NYC Hot Sauce Expo Page 1

Fourth Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo 2016

April 23-24, 2016
Brooklyn Expo Center, Brooklyn, NY

NYC Hot Sauce Expo

Sophia and Allen, Two Frys

Sophia and I attended the Fourth Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo Saturday, April 23, and we had a great time this year seeing our good friends and making new ones. The expo was well organized and I want to thank Steve and Lisa Seabury for presenting the attending Chile heads and heat seekers a smooth and fun experience for the attendees and vendors. This year there was an impressive amount of food and drink choices, and our VIP experience was the best to date. I recommend you purchase a VIP ticket for future expos. There were no long waits for either the food or drinks and the most we waited was 3-4 minutes. The VIP experience featured an indoor and outdoor patio area with tables to eat and drink in both areas. The food choices in the VIP area offered were good like BBQ style items such as sausage w/kraut on a roll, cheeseburger sliders, grilled cheese, German potato salad, and kale salad. There were drinks available from soda, ginger beer, craft beer such as the Coney Island Brewing Co., spicy Bloody Mary, whiskey, rum, and many other libations. We found some concrete blocks to sit on at the outdoor area for those who needed a break and a place to sit while eating. There were tables available outside as well. I also commend Lisa and Steve Seabury for putting together outdoor food and drinks for general admission areas. Vendors were selling popsicles, ice cream, hot dogs, meat pies, oysters, burgers and more. The overall layout was done well and spacious for the crowd that swelled to many by midday. The staffers of both the event and the Brooklyn Expo were helpful, kind and polite.

Allen goofing off at the Coney Island Brewing Co in the outside area

Sophia, the blue haired, tattooed mermaid, Coney Island Brewing Co

The crew from Coney Island Brewing Co

The contests were all a ton of fun to watch and ran smoothly. Some of the events we saw Saturday were The Spicy Guacamole Eating Contest, Hot Wings Eating Competition, Hot Sauce Hall of Fame Induction, The Screaming Mimi Awards, and the Margarita Mix-Down. We did not attend Sunday but there was the Jersey Barnfire Spicy Meatball Challenge (would have loved to see that one), Heartbreaking Dawns Spicy Taco Eating Challenge, High River Sauces Burrito Eating Challenge, The Bloody Mary Mix Down and the Puckerbutt Pepper Guinness World Record Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper Pepper Eating Challenge. Carolina Reapers are the Guinness Book of World Record hottest pepper record holder. The Carolina Reapers are from my friend Smokin’ Ed Currie of Puckerbutt.

John Dilley of Defcon, Hot Wings Eating Competition 

Maggie, Defcon in protection gear onstage, Hot Wings Eating Competition

John Dilley, Defcon, Hot Wings Eating Competition

The Spicy Guacamole Eating Contest

On Saturday, we arrived in Brooklyn at around 10:45AM and the line went quickly to get in. The VIP gift bags were great with a bottle of hot sauce, a bottle of Cajun Rum, mini bottles of Bird Dog Jalapeño Whiskey, Bruce Cost GingerBeer Unfiltered Original Spicy, Tabasco, a bandana, and Mason jar style plastic drinking cup from Stoli and some back issues of Chile Pepper Magazine, one of the sponsors. I picked up an older BBQ and Yucatan back issue from the VIP check in since I did not have them in my collection. I was very happy, as this magazine is jam packed with spicy and hot recipes. The VIP swag bag was the best one to date so thanks again, Lisa and Steve Seabury.

Manning the grill at the VIP area, see the smoke

Food at the VIP area

Bratwurst and sauerkraut, VIP area

The atmosphere was hopping and the expo rocked out playing heavy metal throughout the day in between the stage announcements and events. Sophia and I first visited the General Electric (GE) heat-sensing camera booth. The GE 1032Kelvin Hot Sauce was the first I had so early in the morning. 1032Kelvin was a mix of Carolina Reapers and Scorpion Peppers. These are the two top hottest peppers in the world. The sauce was very hot and hit me with a good burn. Then they took my picture with a heat-sensing camera and you could see the red heat in my mouth and lip area. This was a fun booth and a unique experience from GE. Visit #seetheheat or 1032kelvin.com/gomx for more info. Right after tasting the extreme hot sauce the camera snapped four pictures. I had to choose one printed for me (see photo). After I got my pic, I was rewarded with a Mint Ice Cream Sandwich to cool down. My image was on the large screen with other participants.

GE Thermal Imaging booth

GE 1032 Kelvin Hot Sauce, GE Thermal Imaging booth

Allen, GE Thermal Imaging booth

Allen about to try 1032 Kelvin Hot Sauce 

Allen getting his pic taken at the GE Thermal Imaging booth

Allen's heat sensing pic after having Kelvin 1032 Hot Sauce, bottom right where arrow points

It was awesome seeing new vendors this year. Some of the new vendors at the 2016 NYC Hot Sauce Expo were as follows: Bocas Hot Sauce, Big Daddy’s Hot Sauces, Angry Goat Pepper Co., Bravado Spice Co., Jak Jeckel, Meow That’s Hot, among others. Some of the returning vendors from former expos are N.W. Elixirs, A&B American Style, Benny T’s Vesta Dry Hot Sauce, Whitehouse Station Sauce Company, Big Fat’s Hot Sauce, Rippin’ Red Sauces, and Culley’s all the way from New Zealand. Making a comeback this year was Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce. 

View of Manhattan from the NYC Hot Sauce Expo

My Bud, Doug Spiros of Peppers and More and Allen

Doug Spiros getting some fresh air and talking about sauce

It is always great to meet new vendors as well as see our good friends at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. Alot of the vendors we know were so busy they really could not visit, but busy is a good thing in the industry. All the hot sauce booths we visited were great and we enjoyed talking to all the hot sauce proprietors and staffers. Below are some highlights from the expo. Please note: Click the link at the end of this page to continue reading our expo coverage, which goes on for five posts.

Farmland Fresh Dairies dudes giving out ice cold Milk, the only thing to cool a burning mouth

Farmland Fresh Dairies 

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