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- Fired Up In Florida
Two stories that illustrate the booming business of pepper products in the Sunshine State.
Florida Fiery Foods "Float"
by Dave DeWitt
After the Texas Fiery Foods Show in Austin, some Florida exhibitors were so excited about the concept of regional fiery foods shows that they quickly banded together and formed the Florida Pepper Consortium. The Consortium was determined to produce their own show, even if it was a small one. In a mere seven weeks they organized an event they called the Florida Fiery Foods Fest--but it really was as much of a float as a fest.
They put up a tent on the St. Petersburg Pier, contacted the media, and offered chileheads a deal they couldn't refuse: buy a $5 ticket for admission to a tasting, and get a ride on the elegant yacht, Princess Xanadu of Monaco, which was docked right beside the tent. Hundreds of Tampa Bay area chileheads turned out and accepted the offer, and the event raised more than $2,000 for All Children's Hospital and the Bayfront Medical Center--in a mere four hours! It also helped that the owner and captain of the Princess Xanadu is Mike Fryer, manufacturer of Mr. Mike's Barbecue Sauce.
Co-Producer Ankrum noted: "We found out that there are a ton of chileheads in the Tampa Bay area. We had quality attendance, quality manufacturers, and all in all, a small but excellent quality event. We thank the media for all their coverage, which really helped out. Imagine what we could have done if we could have afforded to buy advertising!" A much larger Florida Fiery Foods Show is scheduled for October 9-11, 1998 at the Bayfront Center Arena in St. Petersburg, produced by the Florida Pepper Consortium and Sunbelt Shows.
Participating Florida manufacturers were: Sauce Crafters of West Palm Beach (561) 848-2335; Florida Gourmet Foods of DeLand (800) 243-3877; Gator Hammock of Felda (800) 66-GATOR; Tahiti Joe's Hot Sauces of West Palm Beach (561) 439-7832; Fletcher Grants, Inc. of Homosassa (352) 628-4348; Ruskin Redneck Trading Co. of Ruskin (813) 645-7710; Jamaica Hell Fire of Tampa (813) 870-0899; Caribbean Food Products of Jacksonville Beach (904) 246-0149; Mr. Mike's Foods of St. Petersburg (813) 367-2123; Suncoast Peppers of Treasure Island (888) 991-4899; The Purple Pepper of Madeira Beach (888)-556-4700; and Bobarosa's Chile Ranch of Clearwater (800) 796-9339.
A Growing Interest in Florida
By Sally MacDonald Ooms
Just say "Florida" and people will conjure up some pretty swell images. Vacations, balmy weather, sandy beaches, relaxed lifestyles, clear blue ocean, jumping off spots for that Caribbean cruise or flight to Mexico, and dynamite food.
Ah, the food.
It's no wonder, given the immigration of so many Caribbean islanders and folks from Latin cultures, that the foodstuffs Floridians find on their tables every day is so ethnically rich and varied. Nor is it surprising that the flocks of visitors from other states and around the world--Florida is the top U.S. destination for foreigners--want to take home some magic memories in bottle form.
So with a burst of popularity that even they can hardly believe, Florida hot sauce makers are capitalizing on this trend with their blends of tropical and citrus fruits, fresh vegetables and regional habanero, datil and Scotch bonnet peppers, and Florida hot shops are stocking indigenous hot sauces in record numbers. Additionally, manufacturers say they are making great strides into gourmet markets and hot or specialty shops throughout the U.S. Mail-order businesses, whether run by entrepreneurs or through larger established ordering houses, are selling Florida heat as well.
"The (hot sauce) market has been growing pretty rapidly here," says Buddy Taylor, manufacturer of Gator Hammock sauces. "We've been catching everybody's taste buds since 1989." He says he remembers when manufacturing was just a hobby and there were only a couple of well-known Florida hot sauces. "But now it seems like everyone is getting into the hot mouth taste," he says.
Taylor, who makes his garlic and cayenne-based sauces and caters on the Gulf Coast near Ft. Myers, says he hears from lots of folks "up north" who are clamoring for it. "One man says he wants to get embalmed in Gator Sauce when he dies. I hear from a lady who says she won't finish the rest of that little bit in the bottle until I send her some more because she's afraid she'll go into the DTs."
Cooks and Chefs Introduce New Hot Flavors
Florida cooks embellish the regional foods, which are fresh from the tree or the sea, with a number of spicy nuances. They know their hot peppers and where to get them locally, or how to sail to the island that supplies them. The backyard pepper patch is not uncommon, and many of the hot sauce manufacturers that have blossomed in the state say that large commercial growers are considering giving more of their land over to producing the habaneros, Scotch bonnets and other peppers that are increasingly in demand.
One of those popular peppers is the datil, which grows only in Saint Augustine. This hot but nutty indigenous pepper is thought to be a derivative of the Scotch bonnet, but Marian Wilson of the Dat'l Do It company says no one is quite sure. "We think it came from the South American trade routes sometime since 1565 but it's hard to trace," she says. "It's its own unique pepper."
Lore from hot sauce makers clamoring for more datils has it that the Saint Augustine growers guard their pepper fields with alligators. Chris Way, owner of Dat'l Do It and Barnacle Bill restaurants in St. Augustine, formulated his datil hot sauce years ago. "I made this sauce and people started stealing it. Someone said if they're going to steal it, maybe they'll buy it--so I started to market it."
Allen Susser of the famous 12&endash;year&endash;old Chef Allen's in Miami reels off the mouth watering ingredients available in his region: mangoes, papayas, tamarind, pineapples, passion fruit, limes and other citrus, fantastic seafood and exotic Latin root vegetables like yuca, boniato and calabasa. With such an abundance, he is able to change the menu at his restaurant every day in what he calls "new world cuisine." There has been a migration of flavors here, he says because South Florida is a "new city" in itself, standing as a crossroads for Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
"New world cuisine has to do with history," he says. "The food exchange we call Columbian started 500 years ago (between European and indigenous cultures). But South Florida was not very populated even a hundred years ago. Since then our palates have really heated up."
More Manufacturers, More Sales
Floridian Fred Lewis, otherwise known as "Little Freddy," started making salsa in his Clearwater kitchen sink six and a half years ago and sold it out of his car trunk. He is now a full&endash;time salsa manufacturer, co&endash;packer and private label creator. His own products include Hot Lava, Molten Lava, and olive and garlic salsas, but he began with a concoction of black&endash;eyed peas, pimentos, cilantro, habaneros and spices in a tomato blend. When one restaurateur bought 40 gallons "right on the spot," Little Freddy quit his job, borrowed money from his mother, set up operation in a 1,100 square&endash;foot garage, and went to process control school. He now has graduated to a 3,300&endash;square&endash;foot semi&endash;automated production space and calls his business "terrific."
In part, what is making the Florida market so healthy is the transient population, Little Freddy says. "They are coming in year round. They find out they can't get our products and call us up. Lately they are liking fruit bases: sweet, hot, unique and versatile." To accommodate that demand, he has fashioned a papaya, orange and habanero hot sauce. Next year he will probably do a strawberry salsa.
David Reed of Tropical Temptations grew up sailing with his parents in St.Thomas, St. Lucia, and Grenada. He dubs himself the "owner, accountant and bottle washer" of the Amazon Pepper line and finds that "everyone wants a taste of the Caribbean to go back to. You've had the feel of the sunburn for two weeks. Now you want something in your ice box."
Reed's line sports award&endash;winning Damn Hot Sauce, mustard sauces, and banana catsup that he has made in Colombia, St. Lucia and Dominica. He has been in business for two years but has seen his sales escalate most noticeably within the last six to eight months. "It's hard to pinpoint why," he says. "I watch the inventories go down and say 'We need more. We need more.' Of course, a computer could probably analyze what's happening out there, but it's most compelling when you go into the warehouse and see the boxes going down around you."
"Hot sauce is just a goin' thing down here," says Trish Jones, wife of Big John, the namesake for their line of Famous Key West Hot Sauces made with ripe red jalapeños. "Our first year we were just a little baby step company," says Trish. "We've doubled at least in six years. Our best way to market is word of mouth. Everywhere you go there's a hot shop--from little Key West shops to malls in Miami. Customers carry the word to hot shops everywhere."
Strength In Numbers
Florida is rife with overnight hot sauce success stories. It seems you just take some ingredients you've known and loved all your life, add elbow grease, and presto! But even though Florida manufacturers are reaching a kind of hot sauce celebrity status, and Web sites featuring their products are proliferating quicker than you can say "Disney World," many business-minded people feel that the next wave of energy should be directed toward collective promotion.
"There's no cohesion for sharing information," says Little Freddy. "Hot sauces are arbitrarily priced. We're getting our heads together and forming a co&endash;op. I don't know who is going to spearhead it, but I've put seeds out to other manufacturers."
Bren Ankrum, owner of The Purple Pepper line, is part of a "loosely&endash;formed" Florida Pepper Consortium. "We want to share promotional images of pepper&endash;related producers and manufacturers," he says. "There seems to be an infusion of Caribbean and Spanish influences and a lot of people in the culinary arts--from Miami to Tallahassee--are involved. We also see the effects of Mexican and Cuban cultures with the abundance of fresh stuff we have available here, such as mango hot sauces and beet hot sauces. We have so much diversity. We are trying to push the envelope." The Pepper Consortium collaborated for a first&endash;time happening in St. Petersburg in October called the Fiery Foods "Float." (See Quest For Fire for more details.)
On a governmental level, help with promo is under way from the Florida State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Lucy Carter, supervisor of domestic marketing, says all agricultural producers can become members of the Fresh From Florida Program and receive benefits in the Packaging Incentive Program. When state manufacturers who use Florida produce agree to display the Fresh From Florida label on their bottles or in their catalogs or other printed advertising material, they receive 50 percent of what they have invested in the printing back from the state. There are obviously caps, says Carter, but the response has been positive in the four&endash;year&endash;old program. While Dat'l Do It is the largest hot sauce manufacturer benefiting from the program, she is hoping to get the word out to even more pepper people. The department recently began offering hot pepper producers a farm gate sign with the Fresh From Florida logo. "It draws attention," Carter says.
Douglas Feindt of Captain Foods in Port Orange is in the Fresh From Florida Program and says that the agriculture department is helping him with the overseas market as well as the domestic. With eleven sauces that evolved out of his restaurant three and a half years ago, he markets the Captain Redbeard's products as "a real boat captain" idol. And, yes, he has a red beard. The native Floridian also does stints on the Home Shopping Network, and specializes in Florida gift baskets.
In the private promotion arena, Ted Reinhard of Intrepid Global Industries Inc. (IGI) in Tallahassee has taken on seven Florida hot sauces to cultivate in the Western and Eastern European markets. "We deal with the small, the unique, the ethnic," says Reinhard who heretofore has only imported "stuff" from those areas of the world to the United States.
The trendy but market&endash;hip company has taken on Florida hot sauce makers of all different sizes, says Reinhard, from Tahiti Joe to long&endash;time El Pass&endash;o&endash;Caffe owner and Mad Pepper hot sauce maker Judith Stone. IGI is buying the products at distributor costs and pledges to handle all the headaches that go with marketing internationally--from shipping, licensing and currency fluctuation hassles, to finding the appropriate markets and establishing long&endash;term contacts. "It's international exposure without the risks," says Reinhard.
Why Florida hot sauce? "It's the first time we've exported," Reinhard says. "We hadn't found an American product unique enough to market. What have we got here? We've got computers, cars, and things from Wal&endash;Mart. No. We were looking for the small, the unique and the special and we found it."
They have sent samples to England and are "talking with people in Germany, Belgium and Holland. We are dealing with countries that have no tradition in hot sauces. They don't know what they want yet," he says. But when it comes down to it, Reinhard is a Florida chauvinist. "Our labels are unique and colorful. People there know Florida. Most of them (who will be interested in buying) have already been here. It's a natural spot here. The flavors sell themselves.
"Germans, I think, have sampled most of the Florida tastes. They have traveled extensively around here and they own the most houses of any nationality. The French are starting to heat up and leave the cream sauces behind. England, like the United States, is wanting new tastes."
Harald Zoschke, the president of Suncoast Peppers and producer of El's Fire products in Treasure Island, says he moved his business from Germany to Florida because he researched the area and found that it is "very strong" in all aspects of hot saucing: manufacturing, restaurant usage, retailing, wholesaling, and distributing. His product sales, since he began in Florida a year ago, are up about 200 percent, he says. "More than 40 percent of the fiery foods business in the U.S. is in the Southeast, I heard. Florida food is light, freshly made, and the Caribbean taste is widespread and accepted," he says.
Unique Promotions
Tahiti Joe, real name Joe Turner, gave his gourmet hot sauce with 17 ingredients a Polynesian theme because he and his wife Charlotte were married in Tahiti. It has a bunch of honey, tropical fruits and his "secret" ingredient, clam juice. He started manufacturing one year ago and, after five months was ready to put two more hot sauces on the market, Tropigarlic and Volcano Ahi. In late August he introduced a teriyaki&endash;style sauce called Tahitiyaki.
Charlotte helped Joe develop his image, so when he does demonstrations, he's in Tahiti&endash;style garb. The label also boasts a caricature of him. "She convinced me and now I'm glad," he says. "They like the get&endash;up."
Joe Hutson of Hutson Foods in Jacksonville is taking advantage of the image of the new Jaguars football team. "We let them use our products on outings," he says. "They rave about our salsa." Even though his products are relatively new, Hutson's salsa has already garnered honors at the Distributor's Association show in Hawaii. "I got a merit award and it's not even on the market yet," he says.
Bill Wharton, head of the swamp blues group Bill Wharton and The Ingredients, makes about 8,000 bottles of Liquid Summer Habanero Hot Sauce and gives people a hankering for it during his gumbo gigs. Wharton actually cooks gumbo on stage and at the end of his blues sessions, he serves it up to everyone in the audience. "This is my snake oil routine, like the nineteenth century medicine shows," he says. "Ten years ago when I first started making it I just had little chips for sampling. Now I serve gumbo to everyone in the place."
Wharton, based in Tallahassee, also has Liquid Summer Datil Pepper Hot Sauce, which is "not quite as hot but has a creeper burn after ten seconds. It has a bass note to it. It bridges the gap between vegetables and meat."
Wharton says that in his travels he is seeing a "capsicum renaissance," with Florida products ever more popular. And that includes his own well-traveled products. Since his gigs landed him in France, Louisiana, the Midwest, and Texas last year, along with his "milk route" in the Northeastern U.S. and Florida tourist sites, he says, "I don't need much advertising."
If Gerry Shaw of Captain Sleepy's Gourmet Foods can't get you hooked on habaneros one way, he'll get you another. All of his Quintessential Habanero Hot Sauce packages bear a packet of habanero seeds for customers to broadcast in the their back yards, and he figures that he distributes about 60,000 seeds every two weeks. "I'm kind of like the Johnny Apple Seed of habaneros," Shaw says. "They take a long time to germinate but they're relatively easy to grow. They're almost like weeds once you get them going."
He moved to the southwestern Florida island of Siesta Key from Maryland to do his sauces because he had spent time in the Caribbean and was tired of the hot sauce choices in most of the U.S.: "Tabasco or Tabasco." Shaw, whose products are carried in mail-order catalogs and gourmet shops in 46 states, manufactured 100 cases of his 22&endash;spice sauce two years ago and sold out in three weeks.
It is important to note that Florida&endash;style names attract attention as well. Judith Stone of the Mad Pepper hot sauce line, whose idea it was to pitch Florida with a whole sampling row at the last National Fiery Foods Show in Albuquerque, offers a Stangray Shuffle. "You've got to say it like the rednecks," says the Madeira Beach entrepreneur. "This time of year (September) the 'stangrays' (stingrays) are everywhere and in order to keep from getting stung, you've got to shuffle your feet. Same thing with the sauce."
This particular product is made with beets and a suggestion of vinegar and habaneros. Stone also produces Green With Envy with jalapeños, tomatillos, habaneros and honey, and Mother 'n Law's Revenge to use when grilling shrimp and the other seafood that is so prevalent in her area. She has tested all her recipes for nine years in her restaurant, El Pass&endash;o&endash;Caffe.
Educating the Consumer and Expanding the Market
There is a constant process of educating the public, says Tom Beasley, of Montego Bay Trading. "Scotch bonnets are not the same as habaneros, I have to keep telling people. They don't even look alike." And Beasley should know--he has been vacationing in Jamaica for about thirty years, and importing products with Scotch bonnets for two and a half years. "I see cooking shows where they say 'We'll just use habaneros in Jamaican cooking' and it's just not the same," he says.
Louis Olive, producer of Island Gourmet Jamaican Marinade also finds that he must define his products to consumers before he can sell them. "Things develop slowly (in this business) because you have to educate people as to what your product is and how to use it," he says. "They don't understand that jerk is a method for preserving and softening meat." Olive tries to promote what he calls the Floribbean taste, "the Florida crowd merging with the Caribbean," and says that he and his Jamaican partner have developed what they call the definitive jerk seasoning. However, he is not surprised that some consumers are confused. "I do trade shows and see the other jerk seasonings out there. I've seen ones that don't even have peppers in them," he says.
You Can Never Have Too Many Peppers
While educating consumers is imperative, the ultimate proliferation of Florida products lies with convincing more produce growers to grow peppers.
Candy Berg, owner of Florida Gourmet Foods, is working with Florida A&M to raise Scotch bonnets through a new outreach program. Thirteen families are involved in the program and are coming up with about 2,000&endash;3,000 pounds a week. From that Candy has started making her own completely natural mash to sell or use in her S.O.B. (South of the Border) hot sauces, marinades and salad dressing, and she co&endash;packs for 31 other businesses. Like so many Florida&endash;based hot sauce makers, she says she is "ardent" about using all natural, locally&endash;grown peppers and produce and not using additives.
Eugene Mann grows habaneros for his Bobarosas Chile Ranch barbecue sauce, jelly, and hot sauce. "I try to keep as many plants going as I can, but I'd be crazy to depend on my own. I get them wherever I can. I just had a lady call who grows them at home. I said 'Sure, bring 'em over and I'll buy 'em.' One thing's for sure, we've got the peppers down here. I've tried the ones grown up north and they're not as hot or as good."
Mann also likes to use as many Florida products as possible, "homegrown" habaneros, oranges for his jelly, and other fruits and vegetables grown in Homestead (a Florida agricultural area) for his sauces. He has been in business one year. "I keep trying to stockpile peppers, but the hot sauces are taking off and I can't keep them in supply. But a lot of farms are coming up around Tampa. They are starting to realize this is a really serious cash crop, and they are trying to get in the market as soon as possible. We should be okay next year."
Sally MacDonald Ooms has been a journalist, freelance writer, and editor in New Mexico for the past seventeen years.
Resources:
Gator Hammock, Buddy Taylor, (800) 66-GATOR
Dat'l Do It, Chris Way, (904) 824-2609
New World Foods, Alan Susser (305) 770-0870
Little Freddy's, Fred Lewis, (813) 791-1118
Tropical Temptations, David Reed, (954) 777-1688
Big John's, Trish Jones, (305) 296-1863
The Purple Pepper, Bren Ankrum, (813) 545-0324
Florida State Department of Agriculture, Lucy Carter, (850) 488-4366
Captain Foods, Douglas Feindt, (904) 428-5833
Intrepid Global Industries, Ted Reinhard, (850) 385-6390
Tahiti Joe's, Joe Turner, (561) 439-7832
Mad Pepper Company, Judith Stone, (888) 456-6604
Suncoast Peppers, Harald Zoschke, (813) 363-HEAT
Hutson Foods, Joe Hutson, (904) 725-1404
Wharton Pepper Co., Bill Wharton, (904) 997-4359
Captain Sleepy, Gerry Shaw (941) 315-4586
Montego Bay Trading, Tom Beasley, (407) 453-3680
Island Gourmet, Louis Olive, (305) 596-7300
Florida Gourmet Foods, Candy Berg, (904) 734-3029
Bobarosa's Chile Ranch, Eugene Mann or Bob Martin, (800) 796-9339
Too Many Habaneros in Southern California?
While manufacturers in Florida can't get enough habaneros, Tom Handman of Green Man Foods in Chowchilla, California, in the San Joaquin Valley, has too many.
As of late October, this farmer, who grows heirloom tomatoes, and orange and red habaneros, had a little less than two acres containing about 5,000 pounds of habaneros, and was desperately trying to find a buyer for them.
"Last year the price was sky high and no one could find them," he says. "Now there's a glut on the market and there's no price at all." He explains that earlier in the year he had a purchase order from a company to buy his habaneros at $2.50/lb., but then the price fell to $1/lb., and in late October, he said it was as low as .20¢/lb.
In order to compensate, he is turning a large portion of his peppers into mash which he hopes to be able to sell during the winter when everyone is out of fresh peppers. He is also becoming a manufacturer, at least temporarily, in hopes of turning his surplus peppers into profits. "I didn't intend to go into the salsa business," he says, "But this year it was necessary."
Even though his first year as a California chile farmer has been rough, Handman is not giving up. Next year he plans to grow many more tomatoes, many less habaneros, and will possibly add poblanos to his line. He is also hoping to secure a contract with a processor or manufacturer, and is considering becoming a contract grower for a larger company that will do all the selling for him. "We're learning a lot of things this year," he says. "Right now, we're just trying to recoup costs."
Tom Handman
Green Man Foods
Chowchilla, CA
PH/FAX: (310) 541-1023
