We are proud to announce to addition of a new author here at the Hot Zone Online. Harald Zoschke brings an incredible treasure trove of knowledge and experience about the world of hot sauces, chile peppers, and does so from a uniquely International perspective. Here’s his introduction, penned by Harald himself:

Intro

Harald Zoschke is president of Suncoast Peppers GmbH, a company founded late 2000, after running Suncoast Peppers Inc. for four years in Florida. There he and his wife Renate created award-winning hot sauces, ran the “Peppers on the Pier” hot shop in St. Petersburg, FL, and started the “Pepperworld Hot Shop” online, a business they successfully transferred to Germany. Harald is also the Web designer and a writer for Dave’s fiery-foods.com, as well as for his own Web site, pepperworld.com. Ten years ago, Harald wrote the first comprehensive German chile pepper book. His research for the book eventually triggered the carreer change from software tools to fiery foods. Whenever his busy schedulle allows, Harald will write here about what’s going on with fiery-foods “across the pond”. And since he constantly adds spicy products to his hot shop, expect occasional product reviews as well. Needless to say, Harald is also a confessing chilehead.

How a German engineer ended up in the Fiery-Foods Industry

My first encounter with extreme hot sauce was back in 1996 during the research for “Das Chili Pepper Buch”, the first comprehensive book on the subject in German language. My wife Renate and I have always loved hot peppers and spicy food, and eventually I had to turn my findings into writing and spread the word. Back then, we traveled to Florida and paid “El’s Fire Sauce” a visit, a hot shop in St. Petersburg. The small shop included a hot sauce kitchen and was owned by a guy named Loren (”El”) and his wife, nicknamed “Blaze”. I had already tried some sauces when Loren insisted: “Harald, now you gotta try this one here”. He poured big globs of sauce on corn chips for himself and for me. “If he can eat it, I can, too”, I thought by myself. After I munched on mine, he smiled as my face turned red and sweaty, and just threw his own portion into the trash bin without eating it. I was on fire and could hardly speak. “Welcome to Dave’s Insanity” he grinned and handed me a Bud that was almost frozen. The beer of course just fanned the flames, but for some obscure reason I felt happy and bought myself a bottle of that Insanity Sauce. I also got “Endorphin Rush” and various other sauces, including the couple’s’ own award-winning creations: “El’s Red-Eye” and “Belligerent Blaze”, two delicious concoctions made with fresh Jalapenos and Habaneros respectively. Back home I continued working on my book but stayed in touch with Loren. Research also brought us to Albuquerque, talking to the “Pope of Peppers” Dave DeWitt and attending our very first Fiery Foods Show. With our professional software background, we only knew computer trade shows so far.

How much more fun was that bunch of people at the Fiery Foods Show, exhibitors and attendees alike! We also realized that this spicy foods craze was bigger than we thought, backed by its own industry. I had just finished and published my chile pepper book in April 1997 when our urge to trade our software carreer for fiery foods coincided with Loren and Blaze splitting up. To make a long story short, we bought their business including their own sauces and moved to the United States. We moved the hot sauce store to the famous St. Petersburg Pier, where it became “Peppers on The Pier”. For El’s sauces we found a contract packer that also manufactured our own capsicum creations that we added in the following years. To get us more involved in the production process and to get ready for FDA registration, Renate went to “Better Process Control School” at the University of Tennessee. Besides El’ Red Eye and Belligerent Blaze, do Butt Twister, Sir Fartalot, Queen of Farts, Curribbean Fiesta, Liquid Ax, Florida Heat and Vicious Viper sound familiar? They were all products thought up and developed by our Floridian company, Suncoast Peppers, Inc., and we’re still proud that they won various prestigeous awards, including Scovies and Fiery Foods Challenge. For the next years, we became Fiery Foods Show exhibitors ourselves. Life was exciting again!

Back in ‘97, we also attended a seminar called “College of Chile Knowledge” alongside the Fiery Foods Show. Sitting next to me was a guy who introduced himself as John Hard. Like Renate and me, he and his wife Sue were also just starting in this “hot” industry. And to make another long story short, John’s company CaJohn acquired our line of Suncoast Peppers, Inc. hot sauces when we moved our hot shop business to Germany at the end of 2000 – the very first business of its kind here back then.

In addition to the hot sauce line and the St Pete store we also started “Pepperworld”, a virtual hot shop on the Web. That made us appear on the radar screen in Europe, too, and a big German magazine sent a reporter to run a story about those crazy Germans in Florida and their spicy business. Despite the extremely high freight cost, an incredible number of Web shop orders came in from abroad after the article was published. End of 2000 we were faced with the decision to renew our expiring 5-year U.S. visa or head home. A tough decision, as we loved our Pier shop and our staff, as well as our U.S. friends and our supernice Florida neighbors. Yet we decided for the second option, sold the Pier shop, the sauce line and started over with Suncoast Peppers GmbH (in case you wonder: “GmbH” is the German counterpart to “Inc.”)

Summer 2007 – more than six years went by since then, and it seems we did the right thing. Our “Pepperworld Hot Shop” just keeps growing, and German-speaking Europe is catching up fast now with the global warming in the world of chiles.

Next time I’ll report how chiles and fiery foods are becoming mainstream here. Look forward to discovering some fiery products that you haven’t even seen in the United States yet. Stay hot!

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