The craft hot sauce business is exploding in the US as hundreds of small producers compete with centuries-old brands by launching creative flavors and using newly engineered, extra-hot peppers.
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00:00There are more small-batch hot sauce makers like Ron Menon than ever before in the U.S.
00:12It doesn't get much more authentic than two assholes in a kitchen making hot sauce.
00:16Like, it doesn't get much better.
00:21But most craft producers don't have resources to grow their own chilies.
00:26So, many buy a base mash from Ed Curry, the man who's bred the world's hottest peppers twice.
00:36His most recent creation, Pepper X, is 1,000 times hotter than a jalapeno and holds the Guinness World Record for spice.
00:48But not even two decades ago, only a few massive brands dominated the U.S. hot sauce industry.
00:55Like Tabasco and Frank's, which gets its mashed peppers in these 20,000-gallon railcars.
01:05Today, the big brands are also racing to innovate, as changing demographics have turned hot sauce into one of America's favorite condiments.
01:14I grew up in Mexico. I need heat. I love it.
01:20So, how did hot sauce become the new craft beer?
01:24And what are legacy brands doing to stay on top?
01:27Ed Curry has several farms growing hundreds of thousands of peppers across South Carolina.
01:42I am nurturing my own children here.
01:45Are your kids jealous of your pepper plant?
01:47No, they don't care. They got their friends and their video games.
01:51You know, and tickety-tock or whatever, insta-twit or whatever else they're on.
01:57His two record-breaking hottest peppers are grown in top-secret locations that are closely guarded.
02:04All of us are armed in South Carolina, including the guys who are picking.
02:09It took Ed 10 years to breed his second spiciest pepper, the Carolina Reaper.
02:23If you see, these are two different plants.
02:25This is one. This is another.
02:28You just take this little paintbrush right here, and you go in and you look for some pollen.
02:34And by the way, isn't that a beautiful flower?
02:35And then you go to this other plant, and you transfer the pollen.
02:40And it's just back and forth like that, over and over and over again.
02:44It doesn't always work. A lot of times in year five or six, they revert back to their parents, and that's that.
02:51Ed engineered the Reaper by breeding a ghost pepper from Pakistan,
02:56with a habanero from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.
02:59The result was a pepper with an average level of 1.64 million Scoville heat units.
03:06Zero is a bell pepper.
03:081.5 million to 5.3 million is police-grade pepper spray.
03:14The Carolina Reaper was certified the world's hottest chili pepper by Guinness World Records in 2013.
03:20It's about twice as hot as a ghost pepper, 20 times hotter than a habanero, and 800 times hotter than a jalapeno.
03:30But Ed broke his own record when he created Pepper-X, which became the world's hottest pepper in 2023,
03:39at a whopping 2.69 million Scoville heat units.
03:43The stuff that makes peppers taste hot is capsaicin, a chemical compound that works as a defense mechanism for plants
03:51to keep some insects and fungus from eating them.
03:55That tricks our brain into thinking we're on fire. We're not on fire.
04:01It's just a trick, because capsaicin is a poison to your body.
04:06You need to eat your body weight or more in order to die from it.
04:10I think you should say that your body perceives it as a poison, instead of saying it is a poison.
04:18It is a poison, Tom.
04:20Tom.
04:21Yes.
04:22Is capsaicin a poison to your body?
04:25Your body perceives it as a poison.
04:27No, no.
04:29Is capsaicin a poison to your body?
04:32Yes, but...
04:34Technically, it is.
04:36But it would take at least 35,000 milligrams, or about 350 Carolina Reapers, to kill a 150-pound person.
04:47Capsaicin also has health benefits.
04:50It can help fight inflammation and chronic muscle pain.
04:54In animal studies, researchers found that it can be used to attack and kill prostate cancer cells,
05:00without harming healthy ones.
05:04Ed sets aside 10% of his peppers for replanting and breeding.
05:0920% are ground into powder.
05:11He only sells about 2% of his peppers whole to other hot sauce makers.
05:17Most of each harvest gets turned into pepper mash.
05:20Brandon Peters oversees that fiery process.
05:26We wear respirators when it gets really bad, especially like right now we're making Pepper X.
05:32The team handles about 10,000 pounds of peppers on an average day.
05:37And then they're dumped into the hopper.
05:39They go up the conveyor belt, come into the chopping machine, the Fitzmill is what it's called.
05:51And that thing is powerful.
05:53This machine can chop a whole 1,000-pound bin in just five minutes.
05:59Not something you want to put your hand in.
06:02It actually shows fingers cut off on the machine.
06:06It throws an extra spicy mist into the air.
06:09These guys that you watch in here working, they're on fire.
06:17And they've got a great poker face.
06:19But it burns.
06:20We are in a constant, perpetual state of fire on our bodies.
06:27Then they move to step two, cooking the mash.
06:31This robotic arm dumps the ground-up peppers into one of these five kettles, where they boil.
06:37We used to do this whole process manually with buckets, and it was rough.
06:43So they got us this.
06:45Saves our lives.
06:47Some of these machines are custom-made.
06:50If I had to throw a number on it, I'd say probably at least $4 to $5 million worth of equipment in this building.
06:55So he's just hosing this out to make sure we get everything we can out of there.
07:00This is actually my son.
07:01He's one of the best in the business.
07:04Then they add water and vinegar until they reach the right pH.
07:08That will make the sauce shelf-stable for up to two years.
07:11We call pH our Bible.
07:14The pH is the acidity in the food, and bacteria can't live in acidic foods.
07:20So we have to keep that level to a certain standard.
07:25If the pH is below 3.1, they'll add more water and mash.
07:29If it's above 3.9, they'll add more vinegar.
07:34This batch is good to go.
07:36Now they heat it in this steam kettle for one to two hours to sterilize the mash.
07:43That is an angry kettle.
07:46Yep, go ahead, temper up.
07:47Where are we at?
07:482.06 on that.
07:502.06?
07:51Beautiful.
07:52I've been doing this for four and a half, five years, and I'm still coughing.
07:56You can only build so much of a tolerance, and it's just going to hurt no matter what.
08:01You just get a better game face.
08:03The team fills 25,000 of these five-gallon buckets of mash every year.
08:09Many small-batch hot sauce makers across the country buy it from Ed.
08:14And use it in their own recipes.
08:16Because they don't have farmland or factories to produce their own.
08:22Today, Brandon's making a classic chile de herbol hot sauce.
08:27They dump the pepper mash back into one of these kettles and add ingredients.
08:37It'll go into a puree-er that we pour into the top, and it comes out extremely fine.
08:43A very fine consistency.
08:45Ed's team makes about 200 sauces and salsas under his own brand, Pucker Butt.
08:51Good lord, I have no idea the exact number of sauces.
08:57A lot of them haven't even seen the light of day.
08:59When the company started in 2003, Ed and his workers were filling 300 to 500 bottles a week,
09:07all by hand.
09:08Automating has helped them scale up tenfold.
09:11The machine runs anywhere from 25 to 60 bottles a minute.
09:20Now, the company cranks out millions of bottles every year.
09:26And because Ed's peppers are so spicy, he doesn't have to use a lot to make his sauces, well, hot.
09:33One of the benefits of having a hotter pepper is economies of scale.
09:38If they were using 55 gallons of habanero mash to heat something up,
09:43I can do the same with one gallon of Pepper X.
09:46Every year, his creations are featured at expos like this one in New York,
10:01where thousands of people come to taste and stock up on small-batch hot sauces.
10:10I got some in my purse, just in case.
10:13We got candy this year.
10:14Our mouth is on fire, so it helps.
10:16We have hot sauce holsters.
10:18We're on a mission to help people to never be without their sauce again.
10:21Okay.
10:22Steve Seabury started this event in 2013,
10:26a few years after founding his own hot sauce company.
10:30I just want everyone to experience things that they can't normally find here.
10:35Yeah, everything here, we focus on craft, artisanal hot sauces.
10:39You know, it kind of runs parallel with the micro brewers, you know, craft beers,
10:42where, you know, like almost every city now in the country has their hot sauce company.
10:48One of the highlights is the pepper-eating contest.
10:52Ed brings the peppers for it, all the way from South Carolina.
10:56It's kind of like the old-time Roman gladiators.
10:59You know, why would you go watch anybody be eaten by a lion?
11:04Well, you know, they packed that house full.
11:06That's what happens at these.
11:08A few rules we're going to have to go over for these brave seven competitors.
11:14Give it up for them, first off.
11:17Today, I'm here to judge an official Guinness World Records attempt
11:20for the most Carolina Reaper chilies eaten in one minute.
11:23Three, two, one, go.
11:29He's at potential pace to break the room up to Dickno.
11:32He's going.
11:33So for today's event, there's going to be a few guidelines
11:35that I'm going to make sure are followed.
11:36First, they have to be official Carolina Reaper chili peppers.
11:39They have to be raw, not peeled, and with the stems on.
11:46Uh-oh, it's hitting him. It's hitting him.
11:49Swallow it, go back for more about it.
11:51Come on, you can do it. Come on.
11:52Three, two, one, go.
11:56Yeah!
11:58Go.
11:59Go.
11:59Come on, you can do it.
12:00Bunch in the corner of his ass.
12:03Right through, that's right through.
12:04Come on, Harold. It's okay.
12:05Just pay attention to the bowl.
12:07Come on, come on.
12:12Come on, Harold.
12:13Let's go.
12:14These people want you to break this record.
12:16At the end of the one minute, I'll call time,
12:19and we'll make sure that there's no peppers in their mouth.
12:21We'll weigh anything that they didn't eat.
12:23We'll deduct that from the original bowl total,
12:25and we'll get a final count.
12:27Go.
12:29Come on, brother.
12:30You're on pace.
12:31You're on pace.
12:34This year, at least, we're going to be rocking.
12:36Ladies and gentlemen, you're a winner, once again at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo,
12:45with a total of 52 grams,
12:48the spicy king of New York, Eric Lodz.
12:52The record stands at 122 grams.
13:00That's about 24 peppers.
13:03It was set in August 2023 by Freddie Rubio in Portland, Oregon.
13:08I got fourth place in the Guinness World Records Carolina Reaper eating contest.
13:14How many peppers did you eat?
13:15I ate, I think they said six.
13:18You actually get like a crazy head rush,
13:24so I couldn't really tell what was going on,
13:26and I just knew that people were cheering,
13:28and I was like, I can probably do one more,
13:30but I don't know how many times I had that thought.
13:33Like, your eyes just immediately start pouring water,
13:36and it feels kind of like you're floating,
13:38like you're walking on clouds,
13:40but I knew if I just rode it out, it would be fine,
13:43because I've done this before.
13:44Ed has done some damage.
13:49He persuaded me to do it,
13:51so when he tells you to do something,
13:53you get up on stage for him.
13:54Ed is a celebrity at the expo.
14:00We really have 192 different sauces.
14:03My favorite thing.
14:06This is the three hottest peppers in the world,
14:10all in one bottle.
14:12I go through two or three bottles of this a day.
14:15Here, I'm not going to hurt you.
14:19Okay.
14:20Okay?
14:20All right, cheers.
14:22Cheers.
14:24It's so good.
14:29Yeah, it's delicious.
14:31But the same thing you're feeling,
14:34I feel too,
14:35so I can't stop my mouth from salivating.
14:37I can talk and do an interview
14:40because I'm used to it, you know?
14:44Ed says he's also here to support
14:46other small hot sauce makers,
14:48like Ginger Goat,
14:50a company from Canada.
14:51It's harder to grow chilies there,
14:54so it leans on Ed for mash.
14:56We knew who Ed was,
14:57and our first gallon of mash
14:59that we ever bought
15:00during recipe development
15:01came from the Pucker Butter Pepper Company.
15:03A few stalls over,
15:05Ron Menon from Hell's Kitchen Hot Sauce
15:07also gets some of his mash from Ed.
15:09I'm known for my interesting flavor profiles.
15:12They call me the Willy Wonka of hot sauce.
15:14Ron won the Screaming Mimi
15:15at the 2024 Expo.
15:18That's like winning an Oscar
15:19in the hot sauce world.
15:21And it was for this one.
15:23It's Moroccan-inspired,
15:25really, really tasty,
15:25and quite unique.
15:26I don't think there's a sauce
15:27quite like it in the world.
15:28In the craft world,
15:29smaller producers are able to do
15:31more eclectic, esoteric things.
15:36Let's go.
15:37This is where Ron cooks
15:39around 16 different varieties of hot sauce.
15:44Today, he's making his bestseller,
15:47West Side Red,
15:48in this 100-gallon vat.
15:56He starts with the base,
15:58apple cider vinegar,
16:00plus his special twist
16:01to make it sweet,
16:03blue agave nectar.
16:04Hot sauce is very formulaic,
16:08but where the soul comes in,
16:10the creativity,
16:11is what takes something from,
16:13oh, this is good,
16:14to, oh my God,
16:15I've never had anything like this.
16:16There's an element of danger
16:18to hot sauce.
16:19You know?
16:20That's why I love it.
16:21Like, there's an element,
16:22oh, is this going to be too spicy for me?
16:24Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, you know?
16:26Ron adds berries.
16:27Grrrr!
16:29The Incredible Hulk, right?
16:30He uses frozen ones
16:32because they're usually
16:33a little easier to work with.
16:35And they're fresh.
16:37It's not like pureed or anything.
16:39They're fresh, you know.
16:41Hot sauces,
16:42you can impart characteristics
16:44through a variety of techniques.
16:47Fermenting, adding fruit,
16:49like you would perhaps with a wine,
16:51you might add a different fruit.
16:54Everything good starts with garlic and onion.
16:56Hot sauce is very good for you.
16:58It's unintentionally healthy.
16:59He doesn't add any preservatives.
17:02Just gallons of distilled white vinegar.
17:09And then, pepper mash.
17:13This is really nice and fresh.
17:14It's not oxidized.
17:18Right?
17:20So this is the Fresno.
17:22See how dark red it is?
17:23It's nice.
17:24Oh, and see?
17:26Proof that it's fresh.
17:27There's a whole Fresno in there, see?
17:31Ron doesn't make his own mash.
17:33He buys it from producers like Ed.
17:35This keeps you young.
17:47They mix it once now to check its consistency.
17:51Weapon of sauce destruction.
17:53Yes.
17:55They need two blenders in the vat to mix everything.
17:58But they don't always have enough hands.
18:02We kind of tie this up.
18:04It's good.
18:05It doesn't go anywhere.
18:06He gets deeper in to get the garlic and the stuff,
18:10the bigger chunks from below.
18:12And this is up on the top.
18:14So you get it from both sides.
18:15And it makes it blend faster.
18:18And as you heat it up, it all blends together and it all cooks together.
18:22It's like making a soup.
18:24There you go.
18:30For a little extra kick, they add fresh lime juice.
18:33A great hot sauce has flavor first, then heat.
18:38It's not just what you put in, throwing everything in.
18:41It's when you make the additions.
18:43It's how long you cook them and you take a little bit of time.
18:47When you have a smaller production and you're able to control factors
18:52and make the pepper flavor come through more,
18:57you are taking more care.
18:59That's why making an artisan product is a lot different from a big production.
19:03The whole cooking process takes about four hours.
19:13In the meantime, they label their bottles.
19:19That's kind of cool.
19:20Ron adds a little extra twist to some of his bottle caps.
19:24I really try to lean into the New York thing in a real way.
19:26I'm a real New Yorker.
19:28It doesn't get much more authentic than two assholes in a kitchen making hot sauce.
19:32Like, it doesn't get much better.
19:34Very nice.
19:35Nicely done, fine sir.
19:38Once the sauce hits the right temperature...
19:40The liquid's at 203 degrees, right?
19:45He'll start bottling.
19:47This is called hot fill and hold method.
19:52When you fill with the hot liquid at the proper temperature, you cap it, right?
19:59And then you invert it.
20:01What are you doing?
20:02You're creating a natural vacuum?
20:04This basically sterilizes the bottle and the cap.
20:07Ron says they're good to flip after 15 minutes.
20:14And label.
20:17Ron has gone from packing 30 boxes a week when he started his company in 2015 to 300.
20:24This is what I was put on the earth to do.
20:30It's a privilege to be able to do what I do.
20:33It really is.
20:34It really is.
20:37The holidays are extra busy.
20:39His demand spikes.
20:41Especially for the two-ounce mini bottles.
20:44Ron also supplies 170 stop-and-shops in the Northeast.
20:48And online, he sells a 5-ounce bottle for $12.
20:54That's four times more expensive than a bottle of Tabasco.
20:59But customers are willing to pay more for these artisanal flavors.
21:03It's like fish, you know, in a lake.
21:06There's little guppies, then there's like...
21:08I'm like the medium-sized goldfish, and then there's the big shark in the ocean would be your Tabasco or your Melinda's or whatever.
21:16You know what I'm saying?
21:17So there's different levels to anything, you know.
21:21But big hot sauce makers like Tabasco have been perfecting their recipes for years.
21:28The company grows peppers just for seeds inside this greenhouse at its headquarters on Avery Island.
21:36We're also looking for the plants that produce the richest color red peppers at perfect size and then flavor too.
21:43Christian Brown is the great-great-great-grandson of founder Edmund McElhenney and the company's agriculture manager.
21:51Yeah, everything's looking good.
21:52No signs of aphids.
21:53He sends only the strongest seeds to 5,000 Tabasco farms around the world.
22:01Tabasco says their peppers originate from the Amazon in South America.
22:05They're about six times hotter than a jalapeno, only one to one and a half inches long and weighing a gram each.
22:15Because the peppers are so small and easily damaged, machines don't harvest these.
22:21People have been growing chilies for at least 7,000 years.
22:27They're native to Central America, where Aztecs were believed to be the first to mash chilies into a liquid.
22:35They'd use the drops to help relieve tooth pain because of capsaicin's anti-inflammatory properties.
22:40They'd also mix their chili mash with herbs and water to spice up their food.
22:47There's one variety that's native to North America, the chiltapine pepper, which is about twice as hot as a cayenne.
22:55Christopher Columbus brought chilies to Europe in 1493.
22:59But people there thought they were too spicy.
23:03A few years later, Portuguese explorers took peppers to the Indian subcontinent.
23:08Locals there were already used to heat.
23:12They'd been cooking with their own native spice, black peppercorns.
23:17Chilies added just a little extra kick.
23:20In the U.S., the first commercial hot sauce popped up in the early 1800s.
23:25It was made from cayenne peppers in Massachusetts.
23:30Enslaved people used hot sauce to make bland food more flavorful.
23:34And later, black Americans carried it in their bags because segregated restaurants required them to bring their own utensils, plates, and condiments.
23:45Something Beyonce referenced in her song, Formation.
23:49I got hot sauce in my bag.
23:51Swag.
23:52But hot sauce wasn't mass-produced until Tabasco hit the U.S. market in 1868.
23:58To this day, the company has had a unique process.
24:04The team sprinkles salt on the peppers and uses a giant machine to mash them into a paste.
24:10This pump siphons it into white oak barrels.
24:16Some are 60 years old.
24:18Most of these barrels in here, essentially, are a used bourbon barrel.
24:24Why do you wipe them?
24:24I don't really have the answer.
24:27I know it works, and we've been doing it 150-plus years, so I'm not changing it.
24:33A team works together to seal each one.
24:39One truckload will fill up to 110 barrels.
24:43But they can't pack them to the brim because...
24:45If you have too much pressure, sometimes those caps blow off.
24:48Sometimes the lids will pop off overnight.
24:51It's a really simple thing.
24:53Just kind of move it to the barrel next to it.
24:58It can take 30 minutes to finish one row.
25:02The barrels don't have a perfect seal, so workers pour salt on top.
25:07It lets gases escape while limiting oxidation.
25:11Salt on top is just an extra protective layer.
25:14There is an imperfection that will help.
25:18The team stacks each barrel by mash origin.
25:22So this whole bay here, going as far back as you can to get to the wall, is about 1,100 barrels of Columbia 2022.
25:29The mash releases lots of gases during fermentation.
25:33So a tiny valve on top helps relieve the pressure.
25:36You have to have some ventilation process or it's going to explode.
25:40And that happens sometimes.
25:43It's like a Tabasco ghost.
25:44They come in here at night and they pop the lids off and we come back and there's six or seven we have to fix.
25:49After three years, the mash inside will stabilize, shrink, and darken in color.
25:54We can see that it was filled to about this level here.
25:58And you can start to see rings on the side of that barrel where the mash is going down.
26:04Although it has shrunk, the aged mash is no less spicy.
26:08No coffee?
26:09Not yet.
26:10Not yet.
26:11But it is hot.
26:11So let's remember, this is ten times more hot than actual sauce.
26:18Next, the aged mash is pumped into the blending room.
26:22Here, the pepper smell will hit you right in the back of the throat.
26:26I could say, like, get maced, I guess, every day.
26:30It really hits you hard.
26:32That's how I put my kids through college, so I'm good with that.
26:35I love it.
26:36Morris Montgomery oversees blending.
26:39But he goes by nook.
26:40The Army veteran ensures all the mash tastes the same,
26:45even though it's coming from around the world.
26:48I try to do it three or four different countries and put them together.
26:51So it could be like a little Colombia, Peru, and a little Ecuador and Honduras.
26:56He pumps in vinegar and blends it all up for up to 28 days.
27:0172 tanks mix at the same time.
27:04Nook will take a sample for the lab to test for pH.
27:08And then...
27:08This is finished Tabasco sauce, and this is ready to go.
27:12Next step to the bottling Kahlua.
27:16That's where John Simmons comes in.
27:19And I'm also a member of the sixth generation of the McElhinney family to make Tabasco sauce.
27:23John's factory fills over a million bottles every day.
27:31From minis to the iconic five-ounce one.
27:35It also pumps out tons of different flavors, from original red to habanero.
27:40Sriracha has been one of the company's fastest-growing ones.
27:45Today, machines do most of the filling, capping, and labeling.
27:51So a bottle's going to go through in about 13 minutes.
27:54They gather the bottles and package them into cardboard boxes.
27:58We're doing it really fast at like 300 bottles a minute.
28:00Next, the shipping room.
28:03So we've got product for Germany, Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, the Canary Islands, South Africa.
28:10Typically, newly packaged products leave the warehouse within three weeks.
28:14In 1918, a man named Jacob Frank got inspired by Tabasco.
28:24He was running his own spice company in Cincinnati and wanted to see if he could do what Edmund did,
28:31but with a different kind of pepper.
28:33Cayenne.
28:34He got his first batch from a farmer in Louisiana.
28:38And together, they started processing it into hot sauce.
28:42It was somewhat similar to Tabasco in its high vinegar-to-pepper ratio.
28:47But Frank's had his own secret.
28:50In the way he milled his peppers to help them retain their flavor.
28:54By 1920, he'd perfected his recipe and launched Frank's Red Hot.
29:02We visited the biggest American hot sauce brand at its new home in Springfield, Missouri.
29:07We always have pepper mash ready to be making Frank's Red Hot all day, every day.
29:12That's John Martin's.
29:14He works at the spice giant McCormick, which bought Frank's in 2017 as part of a larger acquisition worth $4.2 billion.
29:23So what we're looking at right here is one rail car, a pepper mash, that we are going to inspect, identify, and unload to make into Frank's Red Hot.
29:35The cayenne peppers are grown in Mexico.
29:38They arrive here pre-mashed in these 20,000-gallon rail cars.
29:42We're checking these seals down here just to make sure that no one has touched that rail car.
29:50John's team has to measure the spice and viscosity of each batch, so they can get the ratios just right for Frank's Red Hot.
30:00Then, they attach a tube that carries the mash to one of these 5,000-gallon tanks.
30:06So we're in the mash tank farm right now.
30:09All 15 tanks in here are full.
30:11So this is what the pepper mash looks like before we convert it into Frank's Red Hot upstairs.
30:17So what we'll want to do here, we're going to turn the agitator on just to get it moving as well.
30:22That keeps the mashed-up peppers from separating from their juices.
30:27You can tell it really has a strong smell.
30:29This one might have a little more punch, so they dilute it with a milder batch.
30:35They mix them together in what they call the blend tank.
30:41Frank's biggest secret is in how it mills its peppers.
30:46We have a unique process in the way that we make Frank's Red Hot, which is part of what maintains the flavor of the pepper.
30:52Milling is what gets the sauce to go from this pulpy mash to this.
30:56Then, workers perform what they call the slick test.
31:02This is what we do every hour.
31:05We perform visual checks to make sure there are no particles too big or too small in our sample.
31:12So we have good products ready to be modeled.
31:15This is how it looks good.
31:17So now that we've made our Frank's Red Hot sauce, what we're doing next is sending it to our bulk tanks for storage.
31:24On an average day, the company makes about 130,000 gallons worth of Frank's Red Hot.
31:31Here is one of our large tanks for storage.
31:34We'll turn through these tanks over 10 times a day.
31:37If you want to come up here and take a look.
31:38I wish you were here because this smells amazing if you could taste it through your nose.
31:47If that doesn't wake you up, I don't know what will.
31:52From here, the sauce travels through a network of pipes into a different room,
31:57where it gets turned into one of Frank's 155 other products, like its buffalo sauce or chicken dip.
32:04The company has 12 packaging lines.
32:09We make hot sauce into everything from 12-ounce bottles that you see in your refrigerator,
32:15gallon bottles that you see at the restaurant,
32:18or 300-gallon totes or all the way up to 45,000-pound tankers.
32:22They can all be sent simultaneously through this maze of piping behind me.
32:26And to keep it moving, each of these machines has to run at a precise pace.
32:38This capper can close 100 bottles in just one minute.
32:43As we come further down the line, we're going to pass through an x-ray unit.
32:48We're going to make sure we're only sending out quality product all day, every day.
32:52The facility pumps out about 20 million gallons of Frank's Red Hot every year.
32:58It ships these all over the U.S. and to over 48 other countries.
33:04Since McCormick bought the company eight years ago,
33:07it's more than doubled Frank's sales internationally.
33:13The Super Bowl is its biggest week,
33:15as Americans load up on chicken wings lathered with Frank's.
33:19In the U.S. in 2024,
33:23people consumed 1.4 billion chicken wings the day of the Super Bowl.
33:29And Frank's hot sauce sales are 25% of the entire hot sauce sales in the U.S. during that time.
33:372.5 times more volume than any other brand in the hot sauce area.
33:44Tabata Gomez runs marketing at McCormick.
33:47We try to ensure the brand is present in moments that matter.
33:52We don't have to push ourselves into a Super Bowl.
33:55We're already part of it.
33:57The brand is also trying to compete with Kraft hot sauce makers
34:00by launching creative flavors like dill pickle hot sauce.
34:05In 2024, Frank's also introduced $1 minis.
34:10To ensure that we overcome that risk barrier.
34:14Hey, will I like it?
34:15Will I not like it?
34:16Should I use my money on that or not?
34:18Changing demographics have had an effect also on heat acceptance across
34:22because the cultures are starting to interconnect.
34:25In the 1990s, America was becoming more diverse.
34:30A wave of immigration introduced spicy dishes from all over the world.
34:36And heat slowly started becoming more popular.
34:40I grew up in Mexico.
34:42My boyfriend is American, but he eats a lot more heat now
34:46because I bring that to the mix, right?
34:49You can never ask a mother to pick a favorite.
34:52When the Mexican hot sauce Cholula hit the U.S. market in 1989,
34:57it blew up fast.
34:58Eventually, becoming the second best-selling hot sauce in America,
35:03behind Frank's.
35:05In 2020, McCormick decided to buy it for a whopping $800 million.
35:10They're not competing of each other, but they're actually complementary.
35:14So it is very common that you will go into a household and find two of them.
35:20In recent years, hot sauce has become one of the most popular condiments in America.
35:25Between 2019 and 2021, sales shot up almost 22%.
35:31The global hot sauce industry that year was valued at about $3.3 billion.
35:38And that's supposed to double by 2032.
35:42In the U.S. alone, the industry is worth about $1.1 billion,
35:47with 93% of Americans saying they eat hot sauce.
35:51Chefs like Alex Del Gallego are catching on to this trend.
36:01The truth is, when I moved to America,
36:04I came by myself with some friends,
36:06and I was tired of eating dollar burgers.
36:10So Alex started a restaurant called Easy Paella.
36:14Named after the Spanish dish he often ate in his native Venezuela.
36:18I said, you know what, I am going to create a different paella.
36:27So I need something that tastes like curry,
36:29but I'm spicy at the same time.
36:32So he turned to Hell's Kitchen Hot Sauce.
36:34That happened to be just a few blocks away.
36:37So instead of me creating a formula,
36:39I just went to run,
36:41and he gave me this beautiful sauce
36:43that I use for a lot of my dishes.
36:45We add the Rockin' Rasta Sauce.
36:55It's a Jamaican coconut curry hot sauce
36:57that's ranked at three out of six
36:59on Ron's chili pepper heat scale.
37:02So it's pretty spicy.
37:05The Rockin' Rasta Sauce
37:07that goes around, you see?
37:09That, it will be enough.
37:11Then we actually sieve it very well,
37:15and we serve it right away.
37:17We don't want to cook the sauce.
37:21We want to make sure
37:22it goes fresh in the plate.
37:27Hot sauce enhance all the flavors of the paella.
37:30For example, the chicken paella is very nice.
37:33You can taste the saffron,
37:34you can taste the olive oil and everything,
37:36but when you actually put the sauce,
37:38for those people who like spicy food,
37:41it's like a magical moment in the mouth.
37:45Hold on.
37:46Heart rate's about 130.
37:48No, what the fuck?
37:49But eating hot stuff
37:51isn't always a magical experience.
37:54Oh, shit.
37:57I feel it.
37:58Did you feel heat?
37:59Ah!
37:59Extra Hot Hot Sauce
38:02gets everyone crying the same
38:04on the YouTube show Hot Ones.
38:06Oh!
38:07No matter how famous you are.
38:09That's what got me.
38:11God.
38:14Let's take five-minute break.
38:16Yeah.
38:19When sauces get featured on the show,
38:22their sales go through the roof
38:24in what's been dubbed
38:25the Hot Ones Effect.
38:27We have the founder of Heatness,
38:29Noah Chamburg in the building.
38:30Noah Chamburg provides the show
38:32with its fiery 10-bottle lineup.
38:35So we'll try and kind of yank around
38:37the celebrity's taste buds
38:38and really give them something to respond to.
38:40Ah!
38:41This is the bomb.
38:43Beyond insanity, it says.
38:45We try and think of the hot sauces
38:47as other characters on the show
38:49that they can interact with.
38:51He sources those flavors
38:52from all over the world.
38:54So we'll end up trying
38:56usually about 20 a week,
38:57which, when you do the math,
38:59comes out to over 1,000 sauces a year
39:02that we're tasting.
39:03Noah also comes up with the recipes
39:05for the Hot Ones' own brand of sauces.
39:08Our new Hot Ones Buffalo Hot Sauce.
39:11We look at, okay,
39:12what's popular with food trends,
39:14what's happening in the culinary scene,
39:16and then also what are customers
39:17gravitating towards in the grocery store,
39:19what's going to resonate with them.
39:21And then heat level's always important,
39:23of course.
39:23He brought in levels 2, 3, 5, and 10.
39:29The mildest of these is the Hot Ones,
39:31the classic garlic Fresno.
39:34So deliciously tart.
39:36You feel it in your cheeks.
39:38But what stands out with this sauce
39:39are the Fresno chilies,
39:40which are, like, super grassy
39:43and fresh-tasting.
39:44I wanted something classic
39:46that you could use
39:47on your eggs in the morning.
39:50Third in the lineup
39:51packs a little more punch.
39:54Let's see my pouring technique.
39:56We see srirachas really have a moment
39:59and very popular,
40:00but we want to bring something new to it.
40:02Mmm, totally different aroma.
40:04So what we created
40:05is a pickled garlic sriracha.
40:08Then we wanted to add
40:09an extra little twist,
40:10so we put some key lime juice in it.
40:12Sauce 5 in the lineup
40:15is Noah's favorite.
40:17I'll take a big pour of Los Calientes
40:18because I love it.
40:20Mmm, warm spices, cumin in there.
40:27So delicious.
40:28Smoky.
40:29The name Los Calientes
40:30came one time I was on vacation.
40:34I sat there on the beach
40:35and I thought out loud
40:36and I said,
40:37how do you say Hot Ones in Spanish?
40:39Los Calientes.
40:41I said, that's perfect.
40:42We'll go with that.
40:45The part I left out of that story
40:46is like,
40:47you know,
40:48sparked up a dude
40:49and went,
40:50how do you say Hot Ones in Spanish?
40:56Last, but certainly not least.
40:59The infamous,
41:01the notorious,
41:02the last to have experience.
41:04And it's called that
41:05because this one
41:06has three forms of Pepper X in it.
41:09Fresh Pepper X peppers,
41:11it has Pepper X powders.
41:13It's also made with
41:14Pepper X distillate.
41:15If you notice the clouds
41:16on the label here,
41:18it's because it just
41:19sends you places.
41:21Oh, that's too much.
41:30When we were first
41:31making the last app
41:33back in 2017,
41:35I knew that Smokin' Ed
41:36had another Pepper
41:37up his sleeve.
41:38I wish I had eaten
41:39something first.
41:40I said,
41:44Ed,
41:44I want to come out
41:45with the hottest sauce
41:46on the show
41:47and I want to use
41:48your secret pepper.
41:49And he said,
41:50okay.
41:50We started working
41:51on the recipes
41:52and when the recipe
41:54was set,
41:55I said,
41:55Ed,
41:55what's the name
41:56of the pepper?
41:56We're going to start
41:57working on the label.
41:58And he said,
41:58oh,
41:59I can't tell you just yet.
42:01I said,
42:01okay,
42:02no problem.
42:02In the meantime,
42:03I'm just going to put Pepper X
42:04as a placeholder.
42:06That is,
42:06that is so delicious
42:08and I don't know
42:10what happened from there,
42:11but the name Pepper X
42:12just kind of stuck
42:13and we went with it.
42:15Some people start sweating.
42:17Personally,
42:18I get the hiccups.
42:21You invent that pepper.
42:23Yeah.
42:23Why?
42:25Smokin' Ed is practically
42:27a regular on the show.
42:29We have Smokin' Ed Curry,
42:30the sick, twisted mind
42:31behind Pepper X
42:32and of course the owner
42:33of Pucker Butt Pepper Company.
42:36We're here at the
42:37Pucker Butt Video Studio.
42:39Ed hosts challenges
42:40on his own YouTube channel too.
42:43Smokin' Ed Curry,
42:44I'm the president,
42:45owner,
42:45mad scientist and chef
42:46at the Pucker Butt Pepper Company
42:47and we're going crazy.
42:49Three, two, one, go!
42:50Oh!
42:51What in this?
42:53We've seen him spice up
42:54some cupcakes.
42:55I've had this drunken pumpkin.
42:58It is amazing.
43:00So, of course,
43:01we had to ask him
43:02what else he's put hot sauce on.
43:05Gelatinous bone marrow
43:06and hot sauce
43:07is just to die for.
43:09But Ed had never tried
43:11super spicy food
43:12until he got to college
43:13and ate at a Vietnamese restaurant
43:16for the first time.
43:17They gave me
43:18these little bird peppers
43:19and when I ate that,
43:22it was like,
43:23boom,
43:23the whole world changed.
43:25Because at the time,
43:26I was a drug addict
43:27and alcoholic
43:28and that was like
43:30my new drug.
43:31I wanted peppers.
43:32I got clean and sober
43:34almost 26 years ago
43:36and it's been nothing
43:37but peppers since.
43:39Maybe a little nicotine,
43:40but nothing but peppers.
43:42Ed says peppers
43:43gave him a second chance
43:45and now
43:46they're his life's purpose.
43:48Look at the oil in there.
43:50Ugh!
43:51Is it a happy coincidence
43:53that your last name
43:54is Curry?
43:56You know,
43:56the whole world thinks
43:57that I changed my name
43:59but my name is Curry
44:01so yeah,
44:01God had a plan going on
44:03that we didn't know about.