The Flash Point Sauces Story (“from Passion to Product”)

15 years ago I saw a Food Network host make a couple of hot sauces. While the recipes sounded very good, I thought I could do much better. So I set out to make my own unique sauce. I knew I wanted it hotter than your typical Louisiana Hot Sauce, and I also wanted a roasted or smoky flavor. So, after a trip to our State Farmers market, I came home with a variety of peppers. Mostly Habaneros and Jalapeno’s, but also a few Poblanos and Serranos. After charring them, removing the skins, and smoking them, I threw them into a blender with some spices and voila, my first hot sauce!

I took some to work to let the gang try it and they liked it too. Next thing you know we were taking it with us to our favorite Mexican restaurant every week. The restaurant staff tried some and they really liked it too! A few of my friends from work wanted to help make some. So we all got together a made a big batch. Of course we made an event out of it, Ribs on the grill, beer in the cooler, dip in the pool, etc. It was a blast!

For the next several years we would get together every chance we could get to have a “Sauce Day”. The result was always a great time and nice big batch of sauce. We’d each take some home and we’d give away some to close friends. This was great, but it got to the point we had so many people asking for the sauce we couldn’t afford to give that much away. So they started asking to buy it!

So here’s where the Flash Point Sauces story really begins. A couple of my best friends, Chad and Todd, and I started discussing if we could make this a real business. All three of us really have a passion for cooking and pretty much all things spicy. Of course we knew we’d have to make some changes in the recipe and process to be able to scale it up into a viable product. But, we knew exactly what we wanted, a sauce that was smoky, just the right amount of heat, and most important, great flavor. Unlike a lot of craft sauce makers, we weren’t after a blow your head off amount of heat. But more of a sauce that had great flavor with a good, long lasting, slow burn to it. Something you could put on pretty much anything and make it better.

So we started seriously refining the recipe, scaling up our process, and researching business and regulatory requirements. It took us several years and many test batches to find the perfect pepper mashes and combination of ingredients, to meet our high quality and flavor standards. But we did it! And now Flash Point Sauces, is proud to introduce our signature “Fired-Up Chipotle” hot sauce.

-Tony Spivey-
-Chad Adams-
-Todd Shipp-