Chile Chapters

The Fiery Food Challenge Winners of ZestFest 2019

Posted in Articles by Josh Winn | February 2nd, 2019


2019 Fiery Food Challenge - Hot Sauce Winners

This year's ZestFest in Irving, Texas has concluded, and the results are in for the Fiery Food Challenge.

Twenty-three years running, this national competition involved a judging period spanning three days, with two blind tasting sessions a day. The independent judges tried and rated various hot and zesty food products. The challenge ended with an awards dinner at the end of the week, with the top winners receiving the Golden Chile award.

Awards were given in many different categories including salsas, condiments, BBQ, and cocktail mixes. Congratulations to all of this year's winners. Here we'll only look at the "consumer ready" hot sauces.

Winners in the Hot Sauce Categories

A few companies / makers came up big this year, winning multiple awards in different categories.

Angry Goat had three first place awards, including best hot sauce. Karma Sauce Co. continued their Fiery Foods Challenge winning streak with three first place awards. CaJohn's  won in three categories too. Klowns on Fire!, JLD, and Lucky Dog all had two first place awards each.

Best Hot Sauce:

  1. Angry Goat Pepper Co - Dreams of Calypso Hot Sauce

American Style – Mild/Medium

  1. JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Hot Sauce
  2. Rising Smoke Sauceworks LLC - Fire Starter
  3. World Famous Hot Sauce - L.B.I. Love Potion-Extra Garlic

American Style – Hot/X-Hot

  1. Pepplish Provisions - Mango Garlic Hickory
  2. Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce - Cry Baby Craig's Hot Sauce
  3. JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Extra Hot

Asian Style – Mild/Medium

  1. The Karma Sauce Company - Curry Karma Sauce
  2. JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Hot Sauce Thai Flavor
  3. Salem’s Lott Scary Hot Sauces - Heat Stroke

Asian Style – Hot/X-Hot

  1. The Karma Sauce Company - Funken Hot Yellow Moruga
  2. Mama Lams, Inc - Mama Lam’s Malaysian Hot Sauce Vegan Style
  3. NRJSpice Food LLC - Purple Dragon Sauce-Gochujang Sriracha

Caribbean Style – Mild/Medium

  1. Angry Goat Pepper Co - Dreams of Calypso Hot Sauce
  2. Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce - Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce
  3. Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dick’s Caribbean Dreams Sauce

Caribbean Style – Hot/X-Hot

  1. Todd’s Salsa - Inner Beauty Hot Sauce
  2. Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dick’s Caribbean Dreams Sauce
  3. Alvin’s Hot Sauces - Alvin’s Red Pepper Hot Sauce

Chipotle Style – Mild/Medium

  1. Porky’s Gourmet Foods - Historic Lynchburg Sweet Fire Spicy Chipotle Pepper Sauce
  2. K-Sauce - K-5 Keenan’s Killer Chipotle Hot Sauce
  3. Lucky Dog Hot Sauce - White Label-Cherry Chipotle

Chipotle Style – Hot/X-Hot

  1. CaJohns Foods LLC - Bourbon Infused Chipotle Habanero
  2. Seafire Gourmet - Reaper
  3. Porky’s Gourmet Foods - Historic Lynchburg Sweet Fire X-Hot Chipotle Pepper Sauce

Exotic – Mild/Medium

  1. CaJohns Foods LLC - CaJohns Black Garlic Hot Sauce
  2. Pepper Palace - Tequilapeno
  3. Sh’ That’s Hot! - Mariachi Ninja

Exotic – Hot/X-Hot 

  1. Alvin’s Hot Sauces - Alvin’s Red Pepper Hot Sauce 
  2. Seafire Gourmet - Reaper 
  3. The Karma Sauce Company - Hole Mole

Fruit Based – Mild/Medium 

  1. Pepper North Artisan Foods - Solar Flare 
  2. Hella Hot Hot Sauce - Garlic Death Grip 
  3. Pepplish Provisions - Apple Cilantro Lime

Fruit Based – Hot/X-Hot 

  1. Gemini Crow Hot Sauce - Jack The Reaper 
  2. Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dirty Dick’s Hot Pepper Sauce 
  3. Klowns on Fire! LLC - Klowns Inferno

Guacamole Style

  1. Angry Goat Pepper Co - Hippy Dippy Green Hot Sauce 
  2. Loco Avocado Foods - Loco Avocado Smooth & Mild 
  3. Loco Avocado Foods - Loco Avocado Almost Hot

Latin – Mild/Medium 

  1. Mikey V’s Foods - Mikey V’s I Love Taco Sauce So Much Sauce 
  2. The Karma Sauce Company - Taco Rosso 
  3. Das Güd Spice Co. - Hatch Chipotle Verde Hot Sauce

Latin – Hot/X-Hot

  1. Primo’s Peppers - Primonition 
  2. Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce - Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce 
  3. Stockton Foods Inc - Catalina’s Red Chile Salsa

Pepper Blend – Mild/Medium 

  1. Lucky Dog Hot Sauce - White Label-Cherry Chipotle 
  2. K-Sauce - K-2 Keenan’s Killer Mean Green Hot Sauce 
  3. Rising Smoke Sauceworks LLC - Bueno Nachos

Pepper Blend – Hot/X-Hot 

  1. Red Kitchen Foods - Smokin Texas Gourmet Angry Twist Pepper Sauce 
  2. Bravado Spice Co - Bravado Spice Crimson Special Reserve 
  3. Alvin’s Hot Sauces - Alvin’s Yellow Pepper Hot Sauce

Spicy Sweet Sauce – Mild/Medium 

  1. El Fuego Pepper Sauce - Pineapple Thai Sweet Pepper Sauce 
  2. Porky’s Gourmet Foods - Historic Lynchburg Sweet Fire Spicy Chipotle Pepper Sauce 
  3. Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dirty Dick’s Hot Pepper Sauce

Spicy Sweet Sauce – Hot/X-Hot  

  1. CaJohns Foods LLC - Tiki Torch Hot Sauce 
  2. Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dirty Dick’s Hot Pepper Sauce 
  3. Angry Goat Pepper Co - Purple Hippo Hot Sauce

Ghost Pepper Sauce

  1. Clark + Hopkins - Assam 
  2. JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Extra Hot 
  3. Salem’s Lott Scary Hot Sauces - Casper The Deadly Ghost

Reaper Pepper Sauce

  1. Klowns on Fire! LLC - Klowns Inferno 
  2. Klowns on Fire! LLC - Kiss of the Klown 
  3. Pepper North Artisan Foods - Momento do Muerte

Trinidad Pepper Sauce

  1. Lucky Dog Hot Sauce - Heat’s a Peach 
  2. Clamlube Brand Hot Sauce Madstone USA Inc. - Clamlube Brand Trinidog Hot Sauce 
  3. Alvin’s Hot Sauces - Alvin’s Red Pepper Hot Sauce

Mild

  1. The Karma Sauce Company - Good Karma Sauce 
  2. Taste Elevated Hijole - Piercin’ Piquillo 
  3. Puckerbutt Pepper Company - The Classic

Medium

  1. Bravado Spice Co - Bravado Spice Serrano & Basil Hot Sauce 
  2. The Karma Sauce Company - Bad Karma Sauce 
  3. Pepper Palace - Smokin’ Southern

Hot 

  1. Primo’s Peppers - Primonition 
  2. Pepplish Provisions - Mango Garlic Hickory 
  3. Seed Ranch Flavor Co - Umami Reserve

X-Hot

  1. Klowns on Fire! LLC - Extreme Peach Reaper 
  2. The Karma Sauce Company - Funken Hot 
  3. Klowns on Fire! LLC - Sirkus Phyre

Ultra Hot Pepper 

  1. JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Carolina Reaper Special Reserve 
  2. Angry Irishman - Angry Irishman Why? Sauce 
  3. Nyuli Tuzes Chili - The Rabbit Fire

Some of the Winners On Social Media

Have You Tasted These Sauces?

Have you tried these sauces too? We're working on adding them to our Hot Sauce List (there are quite a lot after all...), so they are ready to be reviewed or added to your "to taste" wishlist. Or add one yourself and we'll get it approved and appearing on the site.