Written by Voodoo Chile Sauces owner Thom Toth

How I Got Started in Hot Sauce

As a hobby, it was a natural transition from making salsa and marinades. More specifically, a small sauce maker back in the 90's made a killer pineapple sauce that I fell in love with; sadly, they went out of business. My neighbor at the time, a chef, suggested that my pineapple marinade that I mostly used on shrimp and wings would make a bodacious hot sauce if I thickened it up and put some habanero peppers in it. That became Psycho Tropic.

As for professionally, it was the success of Porcus Infernum that started it all. 

My Hot Sauce Operation and Most Popular Sauce

"Operation," is a pretty fluid term for us! {laughs} We are still a tiny company with a small warehouse on one side of town and separate office space on the other. Will, Rose & I spend almost every weekend from April 1st through the end of November on the road, trying to build brand identity.  

As for bottling, all of our in-distribution products are handled by a bottling partner whom I trust implicitly with our recipes. They do an amazing job for us!!!! As for our own kitchen and automated bottling equipment, we're working towards that, but for now, our limited edition products are done in rented space, one bottle at a time with a hand pump filler. 

Most Popular? 

Porcus has been our flagship, the spin-off sauces (Bacon Taco, Bacon-X and Bloody Roots) have also done exceptionally well. 

An interesting fact on something unique you know about Chile Peppers, Hot Sauce, or the Industry

Interesting question ... hmm.

Let's stick with hot sauce. For starters, if a sauce has more than the traditional 5 ingredients -- chile peppers, vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic -- it is NOT a "Sriracha" sauce; that's a fact. The world-famous chef and recognized expert on Thai cuisine, David Thompson, would know better than anyone I have ever met, and he has stated as much. So, any sauce with fruit or tomato or anything else in it that carries the name Sriracha is less than disingenuous. May as well slap some fried chicken gizzards on a plate and tell people, "That's my take on Foie Gras!" 

As for "unique" ... I think our bacon hot sauces are unique in their flavor profiles. Oh, and as people are starting to learn, we know beer!