 million.

Check out how some of the widely known peppers stack up on the Scoville Scale compared to Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper:

Banana Pepper

100-900

Jalapeño Peppers

3,000-5,000

Habanero Peppers

250,000

Ghost Pepper

500,000-600,000

Law Enforcement Grade Pepper Spray:

1,500,000–2,000,000

PuckerButt’s Carolina Reaper Pepper:

1,600,000

Fact: If you find yourself in a scurry to eliminate the effects of a hot sauce burn, lime or lime Juice is actually much better for eliminating the effects of a hot pepper blitzkrieg. The citric acid in limes helps break up the molecules that make you wanna cry. Grapefruit juice works as well.

Although he is the proud owner of Puckerbutt Pepper Company, Ed was happy to share his knowledge with us about a variety of hot sauces Chiliheads should try. “We’re all one big family,” he said, citing the camaraderie that goes along with being in the business, where each sauce maker is happy to help another out and dedicated to seeing each other succeed.

So…are you ready to hear about some hot sauces that you might have never heard of before? These are in no particular order, but since you are getting good hot sauce recommendations from an expert in the field, you should probably try them. Every one of these is unique in their own way, and each one has a flavor that you will just have to try for yourself. You can find these sauces in PuckerButt’s brick and mortar store, but we’ve listed them as well as their brief description and price along with where you can find these excellent hot sauce brands online. Check them out!

10 Hot Sauces You Should Try

1 Surge of Sandy from Born to Hula: This hot sauce comes straight outta New Jersey. It’s blend combines “tomatoes, onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, and oregano, with the surge of Trinidad Scorpion and Bhut Jolokia” (two of the hottest peppers in the world). If you’ve never thought about putting a firehose to your mouth and turning it on, you will now because this sauce will certainly flood your taste buds with heat! $10 at borntohula.com

2 98 Octane from Race City Sauceworks: This pepper sauce is packed with pure natural chile flavor and a solid dose of heat. We aren’t sure how they did it, but RCSW has “successfully balanced the extreme spice of the Ghost Pepper with a blend of spices, lemon zest, and a few other spicy goodies” to bring you the perfect all natural heat source for your gameday meals. Would you like to add a side of flames to go along with your hotdog? Be careful…this is close. $5.99 racecitysauceworks.com

3 Edible Lava from PuckerButt Pepper Company: The name says it all, and it couldn’t be a more appropriate description. This sauce is a blend of the world’s 5 most powerful peppers that judging by the heat, should have been grown straight on the side of a volcano. If you are an inexperienced chilihead, take warning, it’s hotter than you think. $8

4 7o8 7 Pot Citrus Hot Sauce from Big Fat’s Hot Sauce: This unique sauce has a burst of citrus flavor that comes intertwined with a euphoric combination of other delightful spices and ingredients. Try some and just when you think it’s over, the “exquisite wave of heat from fresh Trinidad 7 Pot Peppers” arrives to knock you straight out of your fold up chair. It might knock your tailgate tent down too. $6.49 at bigfatshotsauce.com

5 Bumblef**cked from Bumblefoot: That’s right. The guitarist from Guns N’ Roses has started his own hot sauce line and is cookin’ up some hot sauce like a rockstar should. Bumblef**cked has “a tropical fruit & ginger flavor, followed by a sledgehammer of caffeine & ginseng.” Definitely crank up the volume on your gamedays with this heart-pounder of a hot sauce and let your taste buds jam out with a few awesome air guitar riffs. $15 at bumblefoot.com

6 I Dare You Stupit from Puckerbutt Pepper Company: This hot sauce is made with one of Smokin’ Ed’s experimental capsaicin pepper hybrids and probably shouldn’t be allowed through TSA checkpoints. A leading university evaluated its SHU to be over 1.4 million on the Scoville Scale. The taste of this is two-fold. The ingredients are “layered in rice vinegars so you can taste it first, and feel the delicious burn second.” We double dare you. $12 at puckerbuttpeppercompany.com

7 El Chupacabra from CaJohns: The Chupacabra may be a mythical creature, but this sauce isn’t. However, after trying it, you might see a few Chupacabras running around your tailgate. Imagine “several of the the ultra-hot peppers like the Trinidad Scorpion, Moruga, and Bhut Jolokias mashed together with spices to create a deadly sauce called El Chupacabra.” If you like your food just a little spicy, then you shouldn’t try this. This is for experienced hallucinators only. $15 at cajohns.com

8 Blueberry Hell from Hellfire Hot Sauce: You think the rivers in hell are orange? You might be wrong. After seeing and tasting Blueberry Hell with its unique deep bright burgundy color, you can only imagine that the those rivers have deep bright burgundy color. Blueberry Hell is unique in a sense that it provides an initial sweet taste of blueberries followed by the intense heat of a bhut jolokia pepper and then back to the sweet taste of blueberries. Crazy ain’t it?! What’s crazier is that some chili connoisseurs put it on their ice cream! $9.99 at hellfirehotsauce.com

9 1498 Cauterizer from Heartbreaking Dawns: If you know what a cauterizer is, then you are probably a doctor or can get a sense of what this hot sauce is all about. The Heartbreaking Dawns highly anticipated 1498 Cauterizer is an excellent hot sauce that is actually a step up from the original batch. The difference now is that they have taken the original exceptional flavor of 1498, and recreated it with 100% fresh Trinidad Scorpion Peppers. How awesomely hot is that? Have YOU ever added Trinidad Scorpion Peppers to anything? Didn’t think so. $9.99 at heartbreakingdawns.com

10 Hellacious Hot from High River Sauces: This sauce is about as hellacious (in a good way) as a swift kick in the mouth with a burning shoe, but yet it is robust and bold with expressive flavor. With the combination of peppers and a variety of spices, this sauce will send you straight to the nearest river to stick your face in only to open your mouth and scream. On the bright side, Hellacious Hot is “devilishly addictive to your taste buds and goes great on your burgers, steak, chicken, pork and pizza.” $5.99 at highriversauces.com

There are a vast amount of hot sauces out there to choose from. But as you can see, adding some new flavor at the tailgate this season won’t break the bank!

So, if you are trying to break out from the flavor norm this football season, try picking up a few bottles of the ones we’ve listed. You might just impress your taste buds as well as your tailgate buds! Enjoy!

Check out more Food & Drink at: insidetailgating.com