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Blair's.

HoodedCrowHotSauce

HoodedCrowHotSauce

Yep, THAT Blair's. That's all people talk about in our area. I (being just one of the two owners of Hooded Crow) grew up the next town over from where Blair's originated.
 
Whenever we speak to friends or family about our hot sauce business, they almost always ask if we know of Blair's. 
 
We just gotta know... what do you think of his line of hot sauces? Why is he so popular? Was it because he was one of the first? Is he some sort of marketing genius?
 
In his story, he claims that he was just a bartender who threw together the hottest batch of sauce to get late night patrons out of the bar if they couldn't handle the heat. Or something along those lines... 
 
So, we wanna hear your reasons why or why not you are a fan. For us, he doesn't hold a place on our sauce shelf. We do enjoy the chips though!
 
And no offense to anyone is intended. We have mad respect for Blair's! We are just curious. 
 
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On the mainstream level people ask about Tabasco. Why do people like Tabasco? Why do people like Blair's?
  • Blair started extreme sauces before superhot peppers even existed.
  • Blair started collectibles when nobody would even think of collecting a hot sauce, with special names, packaging, numbering, signatures, and hype/marketing.
  • Blair's was what you grabbed when nothing was hot enough.
  • Blair's was where you went when even that was not hot enough.
  • Blair's was what you grabbed to play pranks on friends.
  • Blair created a cool factor associated with hot sauce with evil imagery and names and a rock n roll attitude.
  • Blair used extracts because at the time the hottest pepper was the habanero (variety), but now makes superhot sauces with no extracts. "Blair's Pure Death with Jolokia"
  • Blair still makes extract sauces and collectibles because that was the niche he created and he would never abandon it. That's his Tabasco.
Blair's Jersey Death was my extreme sauce back in the day.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
On the mainstream level people ask about Tabasco. Why do people like Tabasco? Why do people like Blair's?
  • Blair started extreme sauces before superhot peppers even existed.
  • Blair started collectibles when nobody would even think of collecting a hot sauce, with special names, packaging, numbering, signatures, and hype/marketing.
  • Blair's was what you grabbed when nothing was hot enough.
  • Blair's was where you went when even that was not hot enough.
  • Blair's was what you grabbed to play pranks on friends.
  • Blair created a cool factor associated with hot sauce with evil imagery and names and a rock n roll attitude.
  • Blair used extracts because at the time the hottest pepper was the habanero (variety), but now makes superhot sauces with no extracts. "Blair's Pure Death with Jolokia"
  • Blair still makes extract sauces and collectibles because that was the niche he created and he would never abandon it. That's his Tabasco.
Blair's Jersey Death was my extreme sauce back in the day.
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Fair enough! Watching old commercial and TV spots for Blair's are pretty cringe-worthy by today's marketing standards, but I can totally see the "cool" aspect they were going for back in the day. 
 
The extract. Dear god, the extract. We can't stand it. BUT we now have an appreciation for why he used it. It make sense now.
 
He created the extreme niche... that sums it up.
 
It possibly would not exist, or it would be very different today if he had not existed. We might all be using Frank's and Melinda's. The reason growers sought out superhots around the world was because these extreme sauces existed but they did not want to use extracts, and they knew there was an audience.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
He created the extreme niche... that sums it up.
 
It possibly would not exist, or it would be very different today if he had not existed. We might all be using Frank's and Melinda's.
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Ha. But I think you can say that about almost any product though. If Blair's didn't do it, someone else would have. We wouldn't survive on Frank's and Melinda's!!! But that's besides the point I guess.
 
But somebody else didn't. So why not look at him as a role model even if you don't particularly like the product? If I were a small company I'd respect and study success stories before me.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
But somebody else didn't. So why not look at him as a role model even if you don't particularly like the product? If I were a small company I'd respect and study success stories before me.
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Exactly why I stated it's besides the point. He started his extreme hot sauce empire, and that's awesome. I just wanted to know why he was so popular. And we do respect him for that. 
 
It's a good case study for sure.
 
Craft sauce has taken off like craft beer. I'm not sure who you can point to for craft beer, but for hot sauce it is Blair. Probably because he went full on extreme so that left a lot of room to fill in the gaps with flavor and heat. So you had your vinegary table sauce, and your mind blowing "cool" sauce. The craft came along to say "hey that is hot but I don't like the chemical taste, I am going to use peppers." And so it began. Well, that's my take. ;)
 
The Hot Pepper said:
It's a good case study for sure.
 
Craft sauce has taken off like craft beer. I'm not sure who you can point to for craft beer, but for hot sauce it is Blair. Probably because he went full on extreme so that left a lot of room to fill in the gaps with flavor and heat. So you had your vinegary table sauce, and your mind blowing "cool" sauce. The craft came along to say "hey that is hot but I don't like the chemical taste, I am going to use peppers." And so it began. Well, that's my take. ;)
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 Well I think your take is pretty spot on. I agree with what you are saying about the craft element of it. He definitely left a lot of room for us little guys. ;) Thank you for all of your great input! :D
 
Ultra Death is the best flavour I've ever found in an extract sauce but I've never tried any other Blair's products besides the crisps. Most of those are quite dull and 1 dimensional but I do rather like the flavour of the Jolokia ones, even if they really skimp on the named ingredient (I've had hotter Habanero crisps).
 
HoodedCrowHotSauce said:
Well I think your take is pretty spot on. I agree with what you are saying about the craft element of it. He definitely left a lot of room for us little guys. ;) Thank you for all of your great input! :D
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One day I will check out your sauce. Cool name. Glad you joined here.
 
And you are free to not like or respect Blair(s), lol, my point is it might be a good idea to pay attention to what he did. His niche is still extreme. He pretty much even coined the term, his website is extremefood.com. I'd look more toward the hype and attraction to his sauces than anything. He is very good at building hype and I don't mean hype in the empty promise way, I mean it in the marketing way. Buzz, attraction, interest. Do that for your craft sauce.
 
Look at other industries for that as well.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
 
One day I will check out your sauce. Cool name. Glad you joined here.
 
And you are free to not like or respect Blair(s), lol, my point is it might be a good idea to pay attention to what he did. His niche is still extreme. He pretty much even coined the term, his website is extremefood.com. I'd look more toward the hype and attraction to his sauces than anything. He is very good at building hype and I don't mean hype in the empty promise way, I mean it in the marketing way. Buzz, attraction, interest. Do that for your craft sauce.
 
Look at other industries for that as well.
Click to expand...
 
Oh, he's everywhere! It's hard not to pay attention to what the guy is up to. So we are definitely taking notes. Whatever it is that he's doing, he's doin' it right. And thank you!! Glad to be here.
 
I've watched as the trend goes from "extreme" to extremely flavorful. I say it on a daily basis........
 
 
........ANYONE can make a sauce hot....the hard part is making it taste good.
 
Yes but you are still catering to the extreme crowd with superhot pepper names the masses have never heard of. And yes, many flavorful sauces are out there and more and more daily. It's really a craft/extreme hybrid market. The pure heat no flavor "shock" sauces are for the YouTube kids. We need flavorful sauces that meet our tolerances and provide the endorphin rushes as well. We also need flavorful medium heat sauces for other times. I don't always crave the hoppy IPA, sometimes I crave the craft lager.
 
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