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Business Tue May 19 2009
Feeling the Heat at the NRA Show
My taste buds are slowly acquiring an affinity for spicy foods, and at the National Restaurant Association Show, I've been able to taste a wide variety of spicy and tangy sauces. However, the Original Juan Specialty Foods booth got me.
This Kansas City-based company produces small batches of sauces under a variety of labels, including Cheesecake in a Jar (kind of like Nutella, but cheesecake-flavored), Fiesta quesos, and the Pain is Good line of salsas, bean dips, seasoned snacks, and sauces. Their typical batch size is 136 gallons, and they produce no more than 300 gallon batches, which makes their facility ideal for a co-packing or private label arrangement (this means that if you wanted to take your sauce recipe and mass produce it, or create a store brand, this place can help you out).
The Pain is Good products were aptly labeled mild (aka "wimpy"), medium, zesty, and fiery and showed where they'd be on their heat gauge. Their 100% Pain hot sauce registered as "Meltdown," due to the Habanero peppers used in it.
After tasting a fiery option and not feeling much heat, I had to try the really hot stuff. Full of bravado, I grabbed a tortilla chip, poured some 100% Pain on it, munched away, and walked away from the booth. About ten yards away, the heat kicked in, my mouth caught fire, and I had to blink back the tears from the pain. Then I went into survival mode trying to quell it, but water, of course, didn't help. Neither did bread. Thankfully, after a couple of minutes of torture, the kind folks from the Census Bureau pointed me to a Mexican soda booth, and with that I was able to put out the flames.
If you want to feel the heat, look for the Pain is Good line in specialty food stores. Jewel also sells some of their product line. You can also buy their products online.
