Craft Hot Sauce Podcast with Mikey V on cooking hot sauce and his west coast roots
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Mikey V's Maker Story
My passion for salsa and sauces started when I was about 13 years old. I wasn't like every other kid. I always had a job of some sort, like a paper route, mowing grass etc. I would use the money I earned from these jobs to buy hot sauces at my local hot sauce store. While my buddies were buying video games or baseball cards, I was buying hot sauce. Fast forward 20+ years... I moved to Austin, Texas and my brother dared me to enter my "family famous" hot sauce into the Austin Hot Sauce Festival's competition. I did, and I won first place! At that point, I decided to launch my company.
I currently manufacture all of my 25 products in my 3000 square foot kitchen. We have a variety of products such as hot sauces, shelf stable salsa, all fresh and natural refrigerated salsas, beef jerky, spicy pickles, BBQ sauces, seasonings, and dip mixes. I also co-pack for 6 other companies besides my own. My most popular sauce is my Sweet Ghost Pepper Sauce. It's my most versatile sauce, commonly described as a sweet and savory sauce with a good kick!
The other side of my business is that I own and operate a hot sauce shop in beautiful Georgetown, Texas! We are coming up on our second year in business, and are having a blast! We not only carry local, Texas-made products, but award-winning products from all over the world!
Several times throughout the year, I hold a hot sauce/salsa making class at my commercial kitchen! It's a 3-hour course where we learn about the history of hot sauce, current trends, then we make hot sauces customized to the student's palette.
Fun Hot Sauce Fact: As you age, you lose a large percentage of your taste buds which makes eating very boring and bland. Spicy foods are a cool way to liven up your food and wake up those taste buds.
