ZestFest Midwest gets a much-needed alliance to help power the show. You can see the full transcript of the press release here:

Zestfest Midwest press FINAL

Another chilehead star begins his assault, and ultimate domination, of the entertainment industry. Friend of the blog Johnny McLaughlin (of Heartbreaking Dawns) will be appearing on Crowd Rules 101″ Specialty Foods tomorrow night, Tuesday, May 14 at 9PM ET/PT. Please tune in and watch and see how well that Johnny can do. Good luck, Johnny!

98 Octane Ghost Pepper Wing Sauce by Race City Sauce Works hits a TRIPLE!!

Ingredients: Hot sauce [Bhut jolokia (ghost pepper,) cider vinegar, 7 pot chile, Chocolate habanero, yellow jolokia, roasted garlic, cayenne chile, white vinegar, lemon zest, pasilla chile, onion, spices, lemon juice, sea salt,] butter

Although not specifically labeled as such, this wing sauce is essentially a combination of the 98 Octane Ghost Pepper Reserve hot sauce and butter. Yes, it’s really that simple of a combination. A wing sauce does not have to be an amalgamation of unpronounceable ingredients to be good or worthy of your attention. This sauces shows why.

Disclaimer: I did not cook up my own chicken wings for this…yes, I’m THAT lazy. I took an order of one dozen wings from a local wing franchise (rhymes with “PW3″) and did a quick mix at home, then warmed it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes to let the sauce bake in to the wings.
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The New York City Hot Sauce Expo was a huge success with huge risk. There is an inherent cautiousness with a new industry show coming from a variety of people; these being organizers, vendors, media and visitors. The organizer was new, in this instance Steve Seabury from High River Sauces. The venue was new both in specific location (East River State Park) and general location (New York City). With those two aspects alone you had vendors, media and visitors wondering how this would turn out. We would like to share what we thought was good, bad and everything in between.

First, for a first of a kind show, Steve Seabury did a magnificent job. We talked with many of the vendors and most did very well, if not great. Steve was attentive to detail and was accommodating to everyone to the best of our observation and knowledge. If you had a question or concern and talked with him about it, it was taken care of…period! What you may not have known is that one of his other events changed dates at the last minute after the Hot Sauce Expo was set up so he literally was going from one to the other every day, putting every waking breath into both at the expense of sleep and food. We have never seen a harder working man keep his cool under such stressors. But, that’s Steve for you.

Now on to the show…
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Rather than bore our legions of readers with our pithy comments, we’ll just offer up a bunch of pictures from this past event. If you did not attend….well, you SHOULD have. Much fun had by all, from attendees to vendors. Hell, even the bloggers had fun!
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The Screaming Mi Mi’s.

Louisiana Style: 3rd Lizard’s on the bayou, 2nd Volcanic Peppers Chocolate Lightening, 1st CaJohn Firehouse

Fruit Based: 3rd Hellfire Hot Sauces Blueberry Hell, 2nd Frankie V’s Serrano Hot Sauce, 1st Dirty Dicks Hot Pepper Sauce

Fruit Based Hot: 3rd Big Fat’s 708, 2nd Race City Sauce Works The Awakening, 1st Hellfire Hot Sauce Devil’s Gold

Jalapeño: 3rd Tats Sauces Ghost Town, 2nd Boom Boom Hot Sauce Salvy Sousa, 1st Northwest Elixirs #2

Habanero: 3rd Northwest Elixirs #1, 2nd Heartbreaking Dawns 1542, 1st Rippin Red Forbidden Angel

Scorpion: 3rd CaJohn’s Moruga Madness, 2nd Heartbreaking Dawns 1492, 1st Mild to Wild Ralph’s Righteous Scorpion

Pepper Blend: 3rd Race City Sauce Works Pure Genius, 2nd Mild to Wild Ghost Garlic, 1st Red Canyon Spice The Rapture Hot Sauce

Best Label: 3rd Northwest Elixirs , 2nd Puckerbutt, 1st Frankie V’s

Novelty Hot Sauce: 3rd Puckerbutt The Reaper, 2nd Henry Family Farm Naga Jolokia, 1st Tom’s Rippin Red

People’s Choice:

When asked to review The Carlsbad Tavern, in Scottsdale, Arizona for The Hot Zone Online I was ecstatic. The restaurant is known for purporting a reputation of a burger so spicy that it “may cause temporary blindness or loss of hearing.” This burger goes by simply, the Habanero Cheeseburger. I was excited I had the opportunity to try this fabled burger.

The restaurant is located off of the 101 freeway just north of the 60, so it’s in a prime location for anyone in the Phoenix area. When driving up to the restaurant the first time I missed the turn, as I was expecting it to be part of a large shopping division also I’m a speedy driver, but made a U-turn at the next light and got to the restaurant fine. It is located at about the halfway point of Hayden road and has its own parking lot. My first impression of the restaurant was that it looked less impressive than I would think. Its exterior was the same terra-cotta tans and browns that are so common in the Phoenix area and the only lights were of the entrance: two flanking lights on each pillar and the name CARLSBAD TAVERN on the archway as well as a sign under the arch that stated “New Mexican Grub”.

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Tears of the Sun by High River Sauces hits a DOUBLE!!

Ingredients: Habanero Peppers, Peaches, Papaya, Pineapple, Mango, Cider Vinegar, Brown Sugar, Ginger, Red Pepper, Salt and Garlic.

Very tasty sauce with slightly limited use due to the fruity nature of the sauce. We

expected a bigger fruit hit based on ingredients, but it is a very good sauce regardless. Additionally, we expected the fruitiness to be there in the aroma of the sauce, but were surprised to get more of a vinegar aroma than the sauce brought to the table in flavor. Excellent consistency matching its name, label and coloring. It certainly brightened our day. We hope it does for you as well.

Tears of the Sun had one of the better labels we have seen, with our eyes being drawn to it over others, the name being clear and consistent with the type and taste of the sauce and generally beautiful art work.

This sauce hit a solid DOUBLE!!

Hellacious Hot Sauce by High River Sauces hits a

TRIPLE!!!

Ingredients: Habanaro Peppers, Vinegar, Agava, Chipotle Peppers, Lime Juice and Garlic.

Fantastic sauce! We consider this to be a very high utility sauce. We particularly like it with red meats, but it also compliments many other proteins and vegetables. As Joe says, “It’s like A-1 on steroids.” A tad on the salty side, this is certainly the perfect remedy for those who encounter too many bland foods in the average day. The more we talked about it and used it (you can tell there is quite a bit missing from the pic), the more useful we found it to be. Definitely our favorite sauce from High River Sauces and something everyone should try! Looking forward to what they bring to the table in the future.

This one was most certainly a TRIPLE!!!

If you haven’t done so already, you should really check out High River Sauces website.

Grapes of Wrath Hot Sauce by High River Sauces hits a DOUBLE!!

Ingredients: Habanero Peppers, Grape Juice, Cabernet Wine, Pineapple, Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, Apple, Red Cabbage, Lime, Ginger, Honey, Brown Sugar, Garlic, Hot Cherry Pepper, Ghost Pepper, Scorpion Pepper, Jalapeño Pepper, Serrano Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Spice Mix

Our initial impression was an impressive fruit and spice aroma from this dark-as-grape-juice appearing hot sauce. However, this sauce has at least one issue: consistency. This sauce wants to separate, and this fact makes it often pour out a little watery and often with clumps of fruit goodness to follow. From an aesthetic and practical appeal, this doesn’t exactly work. What DOES work is the mixture of sweet and heat. Despite the impressive mixture of fruits and sugar, it is definitely hotter than you would expect it to be. The taste really hits you with a chile pepper “bite,” but not before you can actually appreciate how fruity it is…in a good way. Linda thought it would be an IDEAL sauce to pour over ice cream. I liked it for the appeal that a seasonal sauce might give you with its taste profile…good with gamey meats or perhaps something

to give your Thanksgiving feast that chile pepper schwerve.

A looping line drive down the

right field line. We rated it as a Double. Enjoy!