As the American diet becomes more health conscious, some of the healthy food choices need to be spiced up with hot sauce. Hot condiments are flooding the market and exploding into gourmet stores carrying exotic and private label hot sauces. If you want to ride the hot sauce wave, you need to have some background first, and the best way to get it is by partaking in some hot sauce education and training.

With the hot pepper sauce market growing, hot sauce manufacturers are jumping over each other with claims that their sauce is the spiciest, most daring and best tasting. Before you stock your shelves with the first hot sauce you find, make sure you have a good basis for what you are tasting and how it got to taste like that by doing the following:

1. Educate yourself on hot sauce manufacturing

2. Locate hot sauce distributors that can recommend products

3. Research hot sauce recipes for key ingredients

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Learn how the hot sauce gets its start

To fully understand how hot sauce gets its heat or kick, you should familiarize yourself with how it's made. Different ingredients can make the sauce thicker or thinner, and the heat of the specific pepper, which is measured by the Scoville scale, is responsible for the tongue burning, eye watering sensations.

I recommend: There is a comprehensive guide to the manufacturing steps involved in making hot sauce by Sunbelt Shows at Fiery-Foods.com. The NMSU: The Chile Pepper Institute provides guides on growing chilis, how chilis are processed, what diseases they are susceptible to, common terminology and an entire section detailing the heat of chilis.

Find a distributor to help you select hot sauce products

If your knowledge is still low, rely on a professional to guide and educate you. Hot sauce distributors are familiar with the brands and types of hot sauces that are on the market. They can help you learn about the different varieties of hot sauce before you spend money purchasing brands that won't sell well.

I recommend: The folks at Hot Shots, who are also hot sauce wholesalers, are available to help you via email, live chat, phone or fax to get you setup with your hot sauces. The team at Innuendo Enterprises will spend time consulting with you to help you start up your hot sauce business or private label hot sauce.

Educate yourself on hot sauce recipes

People are particular about their hot sauce. Some people even travel with hot sauce in their purses or pockets when going out to eat. The best way to learn what brands are popular and have the special place of being brought along with people, is to checkout some recipes. Hot sauce recipes are available online, but for the more daring, why not check out a hot sauce competition to learn the tricks of the trade.

I recommend: HotSauceAddicts.com has recipes by type of pepper. They also have tips on drying peppers, sterilizing hot sauce bottles and other information on planting, growing, harvesting and using hot peppers. Stovall's Gifts has the latest information on upcoming hot sauce contests.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Stock your shelves or establishment with a variety of hot sauce brands that range from mild to the hottest hot sauce you can find. You want to be able to provide a hot sauce that will please even the most timid of tongues.

No matter what kind of restaurant business you're in, you may find yourself stalking the aisles of some out-of-the-way supplier looking for various hot sauce brands and flavors. Hot sauce provides the "heat" for exotic restaurants and roadside diners alike, and lots of owners and managers look for it frequently.

No matter what kind of hot sauce you need, you can get it online from hot sauce distributors with convenience in mind. Check online catalogs if you're in the following situations:

1. A franchise or restaurant needs a gourmet or quality hot sauce as part of making tables classy on opening night.

2. The kitchen of your restaurant relies on hot pepper sauce or similar ingredients for daily culinary production, and supplies are running low.

3. A product rollout relies on a hot sauce recipe or other kind of information as part of ongoing promotions.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get bulk hot sauce

If you're using your spicy hot pepper sauce directly in your mixes, you can buy it the same way you'd buy mayo, olives or any other commodity. Get bulk buys from distributors who routinely outfit stores with big volumes for extended use.

I recommend: Want to be choosy with your heat? The Peppers wholesale hot sauce catalog has 1000 sauces available to choose from. Use their product finder to get a good list of hot sauces for business buys. For other wholesale bulk buys, try PepperClicks.com, a networker in the hot sauce business, offering access to many varieties online

Get stylish small hot sauce bottles for tables

If you're running a Mexican restaurant, a fusion shop or even a diner in Milwaukee, you may want small hot sauce bottles for each of your tables so your guests can flavor their own dishes. Find classy small table bottles from restaurant suppliers online.

I recommend: Looking for classic table bottles? Get them directly from a traditional leader among hot sauce manufacturers. Try the Tabasco Country Store, where the company sells hot sauces, other pepper foods and merchandise using the power of the net. For a range of other sauces, try Hot N Bottled. Get same-day shipping, mix cases and more for your convenience and specialized needs.

Get local or regional flavors or specialized hot sauce tastes

Variety, like hot sauce, is the spice of life. To participate in broadening your guests' palates, get special varieties of hot sauce beyond the straight Habanero for tickling the taste buds of your clientele.

I recommend: Find some really exotic flavors, like Molokai Hot Sauce Banana Coconut and Curry Hot Sauce, online at Hot Sauce Hawaii. The banana coconut curry flavor is just one of several very different hot sauce flavors for the cosmopolitan palate. For another exotic buy, check out the flavors at Loco Luna. The moon hasn't really gone crazy, but the company's zany image could be a good fit for tables at your Mexican eatery.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Get a ballpark estimate. Count tables and consult with chefs before you go running for a hot sauce purchase. It's no good ordering a bunch of condiments no one is going to use.

If you're thinking about dipping your toe in the world of hot sauce, either by becoming a seller, manufacturer or just a connoisseur, you need to have a basic understanding of the topic. There is more to hot sauce than it just being a liquid that is capable of spicing up bland food. You should research some key terms that are tossed around when people discuss hot sauce so you can begin to understand what goes into the various brands and what makes it so spicy.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Capsaicin

If you want to know what causes chili peppers to create a burning sensation when they come in contact with your tongue, or in some cases, your eyes, look no further than capsaicin.

I recommend: Check out wiseGEEK to find out more detailed information on capsaicin, including the many health benefits associated with including it in your diet.

Scoville Heat Unit

The Scoville Heat Unit is the measurement of a chili pepper's hotness level. The amount of capsaicin in each type of pepper is measured, and the more capsaicin a pepper has, the greater the number of Scoville Heat Units is given to it.

I recommend: There is an informative article on the Scoville Heat Unit at HotSauce.com that provides an overview and also a list of peppers and their associated Scoville Heat Unit measurements.

Bhut Jolokia

If you want to know what the hottest pepper according to the 'Guinness Book of World Records' is, look no further than the Bhut Jolokia, which is native to north eastern India. This pepper has a Scoville Heat Unit rating of 1,001,304!

I recommend: You can find more information on the Bhut Jolokia at TheScarms.

Capsicum

Capsicum is the genus name of chili peppers, or plants that are used to make hot sauces.

I recommend: Find an official definition for Capsicum from the folks at Botany.com, as well as information on potting and propagating them.

Capsaicinoids

A capsaicinoid is any chemical that is present within the veins of a chili pepper. These chemicals are typically colorless and odorless.

I recommend: To find out what is in the family of compounds in a chili pepper, visit Chile Zone to read about all identified capsaicinoids.

Habenero

Chances are you've seen the name habenero splashed across a hot sauce bottle and wondered what type of pepper it is. The habenero pepper is one of the spicier peppers of the genus Capsicum. When the habenero is unripe, it is green, but as it matures, it will take on color.

I recommend: If you'd like to learn more about the name, origin, history or legends on the habenero pepper, visit Fiery-Foods.com by Sunbelt Shows.

You don't have to own a restaurant to want hot pepper sauce for your business. However, if you do own a restaurant, you should not be without it. Even if you sell sushi as opposed to enchiladas, customers may still want to use it to give your food some extra fire.

Hot sauce is also a great promotional item. Giving out hot sauce can help to build your reputation as a hip and modern business. It also gives customers a product they can use and keeps your logo on display in their kitchens. It's important to consider several hot sauce types and styles when choosing a hot sauce. There are so many out there there's sure to be one that will make the impression you're looking for.

1. Look at traditional hot sauces that are essential for any restaurant.

2. Check out niche hot sauces that will catch the eyes of consumers.

3. Consider promotional hot sauces that can have your logo on the label.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Order traditional hot sauces that are essential in any restaurant

Believe it or not, when true hot sauce lovers want their sauce, they often ask for it by name. Consequently, if you own a restaurant you will want to get familiar with these two hot sauce manufacturers: McIlhenny and Jose Cuervo S.A. de C.V.

I recommend: Check out McIlhenny's inventory and you will see that its big product is Tabasco brand hot sauce, the staple sauce made in Avery Island, LA. Then look at Jose Cuervo S.A. de C.V. It is the maker of Cholula hot sauce. Restaurant owners should purchase one or both of these sauces and keep them on hand. They are just your traditional red pepper sauces, yet they are so popular you can buy them by the gallon.

Look into niche hot sauce brands

Once you've satiated the true hot sauce addicts, you can start looking into niche brand sauces. These are the fun sauces that have all kinds of creative flavors as well as decorative packaging. You can get very mild to extremely hot, plus all kinds of added flavors, such as fruit, basil or even mint. There are even dozens of different bottle shapes.

I recommend: Check out the hundreds of hot sauces Dragons Breath sells if you want to order hot sauce online. It has them divided into 24 categories, including rum sauces and kosher sauces. This company even sells some of the hottest hot sauces judged by Scoville Rating. Another star among the hot sauce distributors is Taste The Pain. If you know which hot sauce you're looking for, you can search its alphabetical listings to find it.

Consider promotional hot sauces that can have your logo on the label

To truly customize your hot sauce, you can bottle your own private label hot sauce from an original hot sauce recipe. If you don't have the time or the inclination needed for starting a hot sauce business, the next best thing you can do is order bottles of sauce with your company logo printed on them. These make great promotional items, whether your business is a restaurant or a car dealership.

I recommend: PrintGlobe has four types of hot sauce available for customization. This includes green jalapeno sauce and cayenne pepper sauce in a flask. Branders has your traditional red pepper sauce in the most common hot sauce bottle size and shape. Since it has no bells and whistles, your logo really grabs the attention.