Gourmet Business October 2016

Even though I was born in Boston, I do come from a family deeply routed in Louisiana, which means I dump hot sauce all over my baked beans. In fact, Tabasco is my catsup; I put it on just about everything. That goes for freshly ground pepper too.  I have at least 4 peppermills sprinkled around the kitchen and dining area, there are more than one variety of peppercorns after all. 

When I was young I realized that my friend’s tolerance for spice was not anything like how I was used to seasoning food. It wasn’t their fault, back then it was hard to find spicy food in the Northeast. I learned very early to appreciate our local Indian, Thai and Szechuan restaurants which we fortunately have plenty. 

When I moved to Rochester, NY to attend college I fell in love with Buffalo wings, and they had some of the hottest most pungent flavored wings out there in Western New York. They didn’t have them in Boston at the time so I had to get my ll before graduating. 

But, over the years, the availability of spice has fortunately become much more mainstream. Buffalo wings have become an American staple found on just about any pub menu where beer can be found. In the grocery isle we don’t just have jalapeno flavored potato chips, we have gone one stop further on the scoville scale with habanero flavors popping up in all sorts of places. At the Natural Products Expo last week I even learned of the existence of a new chili pepper for all those already bored with habanero flavor. The Carolina Reaper pepper is the new Guinness Book of World Records holder for Hottest Chili Pepper, and Paqui® tortilla chips are releasing a new chip flavored with them. In fact, they are so convinced that the Carolina Reaper Madness Chip will take down those who relish in the heat, they have issued a “one chip challenge” on social media, daring tasters to post their reaction to their rst taste. This should be entertaining since the ghost pepper chip I sampled was already plenty peppery. 

If the trend is pointing to spicy, and Americans are clearly choosing to season their food more than ever before, why is it so hard to nd a good peppermill on a restaurant table? Have consumers finally realized the need to have a peppermill on their table at home, and are retailers in our business offering a good assortment for them to choose from? Well in this issue we do have a great assortment of products intended for adjusting seasoning to taste on the table. I certainly hope it inspires you to take this category more seriously. Thankfully for me, the America is truly becoming a spicy place. 

David Spencer 

Publisher, Gourmet Business 

dspencer@gourmetbusiness.com