• If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in Startup Help.

Finding small sauce bottles to get your name out there with

Sam & Oliver

Sam & Oliver

I love my friends, but giving away 5oz a shot gets expensive, and uses up my woozy bottles when trying to get my sauce out there. So I looked on places like fillmore and others like that... there seems to be a plethora of bottles but a huge shortage of 18 CT caps, in any color.

The reason I am posting this thread is that I am looking for other ideas or locations where to find 1.7, 2 or 2.5 oz woozy or hot sauce bottles. Or should I even use bottles? I see some places have vials or jelly jars that could also be used in the 1.0 to 2.0 oz size ranges.

If I'm giving away my sauce to gain awareness, what's a good quantity to use / bottle to use? I know advertising is expensive but I don't want to give it all away unnecessarily.

Thanks :)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I get my 1.7 oz. woozies from Fillmore Container in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Typically during the holidays, I have them on my table in packs of three with our sauces. I'm pretty sure I've done a couple mini-sauce giveaways here and other forums as well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
They must be on backorder for the caps then. I bought all my 5oz woozy from them, but giving it away, the sauce runs out too fast. How long does that 1.7oz last? how many people are using it a day?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think it really all depend on what you consider expensive. I mean for around 100 bucks, you could roughly make 75+ 1.75oz samples.

You can then choose to give them away for free or you could charge 1 buck for them and make some of the costs back. I mean, people charge for samples all the time. They don't always have to be given away for free. Although if you're going to be charging, that brings up a whole other discussion about being; licensed, insured and legal.

Selling sauce has a lot of red tape surrounding it, that from what I hear, you don't want to go around. Although with the cottage law and farmers markets, there's not much hassle selling home based products there.

Getting back to my point, 100 bucks isn't that bad of a price to get your sauce into 75+ different peoples hands. I think who's hands those samples make it into is more important. Marketing to the right people. Friends are great at first but they don't necessarily get you too far.

Good luck in your ventures and welcome to the site!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
3/5King said:
I think it really all depend on what you consider expensive. I mean for around 100 bucks, you could roughly make 75+ 1.75oz samples.

You can then choose to give them away for free or you could charge 1 buck for them and make some of the costs back. I mean, people charge for samples all the time. They don't always have to be given away for free. Although if you're going to be charging, that brings up a whole other discussion about being; licensed, insured and legal.

Selling sauce has a lot of red tape surrounding it, that from what I hear, you don't want to go around. Although with the cottage law and farmers markets, there's not much hassle selling home based products there.

Getting back to my point, 100 bucks isn't that bad of a price to get your sauce into 75+ different peoples hands. I think who's hands those samples make it into is more important. Marketing to the right people. Friends are great at first but they don't necessarily get you too far.

Good luck in your ventures and welcome to the site!
Click to expand...

Definately agree with the friends part. I tell them to be brutally honest. I still get the generic "oh it was good" - and nothing else.

I was asking around and was told that I'm basically judgement free for a little while if I wanted to go to a farmers market and sell samples. Or bottles. Judgement free meaning if someone gets sick, they can't sue for millions because I don't have any, and I could always make a LLC to protect myself further. I just want to take about 6 sauces into samples and throw it out there, and get some kind of feedback. I was planning on a business card with a website with a survey on it. Maybe even a free bottle incentive, but that's getting too far ahead of myself at this point. I'd be glad just to make it consistently... let alone large scale.

The best part of all this? My girlfriend hates peppers and I often use her house to cook in, haha! :) she's very patient...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi Kalitarios-

Couple points here, are you saying Fillmore is selling bottles but they don't have caps????? Or just not the color you want?

Other sources are- specialty bottle and container&packagingsupply

also look for 2 oz boston rounds


If you're looking for honest feedback from knowledgable people, THP is the place. Getting feedback will cost you a little, but the info you get will be honest, explicit and most likely will give you info people at the farmers market wouldn't even think to mention. THPers are foodies, fo sho.

Here's what I'd do (I've actually done something very similar when I wanted feedback, but I was sending out 5 oz woozies. $$$$$)-

pick your best/favorite sauces (do all 6 if you want to and can afford it). Set them up in sample packs using 1.7oz woozies. Put an offer up here on THP something like-
"Feedback Needed for New Sauces. I need some critiquing and feedback on (6?) sauces I want to bring to market. I'm still in the R&D phase, so if you can help me out by paying ($4-5) to help cover shipping costs, I'd really appreciate it. $5 gets you 10 oz of sauces. These are hobby sauces that I've made in my own kitchen."

Post how many sets you have available, have the bottles labeled with generic b&w home printed labels with the name of the sauce and ingredients (in decending order, etc, just like what's required for actual labels) and figure out how you want them to reply. Enclose a questionaire, survey on your website, email, whatever... Make sure you disclose these are hobby sauces and were not made in a licensed kitchen. Pretty much everyone here has no problem with hobby sauces as long as they are presented as such and you're not trying to sell the sauces and lead people to believe they were professionally/legally processed.

Do a shipping comparison of First Class -v- small FRB.

If you want some help or a 2nd set of eyes for the questionaire, send me a PM. Happy to help~

Good Luck!

and welcome to THP!
salsalady
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kalitarios said:
I was asking around and was told that I'm basically judgement free for a little while if I wanted to go to a farmers market and sell samples. Or bottles. Judgement free meaning if someone gets sick, they can't sue for millions because I don't have any, and I could always make a LLC to protect myself further.
Click to expand...

Before you roll with your ideas, I highly recommend contacting your State's Department of Agriculture to see what the regulations are. Here in Pennsylvania, you are NOT allowed to sell at a farmer's market without having your products processed in a certified kitchen and laboratory tested. Every State is a little bit different but I would say to be safe, I would look into it. This would be to protect both yourself and your potential customers.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
awesome. Thanks for the ideas and heads up. I'll definatly look into that farmers market legal issues. Now I'm curious.


THE BIZ said:
What kinda sauce you workin with?
I'm down
Click to expand...

I'm looking to make a range of medium to hot pepper sauces, somewhere in the lines of 30,000 all the way to maybe 150,000 shu, maybe one that's in the 200k range. I'm not a huge fan of sauces that ruin the food with insane heat. I've been studying and reading on the science of spices and how it works chemically and psychologically. I also love making something that people say "man that's money right there... can I get more of that?"

I started with barbecue sauces. I needed habs in one mustard base that got me curious on hot peppers of all kinds. I've done some infusions, some barbecue (love pulled pork, chicken and brisket around here) and I'm up to my 12th mash and 6th straight sauce... of ever increasing positive results. My first few didn't turn out right, but were still yummy nonetheless.

From what I've read at THP legal fees and FDA stuff get expensive... for each flavor. I've been saving up but I've still not hammered down my mashes to the point where I can rent a kitchen and make a 100x scale.


salsalady said:
Hi Kalitarios-

Couple points here, are you saying Fillmore is selling bottles but they don't have caps????? Or just not the color you want?

Other sources are- specialty bottle and container&packagingsupply

also look for 2 oz boston rounds
Click to expand...

according to Fillmore, I can buy as many cases of 1.7oz woozy bottles as I want. Fillmore doesn't offer a cap to come with the bottle in their listing. When you click on the right where it says accessories, the drip caps are in stock, but the caps are not. I was going to place an order for 10 cases (with 96 to a case, from what I read) and then order 1000 caps to go with it, but it said "not enough inventory" and was adjusted to just 57 total caps. there was no offer of black or red (or any other color) of plastic with foam lining caps.

So that's why I went looking. I will look at those other jars you mentioned.

Thanks :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Check your prices, and if it works out dollar-wise, you can order caps from Specialty Bottle for bottles you get from Fillmore. SpecBot has the same 1.7 oz, but if shipping is cheaper for the bottles from Fillmore, get them there and then just order caps from Spec Bottle.



and +10 to Redtail's post. Check your local regs for selling. Our local FM are the same, sauces must be properly licensed. There are several posts about this very thing in the Hot Sauce Biz type forums. Depending on your circumstances, you do not have to be FDA licensed. Sometimes, depending on if you're retailing -vs- wholesaling, all you need is a county and/or state license. Start with your local health authority. They will let you know what's needed for your area for the type of sales you want to do. Don't rely on internet info for licensing info. It's very specific to your locale and products, etc.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I found a place looking for your Boston rounds, found 2 oz BR bottles in clear with caps and shrink wraps for $96.60 for 240 units (per case) but then they wanted 53 bucks for shipping which brings the bottles up to .62 each case. Not bad, but is it the best out there? I guess I can call Fillmore tomorrow during business hours and find out what the scoop is with the caps / backorder. I dealt with Fillmore in the past and I really had a good experience with them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
side topic-
I was just looking at some gallery pics and saw the mixed pepper jar "foxtrot-foxtrot" and it looks REAAALLLYY suspect. Does not look like a good kind of white fuzz on top. ??? If you have any qualms or questions about fermented stuff, contact Rocketman. He's very knowledgable about ferments and what's good and what's not-
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah thats more of a science project now. Haha. I dont know what went wrong but it's still sitting in a 72deg closet with a black sock on it with an air lock on it. I'm curious now. I'll post updates when i get back to the office.

Most of my sauces and mashes have an actual name, but are reduced to a nato phonetic alphabet of its initials. Thanks again for the tips
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I haven't seen it done anywhere yet but one of the things I thought about doing was to use my Food Saver and making 1 or 2 ounce pouches of sauce to send out. Vacume sealed it'll be safe and since your not using bottles it'll cut down on shipping expenses. Just a thought, SL (?), listen to Salsa Lady closely. She's been at this game a while and has been both a source for great accurate information as well as a source of inspiration in my sauce making endevors.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RocketMan said:
I haven't seen it done anywhere yet but one of the things I thought about doing was to use my Food Saver and making 1 or 2 ounce pouches of sauce to send out. Vacume sealed it'll be safe and since your not using bottles it'll cut down on shipping expenses. Just a thought, SL (?),
Click to expand...

Theoretically, it would work if all the usually critical points for a shelf-stable sauce are ok. pH of course is the biggie. Since heat packing kills all the nasties in the bottle/cap, you wouldn't have that safety measure when sealing in a vac bag. If the sauce was below 3.5pH, it would be pretty safe to vac-pak, but I wouldn't vac-pak anything with a pH of 3.5 or higher.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Heat packing and Ph, good points SL, I know the bags I get are fine in boiling water. I will seal up and freeze left overs and when ready to enjoy them again just put the bag into a pot of boiling water till it's ready. So, Hot Water Bath of the pouches wouldn't be a problem. Most all of my sauces come out at 3.4ph from fermenting so I didn't think about what the ph level should be, good catch :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Specialty Bottle has the tiny woozies (1.8 oz?) with caps. Check their site.

One note of caution though - they're a total pain in the ass to fill manually. I tried the 2.5 oz woozies & I think my final solution was a very small turkey baster with a narrow spout. And it still sucked. 1.7 oz is gonna suck even more as its even smaller.

To yiur point, I must've given away 2,000+ bottles of 5 oz prototype sauce over a few years time before I took it pro. Sure, it wasn't cheap, but the extra work filling the 1/2 size bottles just wasn't worth it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mplshothead said:
For samples, could you use something like this? They are basically small plastic prescription bottles.

http://www.scienceco...6-ml-P6315.aspx

Never mind, I've already answered my own question -- plastic won't work!
Click to expand...

Just checking something here- mpls~ originally posted at "yesterday 8:17am" and then edited at "7:40am".

:?: Just wondering, no big deal~


New Math at work???? :lol:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top