Danny Cash

What can you say about Danny Cash? The Man, the Myth, the Legend. He of the spiked Mohawk and Bottled up Anger. He is the head of huge hot sauce cartel in the Mile High City. He’s branching out into a variety of condiments. He rocks old school. I was lucky enough to receive the whole line up of Danny Cash products and I’ve been enjoying them for over a month now. These are quality products.

I wanted to know more about the man, Danny Cash. What led this young man to become the king of such an empire? What inspires him? How did he do it?

Danny Cash in the “mood lighting”

CH: What led you to bottle up your anger…and where did all this anger come from?

DC: That’s easy - my brother, Lee. We never got along when we lived together. Now, we might be business partners, but we’re great friends. Him, and ex-girlfriends – they did it to me…

Is Lee a genius or an evil genius?

CH: Why hot sauce? How did you get started making sauce? Do you have a culinary background?

DC: I always loved hot foods. I blew out my appendix when I was 10. The doctor told my mom that it was full of black pepper and he’d never seen it in a person of any age. I discovered Tabasco when I was 11 and, thank God, I found others shortly after. When I was 22, I had about 25 sauces. I eventually hated all of them and I started making my own. Now, I have over 400 that are open and currently being eaten.

CH: How did someone as young as you become the king of such an empire?

DC: What can I say? I’m a classy son of a bitch. Chicks want me and dudes want to be me. hahaha

CH: Why the Mohawk? Is the punk rock image just an image…or a lifestyle?

DC: Great question. Fuck you -

CH: I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were a Native American. I hope you are not too offended.

CH: What sort of extreme activities are you into besides hot food products. Skateboarding? Mountain climbing? Bear wrestling?

DC: I don’t have time to ski or snowboard anymore, but the DC crew rides motorcycles every chance we get. I went to Sturgis with Todd from Golden Toad hot sauce last year and got arrested - fun times. I have 4 motorcycles now and I always want more.

CH: What sort of bikes are you guys into? Harley’s? Rice burners? Ever ride a Vincent Black Shadow?

DC: Not yet, but you got love the pipes on that ride – the motorcycles are awesome too. Personally, I’d love a Norvin. We don’t have the money for Harleys yet but we ride cruisers. Dirt bikes are the best but after my Magna burst into flames, I rode my Honda Nighthawk to South Dakota and back without a windscreen. That sucked.

CH: You are known for having a “crew” that likes to party. I guess a “crew” is not quite as big as a “posse” but if you get to the point where you have a “posse” will you become as famous as Andre the Giant?

DC: We do like to party. Pepperman is the fastest drinker in America. As far as Andre’s posse goes - hell no – that guy was awesome. He was bigger than life, too bad disease got him.

“Danny Cash, passed out before midnight. I thought these guys knew how to party!”

CH: I’m gonna have to challenge Pepperman to a tequila drinking contest.

DC: Sorry Chuck - he only drinks Coors Light.

CH: Well I guess he’d win that one! I’m too much of a beer snob….

CH: You seem to have a thing for green sauces. Green sauce is hard to pull off. Why green? Why did you forgo the ingredient of tomatillos?

DC: Colors don’t matter to me – taste only. I think green is hard for some people because they try to make it green. Bottled Up Anger is more brown anyway. Calling it our Brown Sauce sounds pretty sick though. As far as tomatillos go – never really tried ‘em in a good way. Got any recommendations?

CH: I dunno. I always think of tomatillos in green sauce. I guess it’s a Tex-Mex thing.

DC: I guess we do things DenMex then. I’m from Chicago, where food is good. Denver’s food NEEDS hot sauce.

CH: You have branched off into the world of “other condiments”. What brought this on?

DH: The need. We just started making things that taste good. Who wouldn’t want to eat Habanero Garlic Ranch or Habanero Honey Mustard?! Damn – those are good.

CH: I really dig that honey mustard. That one’s a winner for sure. It’s also nice to have a ketchup that I don’t have to add hot sauce to.

CH: Who would win in a Texas death cage match, Lemmy or Henry Rollins?

DC: Lemmy? Lemmy?! Henry Rollins would step on his neck, Fat Mike would be drink to it, and Dicky Barrett would just laugh while Joey Cape would repeatedly kick him in the ribs.

CH: Wrong! Lemmy is god. Trick question!

CH: How is the co-packing business going? Do you have many clients that you make private label product for?

DC: Co-packing isn’t easy. We’re a hot sauce company, so we built our kitchen to make hot sauce. If a BBQ saucer wants to use the kitchen, cool, but it’s a huge learning experience for us all. We had an explosion of 190 degree BBQ sauce that painted the kitchen walls and Pepperman from head to toe. It sucked – but it was mighty tasty in the end. We private label for a long list of companies. I don’t care about getting my name out there – I care about people appreciating a good HOT SAUCE, not spicy vinegar.

CH: Do you have your own manufacturing facilities? I imagine some factory where they blast NOFX from the speakers 24/7.

DC: Oh yeah – we listen to both kinds of music here – Country and Western. We built our own kitchen into an industrial space that blares all kinds of stuff from the Superbowl Shuffle (GO BEARS) to Swingin’ Utters (GO COWS). We’re still dirt poor because we’re putting everything back into the business, but we do have loud speakers. My brother, Lee (LEE@DC), cousin John (Pepperman), cousin Jay (cousin Jay), and I are all in a band called Better Drunk. We play punk rock, hard rock, metal, and anything that I can play harmonica to.

CH: Harmonica?! So you’re a bluesman at heart? I had a feeling that punk rock thing was a gimmick.

DC: Oh you’re going down Chuck!

CH: Have you ever heard of The Taints? Denver punk band? Friends of mine.

DC: I think we talked about them in TX – still haven’t heard of them. I got a lot of friends in local punk bands – we’re doing sauce for a couple of bands on tour now – check out the Mad Caddies and Lawrence Arms. Great bands.

CH: How has the response been on the collectable sauces? Those are some clever packages.

DC: It’s been awesome. People really dig the NOS bottles and iHots. Just wait for the KHASTC to come out…

CH: What’s next for Danny Cash? Can you preview any new products on the horizon?

DC: I’m getting tattooed again next weekend which is nice. Oh, hot sauce, right, we’re coming out with some great stuff for the Fiery Foods Show in Albuquerque in March. We’re finally coming out with a sauce that makes me hiccup AND tastes fucking great. That’s all I can say.

Reviews—

Danny and Co. sent me eight products so it took me quite a while to get these reviews done. My wife helped in the sampling and I’m grateful to get her non-chilehead opinions. She’s often a good reality check when I need to know what a normal person thinks of a hot product.

Here goes:

1. Renegade Ranch – ingredients: Buttermilk, Soybean oil, Habanero and Serrano chiles, Sugar, spices, lemon, lime vinegar, salt

OK, so this is ranch dressing with some added chile pepper kick. The taste is a little heavy with vinegar but garlic comes in strong ass well followed by what you’d expect ranch to taste like. Then there’s a little bit of lingering heat.

Taste 6/10
Heat 4/10

2. HaBEEnero Mustard – ingredients: No. 1 grade yellow mustard seed, vinegar, Colorado honey, Red habaneros, lime juice, salt

A very tasty sweet mustard with a little pepper kick. This is good! Actually one of the best honey mustards I’ve ever had and the lingering heat makes it all the better. Of all DC’s condiements, this is my favorite.

Taste 8/10
Heat 3/10

3. Flaming Mustard — ingredients: Grade No. 1 mustard seed, vinegar, fresh garlic, habanero and Serrano peppers, lime juice, flake sea salt

This here is mustard with a big kick of garlic and some nice heat. A good all-around mustard that would make hot dogs jump with joy.

Taste 7/10
Heat 6/10

4. Convict Ketchup – ingredients: Tomato concentrate, high fructose corn syrup, fresh garlic, vinegar, onion, habanero and cayenne peppers, lime juice, spices, salt

Ketchup with added heat pretty much sums this up. This is a handy item for me because I never eat French fries without stiring some hot sauce into my ketchup. I would like a little more heat in it but it’s probably a good heat level for the average consumer.

Taste 6/10
Heat 4/10

Danny sent me two green and two red sauces. Here’s the green ones first….

5. Stays Cool Hot Sauce – ingredients: Green Serranos, Garlic, Lime Juice, Vinegar, & Salt

Big, BIG blast of fresh lime juice here followed by the distinct taste of serranos. There’s some garlic and not much more. The fresh taste of this sauce is impressive. I think this would be a great addition to some home made guacamole. The sauce is a bit on the runny side but that’s not really a problem.

Taste 8/10
Heat 3/10

6. BOTTLED UP ANGER Hot Sauce – ingredients: Green Serranos, Red Habaneros, Garlic, Lime Juice, Vinegar, & Salt

The one that started it all. This is a thicker green sauce with visible flakes of red habaneros floating around in it. Both of these sauces look “pulpy” with some seeds visible. There is a strong aroma of serranos and garlic/vinegar. This one whacks you up front with garlic,
vinegar and lime. The heat kicks in nicely and it’s not too hot. It’s the kind of heat level that average folks would call “hot” and chileheads would call “mild”.

Taste 7/10
Heat 7/10

7. RAGIN’ RED Hot Sauce – ingredients: Red Cayennes, Red Habaneros, Garlic, Onion, Fresh cracked black pepper Vinegar, Salt, & Spices

“ Cajun Cayenne Hot Sauce” is the subtitle here. I guess this is DC’s answer to “Louisiana-style” hot sauces. Again, this is a “pulpy” looking sauce. I can see the bits of black pepper in there and that may be one of the reasons I like this sauce so much. It has a delicious taste.. just the right combination of spices. It’s not all that hot but what a wonderful flavor! For a “Cajun” style sauce you might expect the vinegar to be very up front but I don’t taste or smell it that way. Of all the DC products I’ve tried, this is my favorite. Good job Danny!

Taste 9/10
Heat 4/10

8. RADICAL HEAT Hot Sauce – ingredients: Red Habaneros, Garlic, Lime Juice, Vinegar, & Salt

While DC calls Ragin’ Red his “Cajun” style sauce, to my nose and palette this radical heat is closer to a Louisiana style sauce, despite it’s rather high level of heat. The reason? Vinegar. It’s very up front both in the aroma and taste of this sauce. As a matter of fact the aroma is reminiscent of Tabasco.

I know, I know. To a lot of people that is a turn off but I don’t think vinegar based sauces are necessarily bad and in my humble opinion this is a damn good one. Beyond the vinegar this sauce has a rich aroma of red habaneros. This is tasty and HOT stuff. The heat here is not a total melt down but it’s very respectable. It leaves a burn in the mouth that lingers for a good five minutes.

Taste 7/10
Heat 8/10

Overall these are solid sauces that seem to be made from fresh ingredients. If you look at DC’s website you’ll see that the crew cooks and packs these themselves and I think they put a lot of love and care into these unique sauces. Well worth seeking out.

- Chuk

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