Hot Shots Blog

Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Peppers of Key West Pepper Mobile 

Vroom Vroom... The Chile Pepper Car!

Did you know that sitting outside of Peppers of Key West Hot Sauce Shoppe is an actual car shaped like a Chile Pepper?

About Peppers of Key West:

Peppers of Key West is the best hot sauce store in the world. You are sure to find the best hot sauces, hot sauce gifts, and fun products of all things hot sauce and pepper related. We strive to ensure you, our customers, are happy. One of the things that makes Peppers of Key West different than other online Hot Sauce Stores is that we’re always here to help you find the perfect product for you or as a gift.

Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Chile Pepper Institute   

Did you know there is an actual IRL Chile Pepper Institute?

The Chile Pepper Institute is the only international, non-profit organization devoted to education and research related to Capsicum, or chile peppers. Established in 1992, the Institute builds on the research of chile peppers since the famous horticulturalist Fabian Garcia (the father of the U.S. chile pepper industry) began standardizing chile pepper varieties in 1888. The Institute is located on the New Mexico State University campus, Las Cruces, NM in Gerald Thomas Hall, Room 265 (575-646-3028). In the Institute visitors will discover chile research posters, chile pepper books, art, and hundreds of high-demand and hard-to-find chile pepper seed varieties.  

The Chile Pepper Institute is responsible for discovering the then world's hottest chile pepper, the Bhut Jolokia, led at that time by Paul W. Bosland, and confirmed by the Guinness World Records in the Fall of 2006. Many interesting records about chile peppers are discovered at the Chile Pepper Institute including the world's largest chile pepper, the Numex Big Jim specimen, that was developed in 1976 at NMSU, and the recently released specimen chile pepper, NuMex Heritage 6-4, which is five times the flavor of a standard green chile. CPI also host different programs, events and conferences in local, national, and international levels.

Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Chile Oil 

Hot Sauce or Hot Condiment? What say you about Chile Oil? 

Made from vegetable oil infused with chile peppers, chile oil is a staple of several East Asian cuisines, but especially Sichuan. It's typically made by adding dried red chiles (such as tsin tsin peppers, and some Sichuan peppercorns and other spices if you're feeling fancy) to hot oil, then letting the mixture cool and sit for a few hours, allowing the chile's flavors to infuse the oil. The finished product is served tableside as a condiment, as part of a communal hot pot meal, or gets stirred into noodle dishes, stir fries, and salads. Some chile oils strain out the chile pies while others go all-in for a chunky, oily paste. 

Japanese chile oil, or rayu, is similar to its Chinese counterpart, and is also used in soups and stir fries; Taberu rayu, a brand of milder oil with a crunchy mix of fried garlic, chiles, and sesame seeds from Okinawa, has been a wildly popular addition to noodle and rice dishes across Japan since 2009. 

The Italian olio di peperoncino originates from Calabria (the toe of the boot known for its fiery peppers) and uses olive oil as a base. It's made in a similar fashion as Asian chile oils and is usually served with pasta as part of the simple "spaghetti, aglio, olio e peperoncino" dish.

Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Cayenne Pepper can Help Stop Bleeding

Cayenne pepper can be used for first aid...

Drop the band-aids and run to the kitchen: A popular natural remedy, when applied topically, cayenne pepper can help stop bleeding. The cayenne can either be sprinkled on the injury directly or diluted in water and soaked into a bandage. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the powder helps equalize blood pressure, meaning less blood will pump out of the wound and it will clot faster. Some even believe that the pepper will help alleviate pain—something normal bandages can’t do.

There may be another unexpected benefit that can come from cayenne pepper: first-aid perks, to be precise. A user on Reddit wrote, "If you cut your hand while preparing food, sprinkle cayenne pepper into the wound and apply pressure." They say that this can help stop the bleeding in a minute or less, quickly giving you the opportunity to wrap a bandage around your wound. Is there any truth to their words?

If you've accidentally hurt yourself in the kitchen and cannot spot a bandage or piece of absorbent cloth anywhere, don't despair. Per Mental Floss, cayenne pepper is indeed an effective solution that can help you tackle a bleeding wound in a jiffy. There are a couple of ways to approach this cayenne healing method. You can either dab a little bit of the spicy powder on your wound, or you can add some water to the powder before soaking a bandage with the mixture and wrapping yourself up.

Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Grains of Capsicum Dating Back 6,000 Years

In South America, researchers have identified starch grains of Capsicum on milling stones and cooking pots recovered from house floors in southwestern Ecuador dating them to around 6,000 years ago. These microfossil remains are some of the earliest chili peppers documented from the region. In addition, while many records from Mesoamerica focus on cultivation of squash, corn, manioc, and more without focus on chiles, an archeological study has shown via microfossils that the use of chiles in Mesoamerica may date all the way back to about 400 BCE.

Scientists believe that birds are mainly responsible for the spread of wild chili peppers out of their nuclear origination areas, with domestication via Mesoamerican populations thereafter. As noted below, birds don’t have receptors that feel the sting of a chili’s spice, and it doesn’t cause any harm to their digestive systems.

Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Capsaicin Oil

But I only want to love you...

Capsaicin, the component in chile peppers that produces the heat sensation, is created by the pepper plant to stop animals from eating its fruit. It does not affect birds, which spread the plant's seeds. But this defense mechanism only makes most of us want to eat chile peppers even more!

Studies have found that capsaicin can increase your metabolism, which increases the rate at which you use energy and burn fat stores. It can also lower your appetite, which may help you eat less than you normally would.

It turns out that capsaicin - the active ingredient in spicy food actually binds to a special class of vanilloid receptor inside our mouth called VR1 receptors. After capsaicin binds to these receptors, the sensory neuron is depolarized, and it sends along a signal indicating the presence of spicy stimuli.

Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Capsaicin Heat  

What Makes Hot Sauce Hot? The chemical that gives peppers their distinctive spicy flavor is called capsaicin. Sources believe that nature intended capsaicin to deter many animals from eating peppers, but the chemical has had the opposite effect… because spicy food is delicious.

Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Calabrian Chile Peppers 

A Chile Pepper with an Italian flare... Mamma mia!!

Calabrian chiles are a category of chile peppers grown in the Italian region of Calabria, located at the toe of the boot. Enclosed by three separate mountain ranges and situated between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and the Ionian Sea to the east, Calabria enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate with little rain during the summer months, which is the prime season for growing chile peppers. 

Botanically speaking, Calabrian chiles are no different from similar varieties of Capsicum annuum grown anywhere else in the world. But their unique flavor and heat profile are a result of the specific growing conditions of the Calabrian region, with lots of sunlight and little rain. The acidity of the soil, the type and amount of fertilizer used, and many other factors help to distinguish chile peppers grown in Calabria from their brethren grown elsewhere. If you're not located in Europe, Calabrian chiles tend to be a bit pricey, since they are a prized export. A jar of chile paste can run $10 to $20. 

The best way to use Calabrian chiles depends on what form they come in. One of the most common is the crushed style, where the ripe hot chiles are ground into a paste along with oil, vinegar, and salt. The resulting chile paste resembles Indonesian sambal. 

In this form, the chiles constitute a spicy, smoky condiment, which can be used in all kinds of ways. For instance, combine it with an egg yolk, some garlic, vinegar, and salt, then process it in a food processor or blender while drizzling in oil to make a Calabrian chile aioli. Or blend it up with some fresh thyme, garlic, fresh orange juice plus the zest, along with some vinegar, oil, salt, and a raw egg to make a fruity, spicy marinade for grilled chicken. Add it to pasta, homemade hummus, pizza, roasted meats, sautéed greens, and sandwiches.

Hot Sauce Fun Fact - CaJohns Frostbite Hot Sauce 

Clearly it's Hot Sauce... Clearly 

There are many clear hot sauces on the market, one of the more popular and multi-use options is CaJohns Frostbite. So, Frostbite clear hot sauce can be used wherever you do not want it detected. Ever have coffee, the world’s most popular beverage with heat? Now you can. Just pour in a drop or two of Frostbite clear hot sauce and it will not only be hot as in temperature hot. It will be hot as in spicy hot. The same goes for hot chocolate. Imaging adding a standard hot sauce into coffee or hot chocolate. Simply disgusting! Not only would it taste terrible but most hot sauce is red in color. Does not sound too appetizing, does it? Ok, now let's say you have your favorite daiquiri, martini, margarita, or Manhattan. I will bet you would like it a little spicy so add a little Frostbite clear hot sauce and bam, you have got it! It is also the very same with your favorite margarita. Enough about alcoholic beverages. 

 How about a food you like and want to spice it up without that dreaded red color. Everyone loves ice cream and vanilla is the most popular flavor anywhere. It will remain white, but Frostbite clear hot sauce will certainly add that heat. Of course, this will work on any flavor of ice cream including chocolate, but the vast majority feel heat just tastes better with vanilla ice cream. Try mixing some Frostbite clear hot sauce in maple syrup and pouring on pancakes or waffles. Perfect on grits or farina, again white in color Frostbite clear hot sauce will not be detected until eaten. How about whipping a little into icing or frosting for spicy cookies, cakes and cupcakes. Do you like Deviled Eggs, adding a typical hot sauce will change the color of your yolk, well Frostbite has no color... So, your egg yolk stays bright yellow but is still spicy! The simplest and probably one of the best applications is to simply put some big drops into your favorite jar of pickles, relish, olives, or and pickled vegetables. Again, it won't cloud your pickle jar with a reddish-brown color, it will just give you the spick kick up you are looking for with no color or flavor difference. Now that brings up another subject. If you don’t want someone to know it is hot and be a little sneaky, Frostbite clear hot sauce is your man! But we don't condone those types of things.

Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Bumblefoot's Hot Sauce 

Rocker Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal on his line of Hot Sauces in his words:

It was 1981, at a family get-together in Brooklyn. I was 12 years old; my older cousin Steve dared me $5 to eat a hot cherry pepper - that was my earliest memory of 'the rush' you get from spicy food. And it grew from there. Extra wasabi with sushi... extra peppers in Thai food... extra hot sauce on Mexican food. Always ordering things “as spicy as you can make it” and testing my limits. Friends would get me hot sauces as gifts, I'd be eating spicy chili and adding 12-Million-Scoville extract to it. People would ask, 'Do you even taste the flavor of the food anymore?' Yes - when you've developed a high tolerance, you can enjoy the food more, as the heat isn't a distraction, it's a complimentary sensation to the colors and aroma and taste. I love the rush.

With music, I've always felt such excitement in discovering new bands, new sounds. It inspired me to learn and make music, to develop it, and eventually share it, give others the enjoyment I experienced from it all. It's the same for anything that inspires - art, music, entertainment, knowledge, food, everything. When you're passionate about something in life, it follows a process - you love it, then you make it, then you share it. It was like this with music, it's the same with hot sauce. Love it, make it, share it...

For years I've had ideas, recipes, flavors that I wanted to share. 'Brimstone' at Hound Entertainment introduced me to the masters at CaJohns Fiery Foods. I flew out between Guns N' Roses shows in Las Vegas to CaJohns' headquarters in Ohio where with John 'CaJohn' Hard and Chef Steve Lawrence we played mad scientist in the kitchen and brought these flavors to life.

In 2013, after years of saying ‘someday’ I finally got to hold bottles of Bumblefoot hot sauces in my hands, a line of six sauces. We brought them to ZestFest food festival in Dallas Texas, and three of the six sauces won 1st Place awards in their categories.

In 2019, I've re-released the sauces through my own company, featuring favorites of the previous sauce line - the award-winning all-purpose THE SAUCE (previous titled "Normal"), the award-winning zesty BBQ style sauce Bumblicious!, and the thermo-nuclear extreme-heat use-with-caution sauce BumbleF**KED.

I hope to see a growing number of stores, pubs & restaurants, food trucks, and international re-sellers carrying the sauces. If you know one, or are one, please reach out to me at HotSauce@Bumblefoot.com! I'll be attending foodie events with the sauces and bringing them with me on tour whenever I can - will keep an updated schedule of events at bumblefoot.com - hope to see you!

Final thought – Cousin Steve never gave me the $5. I still joked about it with him when he'd see me loading hot peppers onto my turkey sandwich at get-togethers decades later. He passed away unexpectedly, before these hot sauces had come to life. To the man who tricked me into eating my first hot pepper and started me on this journey, these hot sauces are dedicated to you.

Thank you!

Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal @Bumblefoot