Started five years ago by Philadelphia high-school student Lev Burstein, Hot Sauce for Heat makes bottled hot sauce with a social purpose: a portion of every sale helps pay winter heating bills for local residents who cannot afford heat. What began as sauce blended at home with his father and sold at farmers’ markets and street fairs has grown into a co-packed operation offering several pepper-based flavors.
Karma Sauce CompanyBorn from a 2008 locavore challenge, Karma Sauce Company makes small-batch hot sauces in its Rochester micro factory, using peppers and other produce grown on its Finger Lakes farm. Founder Gene developed the business around preserving the original recipes and sourcing locally, with most ingredients coming from within 50 miles; production reached the market in 2010. The award-winning sauces range from mild pineapple-forward blends to extreme-heat bottles featured on Hot Ones, and are made without preservatives.ROCHESTER, NY
Goodlands Food CoFrom a single ghost pepper grown in a West Philly community garden, Anna Dausman built Goodlands Food Co., a woman- and LGBTQ+-owned maker of small-batch hot sauces designed around fresh flavor as much as heat. Its seasonally inspired sauces pair locally sourced produce with unexpected combinations, giving the line a distinctly bright, produce-forward character. The company’s name honors Woodlands Cemetery, where those first peppers took root.PHILADELPHIA, PA
Horseshoe BrandSince 2008, Horseshoe Brand has handcrafted hot sauce and barbecue sauce in New York’s Hudson Valley, building its recipes around fresh premium ingredients and naturally hot peppers rather than pepper extracts. Its sauces range from mild to high heat, including the scorpion-and-Carolina-reaper XXXXtra, and are sold through more than 1,000 stores in the United States and around the world.RHINEBECK, NY
Salamander Sauce CompanyBrooklyn-based Salamander Sauce Company makes vegetable-forward hot sauces designed to bring flavor forward instead of letting heat take over. Founded by Timothy Kavarnos, who began developing the sauces in his kitchen in 2009 and incorporated the company in 2013, Salamander has kept the same process for more than 15 years while producing in New York’s Hudson Valley. Its signature approach uses real ingredients for body, including an unusually low-sodium Whiskey-Infused sauce made with actual bourbon.BROOKLYN, NY