Colorado hot sauce makers on the rise as sales soar, ‘Hot Ones’ goes mainstream – Greeley Tribune

Dawn Carver (left) and Victoria Hyche (both with Vision Foods) work on bottling Electric Lime hot sauce for Colorado-based sauce company Merfs at Vision Foods’ production facility in Colorado Springs on June 17, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

Even in their college days, Kelly Schexnaildre scoffed at the thin, vinegary hot sauces commonly available in restaurants and supermarkets, including brands like Tabasco. They wanted bold, fresh flavors that surprised and delighted the gastronomic palate.

So they started making them themselves.

Schexnaildre never expected the hot sauce industry to become one of the fastest growing in the food world, or one that would evolve into one where more than a dozen competitors would emerge from Colorado.

“When I started it in 2014, there were maybe 25 or 30 hot sauce companies in the entire U.S.,” says Schexnaildre, now 37 and CEO of Colorado-based Merfs Condiments (named after the family’s 13-year-old basset hound).

“Now there are about 500 to 600,” Schexnaildre said.

Behind the growth is a mix of self-starter chefs, adventurous eaters, retail expansion and the trendy “Hot Ones” series, which challenges celebrities to tackle a gauntlet of 10 increasingly painful sauces while answering questions posed by host Sean Evans. The show launched on YouTube in 2015 and now has 13.5 million subscribers; recent episodes have featured Will Smith, Jennifer Lawrence, Pedro Pascal and Shakira, with between 1 million and 16 million views per episode.

“I call it the Oprah’s Book Club of the hot sauce world,” said David Delcourt, founder of Boulder’s Seed Ranch Flavor Co., which featured his Hot Thai Green sauce on Season 11 of “Hot Ones.” “You’re suddenly a household name and now you end up in supermarket chains and sports stores.”

Achieving the “Hot Ones” seal of approval is the goal of many hot sauce companies, said Shaun Goodwin, founder of Sauce Leopard in Denver. His savory Seventh Reaper, which is inspired by Argentinian red chimichurri sauce, appeared in Hot Ones Season 18 and has sold out at the Denver Christkindlmarket booth most years.

“Our (approach) from the beginning has been to be plugged into the local scene,” said Goodwin, a former bartender whose company also sponsors music events and skating competitions.

Now, Sauce Leopard can be found in more than 300 stores in six countries, Goodwin said, with sales growing 50 percent year-over-year. Like other hot sauce makers interviewed by The Denver Post, he declined to share sales figures. But they’re certainly impressive, since some makers also sell their wares in dedicated, local hot sauce aisles at King Soopers and Safeway.

Shaun Goodwin, founder of Sauce Leopard, sits on top of boxes of bottles of hot sauce ready to be shipped. (Provided by Sauce Leopard)

Colorado’s carousel of high-quality hot sauces can be dizzying, with most competing directly with one another online and in stores. A far-from-exhaustive list includes not only Merfs, Sauce Leopard, and Seed Ranch, but also Danny Cash, Quarantine Project, Yampa Valley Sauce Co., Purple Blaze, Horsetooth, Good Good, Redlaw, Burns & McCoy (which had a few of its hot sauces featured on “Hot Ones”), Chipporo, Wild Green, Reaper Robs, Cooper’s Small Batch, and Boulder Hot Sauce.

Colorful labels and extreme names like Bird Blood, Hand Grenade and Dieselbones betray the general mood of the industry’s marketing, which doesn’t take itself too seriously except when it comes to ingredients, flavor and Scoville units – or the amount of heat-conducting capsaicinoids.

The novelty of the trend even reached a second mayoral election debate in May 2023, with current Denver Mayor Mike Johnston debating then-candidate Kelly Brough as they ate spicy chicken wings together served by the Fire on the Mountain restaurant in Denver, according to the event page.

It’s a long way from the 1980s, when raspberry vinaigrette was all the rage. Back then, bottled hot sauce was just a modest condiment, with annual sales of $40 million.

Now it’s a nearly $3 billion annual concern, with revenue expected to double by 2032, according to a March report from Fortune Business Insights. The category has grown by more than $700 million over the past decade as Millennials and Gen Z consumers embraced sriracha and other spicy chili pepper-derived flavors, analysts said. It also ties in with a movement towards all-natural, organic and vegetarian foods.

“There’s been a lot of growth that has come out of COVID,” said Delcourt, whose Seed Ranch Flavor Co. sells more than a dozen types of hot sauces. “People lost their jobs and started trying recipes at home, only to see their (hot sauces) sold out at markets and online. That has leveled off, but it has certainly become the new normal.”

Like others, Delcourt started selling his kitchen-made experiments in small batches—in this case, at the Boulder Farmers Market in 2017—focusing on hot, unusual flavors and artisanal recipes over bland, crowd-pleasing versions. Sales soared as people cooked more at home during the pandemic. He now sells bottles of Everything But the Taco Hot Sauce around the world, including at specialty shops like Fort Collins’s quirky Hot Sauce Realm.

Kelly Schexnaildre started Merfs Condiments in 2014 after testing out recipes in her kitchen because she was unhappy with most “thin, vinegary” hot sauces. (Provided by Merfs Condiments)

As with most producers, prices range from about $11 to $17 a bottle. Delcourt is struggling to keep up with orders for sauces like Peach Cayenne, which are currently sold out.

Hot sauces and salsas date back to the Aztecs, and spicy dishes are common in traditional cuisines around the world, from Indian vindaloo dishes to Thai hot curries. It’s just that thrill-seekers have found a way to turn it into a social media endurance test, as well as a food trend.

Countless YouTube and TikTok videos show risk-takers, usually men, eating raw chili peppers and challenging themselves not to drink milk or water — with predictably messy results. But the macho side of hot sauce culture is both exclusionary and irrelevant, Schexnaildre said, because one-upmanship can only go so far that flavors are lost in the process.

“I’ve sent ‘Hot Ones’ six or seven different packages and now get no response no matter what I try,” Schexnaildre said. “I don’t know if it’s a boys-only club and I’m not allowed, but it’s disappointing.”

That hasn’t stopped Merfs and other hot sauce makers from catering to fans and evolving beyond their original flavors, after finding success with bestsellers like Electric Lime and Jamberry Sriracha (both Merfs recipes). Seed Ranch is expanding this summer with the launch of the first Rocky Mountain Barbecue Sauce, made with a sweet-and-smoky puree of Palisade peaches and other flavors.

“I love the richness and diversity of having so many players in the game. It encourages all of us to be more creative and specific with our flavors,” Schexnaildre said. “Of course, I wish the market was a little less saturated so I could sell more hot sauce.”