The story of Fuegorita began one night when Tony was watching me make dinner and finally asked about the jar I always dipped into when seasoning a dish. I explained how the Fido jar was full of hot pepper grown in my family’s garden. Since they are way too hot to eat all of them while still fresh, I would allow them to dry and then grind them up in my Oster blender for use in cooking. Tony looked at me and said, “You could bottle this. This is too good not to share. It’s something the whole world would want.”
That conversation led us to wonder what would happen if we tried mixing different combinations of hot peppers to find the perfect blend. Soon we were buying all the hottest peppers we could get our hands on and mixing them in different proportions. In the end, we decided the original formula was still the best hot, spicy mix that we would ultimately christen as Fuegorita.
We made the decision then to see how far we could take our pepper project. We made a partnership agreement and learned about all we’d have to deal with to get our plan off the ground. There were decisions to make about where to rent a kitchen, what size blenders to use, the best way to package our product and how to ship it. We needed insurance, a business license and a website – and the list goes on
Meanwhile, we asked our family and friends to give us feedback, and it was all positive. Once at a family gathering someone asked the hostess what made her spaghetti sauce so good. Just like someone in a TV commercial she sang out, “It’s Fuegorita!” The owner of a San Francisco pizza chain switched out his usual bottle of red pepper flakes with a sample bottle of Fuegorita, and his customers reported they never wanted to eat plain crushed red peppers again.
We’ve had people tell us they use it in both prepared foods – like canned soup or frozen pizza -- and recipes. One couple sprinkles it liberally into the batter they use for frying chicken as well as into the ground beef as they form hamburger patties. People tell us they’re hooked -- they sprinkle it on popcorn, chicken nuggets, salads and into their ketchup before they dip their french fries.
We hope you’re going to love our secret pepper blend as much as everyone who has tried it already does. We continue to try other brands, and we still like ours best. We’re pretty sure you will, too.
© 2019 Pepper Bandits, LLC
Carmen Zermeno
Author