Lots like it hot: Business booms for Ireland’s chilli sauce makers

Hot sauce is a serious business. Just ask musician Ed Sheeran, who recently launched his own range of the spicy condiment that he plans to sell worldwide. “I’ve had them on tour with me recently to try them with all sorts of meals,” the singer says, claiming that he uses his Tingly Ted’s sauces on his three meals each the day.

It’s a far cry from when Michael (Mic) Wejchert, founder and chief executive of Mic’s Chilli, started making hot sauce commercially in Ireland in 2010.People told him he was crazy, and that his company would go bankrupt, “because no one in Ireland likes hot sauce”.

Wind the clock forward 13 years and Mic’s Chilli makes 14 different hot sauces at its production plant in Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, with another two going into production in the next couple of months. The brand is instantly recognisable, largely on account of its Day of the Dead inspired labels by leading Irish illustrator Steve Simpson, and it is exported across Europe and to the US.

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Wejchert worked as a structural engineer before chasing his dream to make hot sauce, and when the 2010 recession hit, he used a redundancy payment from his job to start the company. But his love of chilli sauce goes back further, to a family trip to Belize in 1994, when he and his mum visited his sister, who was living there. “Every table I sat at had a bottle of sauce on it, which, of course, I took as a personal challenge to try every single one.”

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At the start, his launch product was the approachably spicy Inferno sauce, with a three-chilli heat rating, but just in case the Irish public found it too hot, he also made a light version (two chillies) and a family-friendly Inferno Junior (one chilli). Now, due to public demand and a change in what he sees as Irish people’s interest in hotter sauces, there’s an Inferno Extreme (four chilli rating), but that is not even close to his most powerful hot sauce.

I have over 150 kilos of hot sauce fermenting at the moment, and this won’t be enough ... Customers give me their phone number, so I can let them know when it’s ready

—  Valentin Ivanceno

That accolade goes to three hot sauces he makes that are sought out by connoisseurs – Voodoo Reaper (made with Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest chilli, with a seven chilli rating on the label); Trouble in Trinidad (Trinidad Scorpion chilli) and Naga Knockdown (Naga Jolokia “Ghost” Chilli). “These are made with the world’s hottest chillies, in serious quantities, they’re all over 50 per cent chillies in the bottles, whereas people normally put, like half a per cent,” Wejchert says. The chillies used in these sauces are single origin. “It’s all about promoting the taste of the chilli, as well as the heat.”

On a less fiery note, next month Mic’s Chilli launches a spicy ketchup, Hotchup, which he describes as “really tangy, bit of heat, delicious.” Later in the summer, Desert Island, a yellow scotch bonnet hot sauce with mango, will hit shop shelves. “It’s a summery, fruity, beautiful yellow hot sauce.”

Adding fruit to hot sauce is something Brian O’Neill of the Dublin Hot Sauce Company does a lot. His Scarlet for Yer Ma range has both a raspberry chipotle variety and one with mango and pineapple. O’Neill, who lived in California for 20 years before returning to Dublin, spent eight of those years making reality TV shows in Los Angeles, and it was there he developed his interest in the condiment. “The crews bonded over hot sauce and the eternal hunt was on for the best we could find in each new state or city.”

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Back in Dublin, in 2018, he spent a year researching and setting up his hot sauce venture and the first bottle of Scarlet for Yer Ma was produced the following year. It is still a one-man business, run from a commercial kitchen in Blanchardstown, Dublin. O’Neill reckons he has single-handedly made, bottled, labelled and sold more than 100,000 Scarlet for Yer Ma sauces since he started the business.

The name sets Scarlet for Yer Ma apart on the selves, and brings a smile to those familiar with the saying. “I was coming home from town one evening and I heard two young fellas, on their bikes, telling a story and one of them just said `scarlet for yer ma!’ and the two of them started laughing, and I thought, that’s got to be the name.

“It was a little bit risky, because I was, like, we’re very serious about this and we have a jokey name and I don’t know if that’s good in business.” The Poolbeg towers on the label has a family connection. “My uncle Danny was the head welder on them. So when I was a kid, we always thought they were his - Danny’s chimneys.”

Scarlet for Yer Ma hot sauces are at the more approachable end of things as regards chilli heat. “We decided early on that a super hot sauce was just going to alienate everybody except for 1 per cent and I wanted a hot sauce that was [for] breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea, so we went with a Mexican style hot sauce. I tried to complicate it in the beginning, but pretty soon realised that simple was better.” Rather than harsh distilled vinegar, O’Neill uses red wine vinegar which he says “rounds things off a little bit.”

Valentin Ivancenco uses mainly apple cider vinegar, from David Llewellyn in north Co Dublin, for the myriad hot sauces he makes at Fairmental, the deli and cafe he runs with his wife Mihaela, on Grand Canal Street Upper, in Dublin 4. A chef by profession, Ivancenco lost his job during the pandemic, and had time to return to the foraging and fermenting he had enjoyed growing up in Romania. Sharing their ferments with family and friends led to requests to sell them to others, and an online business was born.

In February they opened the cafe and deli, where Valentin’s range of fermented sauces are the hot ticket. “It’s the most popular product I do at the moment,” he says. “It has become a thing for people to just come in and see what we have each week.” The range of hot sauces changes constantly, with up to six varieties on the go, in various stages of production. “At the moment I have a mushroom one which is very popular, and wild garlic and mirin. And coming, I have a yellow habanero, which I just made today.”

Fermentation is a skill that requires patience. “I have over 150 kilos of hot sauce fermenting at the moment, and this won’t be enough, because some of my sauces take up to two years to be ready,” he says. “Customers can see the jars in the shop, see what’s coming next, and we have people booking them. They give me their phone number, so I can let them know when it’s ready.”

Rather than using it as a marinade, Ivancenco suggests mixing some of his hot sauce with soy sauce and butter (or honey, if you want a sticky finish), to use as a glaze for barbecuing. “It’s really good with chicken, and with pork. You don’t want to spend €7 on a small bottle of chilli sauce and then burn it on the barbecue.”

Hot stuff: Two Irish suaces to try

Two Boys Brew Hot Sauce, €8, twoboysbrew.ie: Taurean Coughlan and Kevin Roche started making hot sauce when they developed the recipe for an avocado dish at their Two Boys Brew coffee shop. “The dish became such a staple of the Two Boys Brew menu that after many requests we decided to bottle the hot sauce and get it stocked on our retail shelves.” They make it themselves in their kitchen in Dublin 7, and it is now available to order for shipping nationwide.

Conbini Condiments., €5.90, conbinicondiments.com: Chef Holly Dalton makes and sells a range of three condiments for her Japanese inspired Conbini label, one of which is Onsen Hot Sauce, which gets its name from Japanese hot springs. She says that it is “inspired by the satisfying, intense heat that an onsen brings”. The Conbini range is available to purchase online and is stocked by independent food shops across Ireland, as well as being exported to the UK, and some stockists in France, Belgium and Germany.

Taste Test: Two Irish hot sauces up against one from Thailand and one from Mexico

Sriracha hot chilli sauce (Flying Goose brand), €6.50, 455ml: The OG of hot sauces, this one has been made from sun-ripened chillies in the Si Racha district of Chonburi province in Thailand since 1999. It’s a fairly gloopy sauce, quite sweet on the palate initially, with a second rush of heat.

Cholula Limón, €4.50, 150ml: The checkout assistant at Fallon & Byrne said this Mexican hot sauce is one of their best-sellers and has to be restocked all the time. It has a quite thin consistency, with a good citrus kick. Would be excellent on fish tacos.

Scarlet for Yer Ma (original), €6, 150g: Bright and fresh tasting. This one is delicious, with an intensely fruity, not too hot flavour profile that keeps you going back for more. Outstanding.

Mic’s Chilli (Of Foam and Fury), €4.95, 155g: The most liquidy consistency of the batch – all that double IPA concentrate from Galway Bay Brewery. The beer is immediately apparent, adding grapefruit and hops flavour to the chilli kick. An interesting combination.