Shipping large vessels of mash = too expensive. Alternatives?

-Pablo-

-Pablo-

I posted this in Hot Sauce making but apparently it was the wrong sub-forum and the topic was simply locked rather than moved. I'm re-posting here.

So buying and shipping drums of thick liquids has become too cost prohibitive for me. Shipping costs SEVERELY cut into my margins. What are my alternatives?

Find another mash supplier that's willing to come down on shipping? There's already a severe shortage of suppliers that deal in smaller-than-shipping-container size quantities. The growers in South America want to unload their harvest all at once (understandably).

Make my own mash? I don't have the acreage to grow my own peppers for the sauce output I do, but I could easily buy/ship the lighter-weight pepper pods. Where is the best place to source fresh pods in bulk?

What about dried chile pods? Can you reconstitute them and make a convincing liquid pepper mash from dried pods?

What about dried/ground chile powder? It would be way cheaper to ship, but I'd think you would lose the fermented flavor and consistency this way - I'd have to alter my recipe entirely.

I'm still a small fry in this biz, what do the bigger shops do?

Sorry for rambling, I'm just trying to feel out my options a bit more.

Salsa Lady asked this in the other topic before it was locked, so I'm following up here.

salsalady said:
Hi Pablo,
Can you clarify a little-
are you buying barrels of fermented mash and making a sauce and selling the sauce?
buying ground chiles (in barrels?), doing the fermentetion and selling barrels of fermented mash?
looking to buy fresh chiles to make your own fermented mash to use in your sauce?
Where are you located on earth ( ;) )and where are the barrels coming from/ going to?

Just trying to understand your operation and at what point you are shipping/receiving barrels.

thanks-
SL
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Yes, I'm buying barrels of fermented mash and making a sauce, and then selling the sauce. It's become too expensive for me to pay for shipping on large barrels of mash.

I could do the mash myself, but don't have a good source for buying fresh pods. I'm also curious if one could make a convincing fermented mash using reconstituted dried pods as dried pods would maybe be even cheaper to ship than fresh pods... but.... where to source dried pods in bulk?

I'm in Georgia. Barrels are coming from either Texas or Louisiana.
 
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I could be wrong, I've never engaged in an operation specifically like this, but it seems like shipping large quantities of pods to make mash is ultimately going to end up costing you more than shipping the mash itsself. If you figure it's going to end up the same weight in peppers anyways, but the quantity
would be a lot larger.
If it were me I'd be looking for dried pods or powders and figuring out how to make your special sauce from that point on.
 
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badger126 said:
I could be wrong, I've never engaged in an operation specifically like this, but it seems like shipping large quantities of pods to make mash is ultimately going to end up costing you more than shipping the mash itsself. If you figure it's going to end up the same weight in peppers anyways, but the quantity
would be a lot larger.
If it were me I'd be looking for dried pods or powders and figuring out how to make your special sauce from that point on.
Click to expand...

I don't believe it will since water and salt are added to the mash. You're right though, it would probably be cheaper to ship dried pods. But I'm wondering if it's possible to make a fermented mash from dried pods?
 
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hotpeppergirlalabama said:
about how many lbs of each do you need for 2013 i can plant all you need.
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Well, I'm not sure entirely. Right now I only have about 100 lbs of a Cayenne/Serrano mash blend on hand that'll get me through maybe 40-50 cases of sauce. I don't know how fresh pod weight translates into mash weight though. I guess I'd also need to invest in a commercial-grade macerator to fill up the drums. Maybe 100 lbs of each?
 
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Scoville DeVille said:
what's the name of your sauce that you are making?

in that quantity, I'm wondering if we've ever heard of it.

Where do you sell?
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Pablo's Phoenix. It's not exactly huge quantities, not like the big guys at least. I mostly sell online, but also am working on retail. There's a local restaurant chain called Tako Sushi that carries it right now, but I'm going to scale up ops at the beginning of next year and push for more retail distro in places like Fresh Market, Whole Foods, etc...

I meant to enter it into this year's THP awards, but alas... schedule has been UNSANE these last few months.
 
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Nice.

It seems a lot of 8.oz sauces are $7 and up. $5 seems reasonable, but low.

I'd dig trying it for sure.

Ever looked into a co packer? 40-50 cases is a lot for a home business.
 
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Scoville DeVille said:
Nice.

It seems a lot of 8.oz sauces are $7 and up. $5 seems reasonable, but low.

I'd dig trying it for sure.

Ever looked into a co packer? 40-50 cases is a lot for a home business.
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It's $8. $5 is shipping. :/

And yeah, i've looked into some co-packers too, but again I run into the problem of having to pay to ship mash to them, and then having to pay to ship/warehouse the final product. With the price of oil being what it is, shipping has gone through the roof. I got to make money somehow, you know? Doing most of my stuff in-house lets me keep margins up. I did find a place that does free shipping supposedly, but they won't return my phone calls. :rolleyes:

Now if I could just find a place to source 8 oz. bottles closer by, I'd be all set. Maybe I need to start making my own glassware! :P
 
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Ahh yes, sorry. I didn't see the $8 at the top.
I only suggested the co packer thinking shipping to them would be less.
It sounds like you've looked at it from all angles.

LOL If you start making woozies, you'll prolly make more money doing that, than filling them with that pesky sauce. :)

I didn't mean to divert the topic.

As you were...
 
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