We’ve talked to John on thehotpepper.com site for a number of months now, and it was obviously just a matter of time before we were able to squeeze the DEFCON wing sauces into our schedule of culinary chaos. Little did he know of our weakness when it comes to tasting buffalo wing sauce. LOL! We appreciate John and Mrs. DEFCON Creator (aka Maggie) for sending us some of the tasty organics which crawled out of the lab, and into our mailbox. Thanks, guys!
Tell us a little about your humble beginnings making wing sauces. Hell, if they’re not-so-humble, tell us about that too.
Well, I started making wings about 12 years ago. I was intrigued by the taste and felt I could make them. Man, I really came out with some heinous stuff in the first couple of tries. After a while though, things started tasting a bit better than steaming roadkill, and I started making them for our annual Superbowl parties. During the year each year a few friends would always ask if I could make them a batch of sauce for a party they were throwing…I had no problem doing it. A little over a year ago, a good friend of mine asked me over a couple of beers, “Hey man, why don’t you try selling this stuff, people love it.”. Well, I gave it a shot, and here we are, owners of the best wing sauce of 2006, sales in over 20 states and as of recently overseas, and we’re having a ball making this stuff. It kind of ironic too, my wife can’t handle ANYTHING hot, she considers herself Mrs. Oppenheimer…In her words “She only builds the bomb, she doesn’t drop it”. Well, I guess that makes me Evil Uncle Oppenheimer, and yeah, I have a fully loaded B-52, and the bombay doors are open.
We picture your workings in the home lab as Young Frankenstein meets Doc Brown (from Back to the Future) meets Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. How is the creative process for you?
I was the quintessential chemical tinkerer / midnight alchemist at a very early age, hence the shape of our sauce bottles. This fascination has carried into this day and age, as you can see by the pics I sent. You should be able to find me at the Fiery Foods Show, I think I’ll stand out a bit.
As for our home lab, our early R&D days were just that. Hell, there was a time, when screwing around with extracts, I would take a breather. I’d walk out the deck, raise my goggles, lower my respirator, and light up a butt. I got strange looks from our neighbors, as if we had a meth lab in the basement. Habanero dust in every nook and cranny of the house, 25 different vinegars in the spice cabinet, perpetual watery eyes, and the infamous 2 gallon ceramic pot on the stove, awaiting the next batch to be created. Things may have gotten a little more hi-tech and commercially zoned as of late, but ahhhh the early days, whose rough and determined attitude still drives us today. In my opinion, Nature was built to play with. As I stated on www.thehotpepper.com, my capsaicin-based homunculus who lives in the crisper of my refrigerator is proof of that.
There are quite a few wing sauces out there, so what makes yours different/better/more desirable than some others?
Some others? As we see it, it’s currently as ALL others, LOL! Well, we have stuck with the original formulae, and haven’t screwed around with the recipes at all, unlike many other sauces out there. As I said before, I’ve been making this stuff for 12 years for Superbowl parties, I guess you could see that as 12 straight years of test marketing (with a very rough and critical crowd), and the fact that more and more people come for the wings than the game every year, we have to be doing something right. Nothing like empirical data gathered from a Superbowl party.
How shocked were you to receive a Scovie Award? What did you think your chances were when you sent your stuff in to be judged?
Considering my wife wanted to have me committed during my “happy dance” after receiving the phone call, we were pretty excited. We actually won 2, which made it that much sweeter. We didn’t have any idea we’d win, given the number of wing sauces out there, and the fact that many of them have been around since the original creation of the Buffalo Wing. We expected at most a mere honorable mention of some sort, but to win the trophy for the actual category we truly wanted was flat out awesome. 2006 will be a year we ride the wave, so to speak, and intend many public appearances, from big shows, to “Defcon Days” at local drinking establishments. We at Defcon Sauces are committed to what we make, and from the results in the last year, I think were on the right track. Our first business plan was simple, to pay for half of an upcoming 2007 Shelby Mustang GT 500. Well, now that we are on the map, we now want to replace every bottle of hot sauce in every bar in the United States with ours. Just like our motto states, “Future Rulers of Earth”. Ahhh, global domination, what a rush!
With the most recent product, the Defcon 0 sauce, being your hottest yet, can we expect to start to see bottles with negative integers soon? Other new stuff?
It’s kinda weird, the ZERO stuff has taken off like a rocket. I had no idea that would happen. It takes a LONG time to make a batch of that stuff, as we refuse to use any machines to create our extracts, it’s all hands on (with really thick rubber gloves) and COMPLETELY natural, unlike a vast majority of extracts out there. Our immediate idea for this line of Defcon is to just make it hotter and hotter as we go along, but the negative integers might happen as well, we’ll have to wait and see. Our next release of ZERO might be ready for the Fiery Foods show in March, so we may release it there first, for collectors’ sake, in some REALLY cool packaging.
Other new stuff we’re encompasses the very complex use of our own extracts. We are currently working on two Defcon variations for possible production, horseradish and wasabi. Since we’re using our own extracts, we can keep the original color and texture of the sauce, which we find kind of cool. These will be a while in the making, but, if we choose to put them into production, we can guarantee they’ll be good. So far, the horseradish stuff is truly mind-numbing. The vapors alone will get rid of the worst guest that won’t leave. Who knows, one guy uses our #3 sauce on his plants for deer repellant (and they haven’t returned in 2 years), maybe our ZERO extract will eventually cure the common cold, it certainly is hot enough (yeah, pun intended).
Awards
The Defense Condition 2 was a 1st place winner and the Defense Condition 1 was a 3rd place winner at the 2006 (and most recent) Scovie Awards. Kick ass!
So what’s in all this stuff? An Ingredient List!
Defense Condition 3: Peppers, vinegar, butter, salt, spices (least hot)
Defense Condition 2: Peppers, vinegar, butter, salt, spices
Defense Condition 1: Peppers, vinegar, butter, salt, spices (most hot)
(Obviously, the Creator is keeping the exact ingredients close to the vest.)
Joe’s take
Defense Condition 3: There’s undoubtedly a reason why this one comes in the largest bottle of the three, and it’s not just because its modest heat level will allow the average wing chef to make more. It just has the broadest taste appeal. It’s just vinegary enough so that you taste that with each wing, but spicy enough to let the naive palate know it ain’t messin’ around. This is one where you can really appreciate the taste without worry about the burn that immediately follows with its hotter sibling sauces. I didn’t quite use it all with the wing batch, and I found it to work well with baking in onto some other foods as well. Even though any poultry dish I used it with tasted better, I’ll still save it for wing night!
Defense Condition 2: Just like the proverbial porridge from the Goldilocks story, this one is just right. It tasted very much like the Three sauce, but I’m firmly convinced that there is a synergistic taste effect with the heat level that makes this sauce the most desirable of the three to me. It was a little much for our resident wing newby here, but we would probably have licked the plate clean had no one else been around to witness us do it. Not quite as vinegary as the Three sauce, it’s just good eatin’. This sauce may indeed be destined for world domination…but domination had better come in a bigger jar! LOL!
Defense Condition 1: I made the smallest batch of wings using this sauce, fearing the gastronomic consequences of the capsaicin potency within the bottle. After all, the Creator warned me to “be very careful with the little bottle, and don’t get it on your hands (or any other exposed epidermal tissue), Nature may call!” So, with a slight amount of trepidation, I chomped into the first few wings…and immediately felt the wrath. I’m not sure where this compares as far as heat levels go with other uber-hot wing sauces, but every sweat gland on my scalp opened up and gushed after the second wing reached my stomach. Wow! The taste closely mirrored the Two sauce, but your taste buds can only register so much before the capsaicin short-circuits them. If you want your wings to have heat, taste, and attitude…then this bottle is for you.
Linda’s take
Defense Condition 3: This was a nice wing sauce with which to start wing night. Really wonderful wing flavor with just enough spice that could appeal to almost anyone’s heat tolerance. Perfect for kids who want to share the experience of wing night. I think this is also perfect as a sandwich sauce, to make the ordinary sandwich into the buffalo sandwich.
Defense Condition 2: Wow…where can I get some more of this stuff? This was a fantastic and perfect sauce, in my opinion. Yes, past tense. We used all of this and probably would have made more wings if we had more sauce. A little more kick and a little less tang than the #3 make this bad boy perhaps the best wing sauce I’ve tasted. No more going back to the local wing joint when you can make this at home with better flavor.
Defense Condition 1: I tried one of these. That’s all I could take and when I was done with that one, I was done for good. So, if you aren’t used to super hot wings, you need to get your fill of the other sauces before even going here or you’ll be drinking milk for a while. That said, this sauce STILL has a lot of flavor. The flavor hits you right before the heat, so if you wanted to keep tasting the great flavor without being run over by the heat, just keep eating them really, really fast.
Want to review DEFCON Sauces for yourself? Go here and leave your own opinion:
www.rateitall.com
www.thehotpepper.com
Don’t just take our word for it! Here are some online reviews of these sauces:
Who knew folks at SHU could write this well?
Is Nick Insane? You be the judge.
Cool note from the Food Mall
Give these reviewers a shout and ask them to review DEFCON Sauces as well.
Carl’s Big List of Reviews
Alien Zombie
The Hot Sauce Guide
Saucerater
Feeling Saucy
Recipes
If you’ve not made buffalo wings at home before, this great article from the HSB will help a ton!
Read this discussion thread where the Creator discusses his Zen mastery of chicken wings.
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