How to make hot sauces more mainstream?

[LinNJoe]

Earlier this week, I was talking to a friend of mine who sells collectible hot sauces and we were discussing the business of selling hot sauces for a living. His supposition was, that despite the zeal & vigor of those industry folks and a small segment of fanatics in the population, that hot sauces were much of a niche interest. One statement was,

"Just ask 10 people at random if they like hot sauce. Maybe 2 or 3 of them will say, 'Oh yeah, I like Tabasco.'"

Tabasco?! Puh-leaze.

Is the public that misguided or uninformed or is not enough being done to get hot sauces (& other spicy foods) into the mainstream?

Like Linda Richman skit from Saturday Night Live..."DISCUSS!"

 

[willard3]

In my experience, until you start to get Mexicanos or people from the Carribean Islands in the local population, any picante food and sauces are a very small niche.

I live in upstate NY where there are few people who eat picante stuff. I went to a Dominican food store the other day (run by people direct from D.R.) and they had no chiles and looked at me like I was from Mars. They call them chiles Mexicano.

I go to church with a bunch of Carrib islanders and church suppers always have picante stuff.

It also does not help that most chile plants are 120 days to fruit and our season is about 90-100 days between killing frosts....few people can grow chiles even if they want them.

I learned to eat picante foods traveling in Mexico and I started to grow my own 10 years ago because none were available in the markets. Aside from Xalapas (not my favorite) and occasional chinenses, hot food is still not available here.