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GOURMET NEWS MAY 2014 www.gourmetnews.com MARKETWATCH MARKETWATCH 2 6 B A R B E C U E S A U C E S & R U B S BY LORRIE BAUMANN For those looking for a great barbecue sauce, the National Fiery Foods & Barbe- cue Show, held Feb. 28-March 2 in Albu- querque, N.M. served as a great place to taste a wide range of sauces and test one's courage with some of the spiciest sauces on the planet. Attendees had the opportunity to shop for great flavors to season up their summer. Each year, the show is open to the public for most of its run, and cash-and- carry retail sales are permitted. This year's National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show drew more than 150 vendors who displayed their barbecue sauces, rubs and mari- nades alongside chili sauces, bar- becue cookers, jerky, pepper jams, chili-spiced candies and snacks. The Carolina Reaper Pepper even made an appearance, recently named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the hottest chili pepper in the world. An estimated 20,000 attendees started lining up two hours before the show opened to pay the $15 to enter. One of the highlights of the Na- tional Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show is the presentation of the an- nual Scovie Awards. Many of the best sauces, rubs, beverages, snacks and condi- ments competed for the 2014 Scovie Awards, named after Wilbur Scoville, the inventor of the Scoville Heat Scale that measures how much heat (and pain) a chili pepper or hot sauce delivers when it is tasted. Barbecue sauces alone competed in 14 categories, differentiated by barbecue style and degree of heat. Among this year's Scovie winners was Robert Rothschild Farm's Cherry Pome- granate Habanero Sauce, which won a first- place award in the fruit-based hot sauce category. Robert Rothschild Farm was also honored with a first place award in the Spe- cialty Chile Barbecue Sauce category for its Anna Mae's Smoky Sweet Chipotle Sauce. In addition, the company won an award in the American-style hot barbecue sauce cat- egory for its Anna Mae's Smoky Sweet Sauce, coming in third-place behind first- place winner Hole Lotta Hotta from G. Willie BBQ, LLC and second-place winner Heffys All Natural BBQ Sauce Hot & Spicy from Heffys BBQ. The big winner among the barbecue sauces in this year's Scovie Award competi- tion was Smackers BBQ Ltd., which won awards in multiple categories for its Smack Me Mild Smackin' Sauce and Smack Me Hard Hot Smackin' Sauce. Jonathan and Terri Toner of Pirate Jonny's came all the way from Clearwater, Fla. to offer their Caribbean-style sauces and rubs and ended up taking three Scovie Awards home with them. The Toners started their business three years ago after a slow economy delayed landscaping proj- ects that were on the drawing boards for Jonathan's landscape design business. The family wanted to stay in the Tampa area and wait out the business slowdown, so Jonathan turned to the spice rubs that he had been making to change Terri's mind about whether she liked barbecue. Terri, a New Orleans native, does not enjoy getting sauce on her fingers, and she thought that meant she would never enjoy any barbecue. This was until her husband introduced her to meat barbecued with a dry rub. "I didn't know what a rub was. It was the rub that changed barbecue for me," Terri says. "It was the first barbecue I had where you could actually taste the meat without the mess of the sauce." Although Jonathan's landscape architec- ture business has picked up again, he and Terri are planning to continue producing Pirate Jonny's products, with Terri now working full time on Pirate Jonny's produc- tion and sales. Jonathan continues to do product development and marketing, and the labels for all the products are his de- signs. The Toners are in the process of re- locating production facilities from a building that was once a restaurant to a new facility that offers enough capacity to double their production. Pirate Jonny's products are currently sold in 20 to 30 re- tail stores in Tampa Bay and the central and south areas of Florida. In addition, the company's products are also being shipped to England through a distributor, where their rubs and sauces have found fans abroad. "They understand the island fla- vors, and barbecue is becoming more pop- ular in England," Jonathan says. Simmie J's Gourmet Barbecue Sauce of- fers marinades and rubs based on recipes that have been passed down in company Founder Simeon Greene's family since the early 1800s. The recipes were developed during the period when members of Greene's family were slaves in Emanuel County, Ga. Greene's dad used the sauce on meat that he cooked on a wire rack over a hole in the ground. "My dad was a real con- noisseur of barbecue," Greene says. He is now looking to build his company into a business that his two sons can take over from him in a few years. Chris, his younger son, who has a degree in communications, is Greene's particular hope for eventually taking the business national. Simmie J's products represent Georgia's southern-style barbecue tradition—rich with tomato and pepper flavor but without a spicy kick. Greene, a 25-year veteran of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and a Los Angeles police officer before that, says that the sauces are best on ribs, chicken or beef and the rubs also work well as a soup seasoning. While Simmie J's sauce represents Geor- gia flavor, another company, Arizona Rub, is entirely inspired by the flavors of the Southwest. The seven chili-based spice blends are made in Tucson by Dan and Diana Krongaard in a rented commercial kitchen, and they have won nine Scovie Awards over the past four years. Arizona Rub products are currently sold in about 30 retail stores, ranging from small gift shops to Tucson's two Whole Foods Markets. "We hand-make all these rubs ourselves," says Diana. "We're crazy." Arizona Rub products are low sodium, with no soy, gluten or MSG. "People that are really rub fans look for rubs that don't have additives, that are low sodium and have good flavor, Diana says. "What we re- ally sell is flavor." The products' heat level ranges from zero to the kick of ghost pep- per. "We have a mild side and a wild side," Diana says. The company's Chili Lime rub is its most popular. Also featured at the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show, Jennifer Reynolds named her company after herself. The Sauce Goddess specializes in barbecue sauces and spices with no smoke. "You can do bacon-wrapped scallops without having the smokehouse flavor," Reynolds says. Reynolds went into business in San Diego, Calif.13 years ago with her Sticky Sweet and Sweet & Spicy Grill Glazes. Over the years, she has turned up the heat in her products. "I like heat with flavor, so for me, it's finding how much heat I can add and keep the flavor," she says. The Sauce God- dess products are vegan and gluten-free and are currently carried by 350 retailers in New Jersey, Florida, Texas and Indiana, as well as across the West Coast and even in- ternationally. The Golden Toad launched at the Fiery Foods Show in 2004 with three products. This is according to company President Todd "They call me Toad" Jilbert. Using the tagline, "Saving the Planet One Tongue at a Time," the company's championship bar- becue team now competes around the country, especially in Colorado's very active barbecue community. Today, The Golden Toad's sauces are sold in 160 retail stores, mostly in the Rocky Mountain region. The company takes its commitment to helping save the planet seriously, and a portion of its revenues is donated to charities, includ- ing Denver's Children's Hospital and the Denver Zoo. The Golden Toad's product line includes two barbecue sauces, four hot sauces and three rubs. The Chipotle BBQ sauce is a sweet Kansas City-style sauce sweetened with brown sugar. It combines whiskey and cider vinegar with a chipotle kick, resulting in a sauce that is good on chicken, pork and seafood. The company's Colorado Red sauce is a Texas-style sauce based on toma- toes and vinegar spiced with cayenne pep- per and some hickory smoke flavor in the background. It is great on brisket or grilled vegetables, Jilbert says. The Golden Toad's sauces are made in a commercial kitchen in Castle Rock, Colo., which is shared with two other manufacturers. GN Shoppers Seek Sauces and Spices to Season their Summer For further information Pirate Jonny's 727.441.4504 www.piratejonnys.com Simmie J's Gourmet Barbecue Sauce 909.899.2413 www.simmiejs.com Arizona Rub 800.489.1925 www.arizonarub.com Sauce Goddess 619.997.9282 www.saucegoddess.com Golden Toad 800.929.TOAD www.goldentoad.com

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