Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc., one of Canada’s top-ten food innovators of 2008, plans for expansion were threatened by the surprise closure of CIDEM-Techno, a Montreal-based business incubator. In an attempt to recover from the interruption in its business plan, Greg and Tina Brooks developed a creative strategy to recover the lost time, money and resources.

#Salsa4Change, the Sexy Salsa project is asking Quebecers to create jobs by supporting a local company that is socially mindful, supporting local farmers and businesses and playing an important role in the International Fair Trade certification of chilli peppers.

What began as a measured plan to expand their business, has become a project that will lead to the immediate creation of as many jobs as Quebecers can help them to create.

By pre-purchasing cases of Sexy Salsa, Quebecers can participate in the domestication of an $11,000,000 import market wherein none of the players are from Quebec. The products target Quebec ingredients first, searching globally for the best quality with the highest social implications when unavailable locally. Thus employment is played out to Quebec farmers and other local, skilled, unskilled and professional labour. It doesn’t hurt that these products are of exceptional quality and taste great.

It is the intent of the company to sell 1000 cases of the Salsa in order to create 30 jobs.

The couple are working with Canada Economic Development to make the project a reality and have called upon the public using a combination of personal requests, press releases and an active Social Media twitter and Facebook campaign. The couple is planning an extravaganza for the launch, to be announced soon.

CJAD AM 800, a local radio-station has been tracking the project and the couple announces their progress regularly on their Peppermaster Blog, Facebook pages and Twitter.

This article was published on the front page of the Montreal Gazette Business Section on Saturday, June 8 2009.

Back in February, I had the pleasure of enjoying a dinner with John Hard (aka CaJohn) and he pulled out this “Mystery Hot Sauce” for us all to enjoy. Well, at the end of the night I snagged what was left of the bottle and trucked it back to the lab for analysis. Here’s what we have based off the meager sample I’ve been hording.

CaJohn’s Mystery Sauce Ingredients: ?

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This information provided to us by eternal friend of the blog, Buddah, and is shamelessly reprinted in its entirety:

Weekend of Fire Salsa Contest Winners & a FREE jar of salsa to YOU!

This salsa contest started a few months back and now I am proud to announce the final 4 salsas judged to compete at the Weekend of Fire at Jungle Jim’s International Market on August 1-2. When I say compete, what I mean is that YOU the chilehead will get to cast your vote to decide the ultimate winner in this competition to be declared the top overall salsa and reap the rewards that come with it. More on the rewards in a moment, but let me explain how YOU get to decide the fate in this salsa challenge.

Anyone going to the Weekend of Fire will get to sample all 4 salsas. You will have a ballot to vote, and if you mention that you heard it here, you will get a FREE jar of the salsa you vote on as long as supplies last. This is only for the first day, Saturday August 1st, because on Sunday the 2nd, we will announce the winner.

I would like to thank all the wonderful companies who participated in Jungle Jim’s 1st salsa contest. Not everyone can win, but I found out how many great salsas are out there to be had. As you will see by the winning salsas below, it doesn’t matter what region you are in, a good salsa can come from anywhere and by anyone. When we do this again next year, we might have even stiffer competition and a lot more salsas to consume. I do not think I have ever had so much salsa in a 2 month period than for this contest. It was worth it though. Thanks goes out to Jungle Jim’s for letting me organize this for you and to my judges, (Scott Roberts, Joe Bowen, and Joe and Linda Levinson) who did an awesome job deciphering who had the best salsa. A special shout out to Bret Vitek who was the brains in making this possible. Thanks Bwana!

Here are the finalists in no particular order:
1- Big Orson’s ‘Citizen Cajun’ Hot Mango Habanero Salsa (Georgia)
2- Marco’s Not Yet Famous Medium Roasted Vegetable Salsa (Maryland)
3- Chuck Evan’s Montezuma Brand Smokey Chipotle Lime & Garlic Salsa (Ohio)
4- Santa Fe Seasons’ Grilled Garden Salsa (New Mexico)

These skilled salsa makers will have 5 cases(60 jars) of salsa purchased from them by Jungle Jim’s International Market for the show. The public will decide who wins the grand prize. What is the grand prize you ask?

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I have had a lot of posts that have referred to it, but I can finally now say that my residency in anesthesiology is now over. Today was my last day as a resident, and I am so glad it is finally done. I have really neglected a lot of the reviewing that I have wanted to do over the past three months or so as I have been in the most stressful time in terms of getting my requirements done.

The light at the end of the tunnel was not actually a train. Film at 11.

I think there’s a bottle of tequila with my name on it around here. Maybe two…

Well, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the academic part of my anesthesiology residency is now over! I have been ruminating over the possibilities of what I was going to write that involved my greatest and most passionate hobby, and it finally came to me a few months ago. I have expounded on the medical uses of capsaicin in many previous posts, so here is a copy of the literature that I submitted, of which I am very proud:

Joe’s literature review on the anesthetic uses for capsaicin

Now I can get back to writing about stuff that’s a little easier for me to crank out. All you science geeks out there…enjoy!

Here comes another review for the Chipotle powerhouse that is Chuck Evans’ Montezuma Brand. This time I’ll be taking a look at his new Triple XXX Salsa Habanero which comes adorned with a brightly colored label.

Montezuma Triple XXX Salsa Habanero Ingredients: Tomatoes, tomato puree, onions, Habanero & Chile peppers, tomato paste, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, herbs and spices.

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We here at the Hot Zone Online are baseball fans. Big-time ones. In fact, we even participate in a fantasy baseball league where the winners get dozens of bottles of hot sauce. Well, here is a shout-out for something that mixes America’s pastime with our favorite thing, hot sauce. We might not be Red Sox fans per se, but we like stuff like this enough to suggest that you get some before ChileHeadEd buys it all. You can find David Ortiz’s website at http://bigpapienfuego.com/ and check out this article from the online Boston Globe while you’re at it.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of these sauces go to charity.

Ortiz’s hot sauces cover all the bases
By Alyssa Giacobbe
Globe Correspondent / June 10, 2009

There is a difference among hot sauce fanatics between the tasters and the masochists. For the tasters, hot sauce exists to coax flavor from food and elongate the sensation of taste. The masochists, by contrast, seek to push the limits of tolerance. They’re in it for the fix and, of course, the bragging rights.

David Ortiz, the amiable if presently downtrodden Red Sox slugger and self-described “grill man,” is a taster. Inspired by a well-documented affection for spicy Dominican food and backyard barbecues, Ortiz’s new line of Louisiana-style hot sauce, Big Papi En Fuego, is for chili connoisseurs (en fuego is Spanish for “on fire”). Now in supermarkets, four preservative-free levels include Original En Fuego, Monster Double En Fuego, Off the Wall Triple En Fuego, and Grand Slam En Fuego, the fieriest.

Click here to read the rest of the source article

Benito….Baaaaaaaaanito….Benito! Neat-o Benito! See, it’s just fun saying the name of this hot sauce company. Well, enough fun, time to get to work. Benito’s Hot Sauce is a company that’s trying to do as much organic ingredients as possible in a wide range of products. I was sent four of their sauces to review to get a feel for the company. Right off the bat I have to applaud what he’s doing with the organic area. There really is a void in this area of the business that needs to get filled.

It has been a while since I did a 4-in-1 review so I’ll just go over the usual for the readers. For each sauce I’m going to do a quick flavor and heat run down and at the end give my over all impression. Ready? Set? Too late! I’ve already started! Hahahahaha, slow pokes.

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Here’s another new product to keep an eye out for when you go shopping. Even thought they aren’t being marketed as anything more than “medium” heat, we love to see stuff that is All Natural and Gluten Free. Here is their new product announcement for the market:

New Paso Robles Condiment Company Launches First Products

PASO ROBLES, California – June 08, 2009 – Black Market Condiment Company, a new Paso Robles based producer of innovative gourmet-style condiment products, announced today the launch of the first three products from their Original Black Market Brand line of pepper sauces.

The first three products to be released are their fiery roasted garlic pepper sauce, chipotle pepper sauce, and black pepper blend pepper sauce. All three contain no additives or preservatives, are all natural, gluten-free, vegan friendly and in the medium heat range. Being gourmet-style products, they are fairly complex and are made with only the finest ingredients, perfect for beef, chicken, lamb, pork, seafood, veggies, and of course, taco night.

Original Black Market Brand pepper sauces are currently available at all central coast Albertsons stores, select Spencer’s Markets, Meridian Vineyards, and New Frontiers Natural Marketplace, with more stores being added weekly. They are also available online at www.originalblackmarketbrand.com.

“All three of the Black Market pepper sauces have been very well received by local consumers,” says owner Gary Gannon. “We are thrilled to finally have our products out there and available to the consumer. Everyone who’s tried them absolutely loves them. They become instant fans and repeat customers,” he added. “We’re going to begin doing tasting demos at the stores that carry our line so that those who haven’t tried our products can have a taste and see for themselves why people are excited about them.”

Black Market Condiment Company is committed to providing high-quality and creative new products to those who wish to bring a new flavor dimension to their meals. Future product releases will include a full line of gourmet-style marinades, grilling sauces, dry rubs, and grilling sprays.

We’ve taken a little respite from the blogging thing for the past week as Joe has been in his stretch run to the end of his residency. However, our minds still wax towards hot sauce…to no one’s surprise, we’re sure.

Joe had his end-of-the-resident year party with his friends & co-workers this past Friday night. In addition to a night of debauchery and inebriation (thanks to many shots of wonderful tequila), it was filled with some really special gifts. As you can see from the above picture, Joe’s love of hot sauce is no secret so the wonderful nurses at the hospital went in on a little gift bag of sauces plus a capsaicin t-shirt.

Joe nearly shed a tear into his shot glass…

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