Friend of the Hot Zone Online, W.O. Hesperus, showed off its hot sauce-making muscle recently with great results. Check out this article from NECN.com:

Maine hot sauce maker takes top prize

(Marnie MacLean, NECN: Maine) – A hot sauce maker from Maine went home with the top prize at a Louisiana festival. NECN’s Marnie MacLean has the story.

At W.O. Hespers in Portland, Maine, Dan Stevens is the chief cook and bottle washer…literally. Dan started making hot sauces in his kitchen ten years ago…and now, his original recipe has won top honors at the Cajun Hot Sauce Festival in Louisiana.

Stevens: “That award went to Tabasco last year..and their factory is in the neighborhood. It’s nice to beat the big boys now and then.”

And beat them in their own backyard. Dan started making the sauces as an activity to do with his three kids. The hobby turned into a business and now, he has twenty sauces….but it’s the first one he ever made…called Canceaux sauce that got folks in Louisiana talking.

The sauce is named for a British ship that burned Portland back in 1775. Dan tells you, it starts sweet…then you taste the garlic.

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