We are constantly fascinated by and interested in what chileheads outside the continental U.S.A. do to pursue their passions, so we kindly present some info from Mick Stillman of Ol’ Man Stillmanz sauce in sunny Australia (where’s it is the middle of summer now) who gives us his take on how the hot sauce world is shaping up in the land down under:

Well what a year it looks to be, in December we found out we took out The Hot Pepper award for best hot sauce with our Devils Tongue Jerk Sauce.

The Hot Pepper awards were a real surprise, what I think Americans don’t realize is how small and basically in its infancy, the Australian hot sauce and fiery foods market is. There are NO hot sauce competitions in Australia, and there are only 3 chilli festivals that I am aware of, all of which are hundred and hundreds of kilometres away from me in sunny and vaguely sub-tropical Brisbane. To say the true chilli head is limited by choice is an understatement.

So we have to go off-shore for recognition.

We entered the Hot Pepper awards for a bit of a laugh, 1 sauce in two categories. I was hoping to steal a place in the Fruit based category, as Habanero and tropical fruit is what we are all about. To our surprise we took out 1st in the fruit and 3rd in the jerk. What left me stunned was taking out the overall hot pepper award for hot sauce. And let me tell you since winning the award, my sales have doubled perhaps tripled in Australia and the overseas market. It’s bizarre, but I have actually had to reevaluate my whole business plan.

The first task to set our minds to in 2009 is setting up a small but efficient bottling plant in the back of our cafe, with the future potential to allow smaller sauce companies facilities to bottle up to the strict food standards required in Australia. I’m all about helping our industry growing the correct way, and commercial kitchens set up for the specific needs of hot sauciers are few and far between in Australia.

The second and more ominous goal of the New Year is to start the great Habanero farm in Coastal Brisbane. Its’ going to be interesting to say the least. I think a lot of US sauce makers would have a chuckle to themselves at the above statement, but you would not believe how limited fresh Habanero supply is in Australia, particularly Brisbane, even though we have the most perfect climate for producing the fiery pods.

There is officially one farm that grows Habanero. That’s right…just one farm. 50 percent of their entire fresh pods go to Coles and Woolworths super markets. 30 percent (the worst quality) is pureed and bagged up and sent to food chains and some sauce companies, and the final 20 percent is pumped out through the more multicultural diverse states, sold quickly through there fresh produce markets. There have been months on end when I have not been able to buy fresh Habanero pods and frankly I am sick of it. So this summer we have put in about 300 Habanero plants, [which is] not exactly large scale yet but moving forward and in the right direction.

And we will be keeping you all up to date on how our Fiery Wing Challenge Naga and a Fatalii wing-eating competition goes as it looks to be entering the pubs and hotels around Brisbane in the near future.

Good luck to the poor fools who enter that one.

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