About time to update our mission statement…

So what’s this blog all about, anyway?

This blog was born March 26, 2005 out of a personal website that we had been doing for almost a year previous where we paid homage to our favorite hot sauce makers, showed off our hot sauce collection, and just generally ruminated about the world of hot & spicy food in general.

Our reasons for doing this blog include:

1. We offer the Featured Product cyber-column. In it, we take some products from a particular manufacturer of hot & spicy foods and taste them, use them in recipes, offer links to other online reviews and recipes, and list the ingredients for anyone who’s interested.

2. We do reviews on products of all kinds from the world of hot & spicy food. This includes, but is not limited to, hot sauces, salsas, picante sauces, spice mixes, snacks, jerk sauce, mustards, chicken wing sauces, BBQ sauces, and other miscellaneous hot & spicy products.

3. Our writers do reviews on homemade hot sauces, salsas, and spice mixes. There are quite a few amateurs who make some great stuff, so we love to have them show off their hot & spicy culinary creations.

4. Offer links to visit our ‘hot’ blog friends. There’s a lot of good bloggers out there who have sites offering a wide variety of angles on food, both hot & spicy ones and those which are more mundane. Please go visit them!

5. While we have our faves amongst the industry major players, we hope to provide some exposure for those start-up companies who are trying to make a name in the hot & spicy food business with their products.

6. We offer links to those manufacturers whose products we own, collect, use, or generally esteem. Without them, the world would be bereft of really wonderful hot & spicy food. Besides that, our ‘Hot Info’ and ‘Friends’ lists offer links to personal and commercial websites to explore for people whose hot and spicy passions mirror our own.

7. We hope to give a little insight into our own humble collection of hot sauces and offer some info about us in general. In addition, we provide coverage of the collectible hot sauce world both from our own perspective and reports of debuts of collectibles from the manufacturers themselves.

8. We provide a forum for other writers to write about the importance of hot sauces and spicy fare in their lives, and give a way to share their experiences along with ours.

9. Recipes of all kinds are available, both original creations of the blog’s writers and those available in internet and written media in the public domain.

10. Coverage of news stories and press releases from companies and events of the world of hot & spicy food. We’ll write about nearly anything that fits the description, from chili cookoffs to restaurant openings to industry conventions such as ZestFest. Sometimes it’s just worth writing about the fun stuff, too.

If you are new to our site, then be WELCOME! If you’ve been here before, then please keep coming back!