This hot sauce is truly hot stuff

PALMETTO PEPPER POTIONS HOT SAUCE COMPANY WINS MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FOOD INDUSTRY AWARD

(January 1, 2005) Results of the 2005 Scovie Awards, the food industry's top award recognizing hot and spicy foods -- have just been announced, and Columbia-based Palmetto Pepper Potions, LLC is among the winners. Palmetto Pepper Potions, which produces three handcrafted hot sauce flavors – Daily Red© , Larynx Lava© and Molten Golden© -- has received a First Place 2005 Scovie Award. A panel of the country's top culinary experts sampled some of the most noted names in gourmet food, and the top scoring products each won a coveted Scovie banner.

Molten Golden -- a Caribbean-style mango, red habanero, mustard, curry and cumin concoction -- captured a First Place Scovie win in the “World Beat” category. More than 600 products from around the world competed for top honors. The Scovie Awards were created by Dave DeWitt, publisher of Fiery-Foods & BBQ Magazine and founder of the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show. The awards are named for Wilbur Scoville, who pioneered a rating scale for spicy foods, and have become the industry standard for excellence in over 60 categories of fiery foods.

Dave DeWitt, long considered the father of the fiery foods industry and the author of over 30 books on fiery cuisine, noted, “I am proud to see how the Scovie Awards have become the preeminent award for hot and spicy foods. Our entries come from every corner of the globe, and our winners hail from 33 states and four countries. This year's Scovie winners really exemplify the diversity and quality of this industry. It is not so much about heat as about the wonderful flavors of fiery foods.”

Many of the Scovie award winning products, as well as thousands of other products, will be on display at the 16 th Annual National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show, March 11-13 in Albuquerque , NM . For information on exhibiting in the National Fiery Foods Show, call 505.873.8690, or visit www.fiery-foods.com.

The State.com
South Carolina Newspaper

Posted on Wed, Nov. 24, 2004

Mark and Julie pick a peck of pepper honors

By ALLISON ASKINS
Staff Writer

When Julie and Mark Riffle planted a slew of surplus pepper plants given to them by a friend a number of years ago, the Forest Acres couple had no idea what was about to unfold.

Both enjoyed hot sauces — especially Mark — but neither knew that within a few years they would have a winning concoction on their hands. The couple recently won a prestigious Scovie Award for their Molten Golden Sauce.

In the world of foodies, the Scovies are the equivalent of the Academy Awards, but the skill being rated is how well you can bottle heat rather than project it on screen. Winners are selected during a tasting event sponsored by Fiery Foods & BBQ Magazine in Albuquerque, N.M.

The Riffles' Molten Golden took first place in the “World Beat” category, winning within a month of their first commercial bottling venture. They have two other varieties available for sale — Larynx Lava and Daily Red — and a third on the way, Trenholm Venom.

A strange turn of fate for a woman who swears she grew up in a home that barely passed the pepper at the dinner table.

But Mark Riffle, who works in human resources for the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, has always loved hot flavors. The affection began with cinnamon toothpicks, graduating to his stepfather's hot Italian foods and moving toward a fascination with some of the habaneros from the batch of surplus peppers provided by his friend.

“He just is completely stunned,” Julie Riffle said of her husband's reaction to the Scovie win. “He thought it would take many years.”

Julie, whose day jobs include freelance writing and coordinating communications for Palmetto Richland Children's Hospital, had a feeling about the competition from the very beginning. The feeling was fueled by her commercial bottler's reaction to the sauce when he first tasted it.

The winning sauce contains mangos, yellow mustard, red habaneros, brown sugar, curry and cumin.

And while the road to recognition has been somewhat short, the road to commercial bottling has not been.

An avid researcher, Julie led the couple through the lengthy process, which involved extensive testing for commercial suitability by Clemson University, finding a bottler who would accept their high standards of using only the freshest ingredients and the expensive purchase of a bar code — not to mention the many, many hours spent in their own kitchen, experimenting with ideas.

The Riffles credit the S.C. Specialty Foods Association with steering them through much of the process. The association is a network of specialty-food producers in the state with a vast array of experience among them.

But the first work began in the Riffles' kitchen.

“We did have a lot of sauce parties with friends,” Julie said. “Whatever we had around, we would combine ... but then it got to the point where we had developed some proprietary knowledge.”

Friends still receive bottles for gifts. Celebrities, too, including favorite musicians such as Danielle Howle, Athenaeum and Sister Hazel, whose tunes are among those the couple play at their parties.

If you'd like to add a zing to your holiday parties, you can find the Riffles' sauces locally at The Fresh Market in Trenholm Plaza, Rosewood Market on Rosewood Drive, The Farmer's Shed in Lexington, Groucho's Deli Harborside at Lake Carolina or through mail order at saucecrafters.com. Additional information about the sauces, including recipes, is available at www.pepperpotions.com. (Julie also recommends topping your macaroni and cheese with the Molten Golden or adding it to your deviled eggs.)

If you ever get a chance, be sure to ask Julie to make you some of her fresh limeade, too. It's the best I've ever tasted!