Some Like it Hot

Hot sauces come in an incredible range of flavour profiles and are great fodder for breakfast table debates: are you a vinegar-based aficionado, or do you prefer a more fruit-forward spice? Do you like your hot sauce to make you sweat, or just add a little extra flavour to your plate? 

You would be hard-pressed to find a more dynamic condiment, and several Vancouver Island-based companies are crafting recipes that reflect the unique personality of the region through surprising ingredient combinations and creative business collaborations.

Spice it up with local ingredients
 

Eben and Karita Sedun got their start in the hot sauce business after making a custom blend called Red Hot Monogamy as their wedding favour. Since then, their Nanoose Bay-based company, Vancouver Island Hot Sauce, has pursued several interesting collaborations with nearby businesses: Arbutus Distillery uses their Owl’s Screech hot sauce in their vodka, and you can find a hot sauce beer collab at Longwood Brewery as well as Breath of Humbaba wings at Fern and Cedar Brewing. 

Breath of Humbaba takes its namesake from Humbaba, the monstrous guardian of the Cedar Forest in The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of humanity’s earliest known works of literature from ancient Mesopotamia. Made with B.C.-grown jalapeño peppers, this hot sauce has notes of lime, cilantro and lemongrass, with juniper berries and just a drop of Western Red Cedar tincture in the mix. “These ingredients add some earthy notes to a very citrusy sauce, and they give it that Island feel,” say Eben and Karita.

Rob Schrier of The Cure Hot Sauce Company in Courtenay has a similar origin story: with 25 years of experience as a chef, he began crafting his own hot sauce called BlackHeart Heat for personal use when it became popular among his friends. The Cure officially launched in 2021, and Schrier has sourced peppers from farms in the Comox Valley like RockBottom and Fitzgerald Farms. 

Schrier muses that one of his most surprising flavour combinations was from one of his first small-batch hot sauces, which contained locally foraged chanterelles that he fermented and combined with pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and hot peppers. This produced “a really nice earthy flavour, with a medium-heat kick. It made for a nice soup garnish, went well with pasta sauce, and, surprisingly, was a nice complement to a strong cup of coffee.” 

Island Chef Pepper Co., based on the Saanich Peninsula, is also tapping Vancouver Island farms for ingredients whenever possible: garlic, jalapeños, bell peppers and hot chilis are either grown in-house or by small local farms, and they also source honey from local beekeepers. Their Pineapple Express is a version of the classic pineapple habanero hot sauce, and their take is finished with beer from Category 12 Brewing. “[We] provide one of the hottest versions on this flavour profile,” says chef and owner Vincent Capitano. 

A sauce for every occasion
 

Hot sauces are well loved condiments for a wide variety of foods, but what about classic cocktails, like our much beloved Caesars? Over at Salt Spring Kitchen Co., owner Melanie Mulherin reaches for their Morita + Espresso + Chipotle sauce to craft a memorable smoky mezcal Caesar. 

Also part of the Salt Spring Kitchen hot sauce lineup is the Habanero + Curry + Orange concoction, showcasing a curry supplied by another Salt Spring Island business, Monsoon Coast, as well as a Pineapple + Turmeric + Achiote blend. Mulherin admits she is one of those hot sauce fanatics who not only enjoys a variety of sauces, but collects them, too: “I have about 50 bottles in my fridge at any given time. I collect a bottle or two from every place I travel. So it was natural to add hot sauce to our line of preserves.”

You might imagine your hot sauce lineup in a spicy ombre palette of yellow and orange, melting into red and maroon, but don’t neglect the potential of a tantalizing verde. Nellie’s is a catering and prepared meal service company on Salt Spring Island, and one of their recent feature garnishes has become so popular, it’s earned a permanent spot on the retail pantry at local bakery Francis Bread. 

This popular green hot sauce is zhug, which originates from Yemeni cuisine, and Nellie’s version incorporates Saanich-based Babe’s Honey, as well as cilantro, parsley and garlic sourced locally when possible. “Zhug is one of those sneaky sauces that really makes everything better,” says Gracie Gardner, who runs Nellie’s alongside partner Henry Wright. “Put it on a plain piece of seared fish, so elegant. Dip vegetables in it, energizing. Put it on any sandwich, make a quick pot of clams and drizzle the zhug in it, or slap it on a fried egg…it just works!”

Hot sauce as a category represents an incredible range of ingredients and flavours, and these small businesses have created products that speak to the industrious and collaborative nature of Island farmers and food producers.