This year's ZestFest in Irving, Texas has concluded, and the results are in for the Fiery Food Challenge.

Twenty-three years running, this national competition involved a judging period spanning three days, with two blind tasting sessions a day. The independent judges tried and rated various hot and zesty food products. The challenge ended with an awards dinner at the end of the week, with the top winners receiving the Golden Chile award.

Awards were given in many different categories including salsas, condiments, BBQ, and cocktail mixes. Congratulations to all of this year's winners. Here we'll only look at the "consumer ready" hot sauces.

Winners in the Hot Sauce Categories

A few companies / makers came up big this year, winning multiple awards in different categories.

Angry Goat had three first place awards, including best hot sauce. Karma Sauce Co. continued their Fiery Foods Challenge winning streak with three first place awards. CaJohn's won in three categories too. Klowns on Fire!, JLD, and Lucky Dog all had two first place awards each.

Best Hot Sauce:

American Style – Mild/Medium

American Style – Hot/X-Hot

Pepplish Provisions - Mango Garlic Hickory Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce - Cry Baby Craig's Hot Sauce JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Extra Hot

Asian Style – Mild/Medium

The Karma Sauce Company - Curry Karma Sauce JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Hot Sauce Thai Flavor Salem’s Lott Scary Hot Sauces - Heat Stroke

Asian Style – Hot/X-Hot

Caribbean Style – Mild/Medium

Angry Goat Pepper Co - Dreams of Calypso Hot Sauce Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce - Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dick’s Caribbean Dreams Sauce

Caribbean Style – Hot/X-Hot

Chipotle Style – Mild/Medium

Porky’s Gourmet Foods - Historic Lynchburg Sweet Fire Spicy Chipotle Pepper Sauce K-Sauce - K-5 Keenan’s Killer Chipotle Hot Sauce Lucky Dog Hot Sauce - White Label-Cherry Chipotle

Chipotle Style – Hot/X-Hot

CaJohns Foods LLC - Bourbon Infused Chipotle Habanero Seafire Gourmet - Reaper Porky’s Gourmet Foods - Historic Lynchburg Sweet Fire X-Hot Chipotle Pepper Sauce

Exotic – Mild/Medium

CaJohns Foods LLC - CaJohns Black Garlic Hot Sauce Pepper Palace - Tequilapeno Sh’ That’s Hot! - Mariachi Ninja

Exotic – Hot/X-Hot

Alvin’s Hot Sauces - Alvin’s Red Pepper Hot Sauce Seafire Gourmet - Reaper The Karma Sauce Company - Hole Mole

Fruit Based – Mild/Medium

Pepper North Artisan Foods - Solar Flare Hella Hot Hot Sauce - Garlic Death Grip Pepplish Provisions - Apple Cilantro Lime

Fruit Based – Hot/X-Hot

Gemini Crow Hot Sauce - Jack The Reaper Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dirty Dick’s Hot Pepper Sauce Klowns on Fire! LLC - Klowns Inferno

Guacamole Style

Angry Goat Pepper Co - Hippy Dippy Green Hot Sauce Loco Avocado Foods - Loco Avocado Smooth & Mild Loco Avocado Foods - Loco Avocado Almost Hot

Latin – Mild/Medium

Mikey V’s Foods - Mikey V’s I Love Taco Sauce So Much Sauce The Karma Sauce Company - Taco Rosso Das Güd Spice Co. - Hatch Chipotle Verde Hot Sauce

Latin – Hot/X-Hot

Primo’s Peppers - Primonition Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce - Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce Stockton Foods Inc - Catalina’s Red Chile Salsa

Pepper Blend – Mild/Medium

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce - White Label-Cherry Chipotle K-Sauce - K-2 Keenan’s Killer Mean Green Hot Sauce Rising Smoke Sauceworks LLC - Bueno Nachos

Pepper Blend – Hot/X-Hot

Spicy Sweet Sauce – Mild/Medium

El Fuego Pepper Sauce - Pineapple Thai Sweet Pepper Sauce Porky’s Gourmet Foods - Historic Lynchburg Sweet Fire Spicy Chipotle Pepper Sauce Dirty Dick’s Hot Sauce - Dirty Dick’s Hot Pepper Sauce

Spicy Sweet Sauce – Hot/X-Hot

Ghost Pepper Sauce

Clark + Hopkins - Assam JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Bhut Jolokia Extra Hot Salem’s Lott Scary Hot Sauces - Casper The Deadly Ghost

Reaper Pepper Sauce

Klowns on Fire! LLC - Klowns Inferno Klowns on Fire! LLC - Kiss of the Klown Pepper North Artisan Foods - Momento do Muerte

Trinidad Pepper Sauce

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce - Heat’s a Peach Clamlube Brand Hot Sauce Madstone USA Inc. - Clamlube Brand Trinidog Hot Sauce Alvin’s Hot Sauces - Alvin’s Red Pepper Hot Sauce

Mild

The Karma Sauce Company - Good Karma Sauce Taste Elevated Hijole - Piercin’ Piquillo Puckerbutt Pepper Company - The Classic

Medium

Hot

X-Hot

Klowns on Fire! LLC - Extreme Peach Reaper The Karma Sauce Company - Funken Hot Klowns on Fire! LLC - Sirkus Phyre

Ultra Hot Pepper

JLD Hot Sauce & Knives - Carolina Reaper Special Reserve Angry Irishman - Angry Irishman Why? Sauce Nyuli Tuzes Chili - The Rabbit Fire

Some of the Winners On Social Media

We’re thrilled to announce that we won a few awards last night.



1st Place Medium - Serrano & Basil Hot Sauce

1st Place Margarita Mix - Pineapple & Jalapeño Margarita Mix

2nd Place Hot/Extra Hot - Crimson Special Reserve#TeamBravado @Fiery_Food pic.twitter.com/iN5GzEqsQt — Bravado Spice (@BravadoSpice) January 26, 2019

Have You Tasted These Sauces?

Have you tried these sauces too? We're working on adding them to our Hot Sauce List (there are quite a lot after all...), so they are ready to be reviewed or added to your "to taste" wishlist. Or add one yourself and we'll get it approved and appearing on the site.