Spice Fiendz Podcast
Spice Fiendz is the hot sauce review show where flavor meets foolishness. We dive into the spiciest, strangest, and most face-melting sauces on the planet—no milk, no mercy. Expect raw reactions, unfiltered opinions, and the kind of banter you’d hear if your taste buds were on fire. Whether you're a heat-seeker or just here to watch us suffer, subscribe for the pain. Stay for the laughs.
Spice Fiendz Podcast
Melting Faces & Making Memories: A Hot Sauce Journey Begins
From childhood pranks involving Tabasco sauce on sleeping lips to amassing collections that threaten domestic harmony, the Spice Fiends podcast launches with two hot sauce enthusiasts facing an ultimatum: use their 100+ bottles or watch their prized possessions get tossed. Their significant others' patience has worn thin, and this podcast serves as both salvation and celebration of their flavorful obsession.
Between fits of laughter and moments of genuine appreciation, our hosts dive into the Hell's Kitchen Hot Sauce sampler pack from their friend Ron Dunham. The tasting begins with Retro Jalapeño Verde Style Sauce, a mild yet flavorful blend perfect for Taco Tuesday, featuring jalapeño, honey, tomatillos, and lime juice. Next comes West Side Red Artisan Hot Sauce, a masterful Sriracha-Louisiana style creation with Fresno peppers, habanero, garlic, and unexpected raspberries. Finally, they savor Habanero Mango Salvation, where sweet mango purée balances perfectly with fiery habanero peppers.
Just when you think they're finished, the hosts tackle "Sickle Pickles, Fear the Spear" - pickles infused with Carolina Reaper, habanero, and ghost peppers. The contrast between wanting to enjoy the refreshing pickle while battling extreme heat creates a hilarious finale that leaves them sweating and reaching for relief. Throughout it all, their genuine enthusiasm for craft hot sauces and appreciation for flavor over pure heat shines through.
Whether you're a hot sauce aficionado or simply curious about this spicy subculture, join these self-proclaimed Spice Fiends as they save their collections one bottle at a time while sharing stories, laughs, and expert insights into the world of artisanal hot sauces. Subscribe now on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts to follow their flavorful journey!
All right. Well, welcome to the Spice Fiends podcast Number one. Number one, our inaugural episode. We got the spice. We got the spice. We got the spice. We got those. And we're doing this because we love hot sauce and eat it all the time and over the past year we've collected probably about 100 bottles of hot sauce each 100 bottles of hot sauce on the wall, and our significant others have been telling us to use them, or they're going to throw them out.
Speaker 2:And they're going to throw us out.
Speaker 1:They're going to throw the hot sauce out.
Speaker 2:We have a hot sauce out.
Speaker 1:We have a hot sauce addiction, but basically it's all piling up and we keep buying more, so we're using this as an outlet to go through our bottles and you know, talk about it and we've met so many people that make these sauces.
Speaker 1:So we have a lot of stories and a lot of history here, and you might know us from our other channel, six, terrible Six which is more variety based of hot foods and stuff like that, and basically, yeah, we just had to do this to try the hot sauces and review them before they go bad. They're all going gonna expire soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is, yeah, this is, uh, we're, we're a little desperate here because we don't want to see our, our, uh, I don't want to see our babies go bad, exactly, exactly so uh, what, what, what actually got you into? Like hot sauce, just in general, because I don't even know if we've talked about this.
Speaker 1:Now we're talking about it yeah, it is in the room, um, so basically, uh, the funny thing is my first experience with hot sauce and this sounds kind of fucked up, but it was when I was a kid boy and uh and uh, me and my buddies we had a sleepover and, uh, one of our um buddies so he'll definitely be a guest is, uh, davis, and that was this type of show, and I slept on the couch in the living room at this house and it was me, it was Davis, another Robbie, and this kid, james, who's the younger brother of this guy, james Hetfield, was the singer of a Boston hardcore band called Eye for an Eye.
Speaker 1:So a little Boston hardcore history there. But basically, uh, yeah, so basically I was sleeping and I didn't know anything. I didn't know hot sauce existed, but, uh, one of them, I was sleeping, they put tabasco on my lip while I was sleeping and and woke up to it and I thought somebody had punched me in the face, like it was like, and I, I think, I think from then I was sold. But I definitely woke up and I was like what the fuck? I was like what, what?
Speaker 1:what the hell would you guys do to me? You know it was definitely screaming, no, just in shock. You know it was just my whole lip was burning. I don't even know.
Speaker 2:I got to call them and ask them and see how much you would think that'd be more of a traumatizing thing where they're like I hate hot sauce because one time I slept with all my friends I was in a put hot sauce in my mouth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I probably should go seek therapy.
Speaker 2:It's all unfolding now. I didn't know we're getting this time.
Speaker 1:So this is a therapy podcast. So this is why you love it. Yeah, so I I will. I will actually ask about that and find out, like, how much they actually put on me and whatever. Oh, we'll bring it up to rob. Hopefully he remembers. I mean, we were like 10 years old, so it was a very, very long, long time ago, that's amazing and uh, yeah, so um, how did you get into hot stuff?
Speaker 2:hmm, I think it was milk man. Just he just kept putting milk on the steps. So it's like why are you putting milk on the steps? I didn't order any milk. It's 90 degrees out, it's it's gonna go bad. Like why are you putting milk on the steps? I don't know, I'm just like. I mean, I guess you know. Like next thing, you know, my ex-wife leaves me for the milkman.
Speaker 1:You know so then I you know how am I going to help you through this therapy then.
Speaker 2:So every night I just I just drank hot sauce because I didn't know what to do with myself, and I'm sure he just kept drinking hot sauce and became a fiend and changed my name to El Diablo and it's a great name. Now I got six wives and 30 kids and I'm still a spice fiend.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Thank you for joining me on this spice mission.
Speaker 2:It's a spice journey for two spice fiends.
Speaker 1:Yes, and just for everybody's, you know, just so everybody knows we're going to be okay. We do have toilet paper in the freezer. Yes, in case we have an accident.
Speaker 2:Yes, and our seats are actually those toilet seats that the elderly use in case we have an accident out the other way. It doesn't spray all over the cameras don't cough.
Speaker 1:There's no. There's no coughing in the podcast. If you hear a cough, but until we get that depends sponsorship. Yes, then we will not need those things. We are very dependent on that dependent sponsorship XL holds extra amounts. I don't know the sizing, oh man, Anyway. So should we get to this?
Speaker 2:Let's do it. I'm ready. Let's get on to our first episode. Thank you guys for hanging on, and that's our little intro and we're just going to go for it. This is our first episode. We'll for hanging on and that's our little intro and we're gonna. We're just gonna go for it. This is our first episode. We'll figure it out as we go. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Let's do it let's make it a bumpy ride. Yeah, one of us, and here's our first victim, the sampler from Hell's Kitchen, our buddy Ron.
Speaker 2:Yes, Ron is the man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, anyway. So I figured you know, for our first hot sauce tasting we were at the Boston Hot Sauce Festival at the Harpoon Brewery Is that the full name of it?
Speaker 1:I don't remember the name, but I think it's called boston hot sauce fest yeah, and um, we saw ron, oh yeah, ron, good old ron, from hell's kitchen hot sauce and he, uh, gave me the sampler it was. It was back in april, so I'm sorry, I'm probably gonna be saying this a lot because you know we've gotten a lot of these and haven't been able to get to them, but it's not including my collection either, so yeah, so this is this is our inaugural podcast sampler that we're going to do, because it's all Hell's Kitchen, ron's freaking cool.
Speaker 1:We just saw him in New York. When was that? In July, the New York Hot Sauce.
Speaker 2:Festival. Was it July? I think it was September oh.
Speaker 1:All right, well you know, oh no, the New England Hot Sauce Festival was in July. That was in.
Speaker 2:July. Yes, new York one was either August.
Speaker 1:End of August, I think.
Speaker 2:Yep, who knows, who knows what year is it.
Speaker 1:We don't know. And now ron also gave me his uh, um, newest hot sauce. That's unnamed, but I, before we do anything with that, I we have to figure out what it's called, because I don't think it'd be fair to review a sauce without a name oh, it's got the reaper x in it or whatever yeah, the pepper x. Sorry, I don't know, I just called it reaper x. You're a reaper x all right, so let's open my ex girlfriend. Sorry, I don't know why, I just called it Reaper X. You're a Reaper X.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's open this up.
Speaker 1:I called my ex-girlfriend. All right, so we got. You want to read this one off?
Speaker 2:Oh baby. We got retro jalapeno verde style sauce, and then we have this one. Next is west side red artisan hot sauce, and then we have this one. Next is Westside Red Artisan Hot Sauce, and then we have this Habanero Mango Salvation.
Speaker 1:I feel like we might have done this, but I don't know, these are definitely cool little bottles, little mini bottles for the sampler, and his artwork is super cool. Yep, look at this the Statue of Liberty breathing fire in there. That's wicked cool Fire. I love it. That's one of my favorite parts of some of these companies the creativity and the artwork. The artwork, the packaging. It's like they put more into it than just the sauce Naming funny names Anyway.
Speaker 1:Creativity is fun, my friends, so let's do these in the order of I think. I think the jalapeno is probably the lowest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think this is three peppers.
Speaker 1:This is two peppers.
Speaker 2:Oh, where does it show the?
Speaker 1:Oh, I see this is the single.
Speaker 2:This is two peppers. Oh, where does it show the? Oh, I see this is the single. This is a mild sauce. Okay, probably good on tacos. Retro jalapeno.
Speaker 1:All right. So we got these new spoons. Ooh, they're probably not really that practical, but I'm a sucker for skulls. Skulls For the listening audience. They're spoons with a little skull tip on the end.
Speaker 2:I don't know, that's fine, I can't even whatever, that's fine, we'll get a closeup of it. Here's your skull spoon. I like it, cause the sauce could leak out. Yeah, so it's extra dangerous. Hopefully I don't have a cut on my arm and it means like cut.
Speaker 1:Or you're trying to eat hot sauce while you're taking a pee.
Speaker 2:What I'm shaking. I'm shaking. I love these spoons. Okay, I wait. We got to make a pack that we're never going to clean them Every time we use them. It's just filth, yeah.
Speaker 1:Pure filth. Yeah, we can't load them up too much because those so our immune systems are unstoppable. Well, this one's green, so it looks good on the black. Oh my, yeah, it's got a greenish texture and color. Here we go.
Speaker 2:Smells wonderful. Yeah, nice mild sauce there, that delicious smooth. Yep, I don't know how we haven't had this one yet. Yeah, oh, that's good, that's tasty, let's do just more. It's definitely a taco tuesday night stuff. Yeah, it's sweet, definitely sweet. Yeah, I think that's what kind of brings it out. It's not like over vinegary or anything like that, it's just, it's bright.
Speaker 1:What else? I can't read that. What are the other ingredients on it? Can you see that? Let me get my magnifying glass, jalapeno Honey.
Speaker 2:That's what it is. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Tomatillos, lime juice, vinegar, garlic. Tomatillos, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, salt shallots, poblano, habanero. That's great. At the end, that's a nice twist there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I'm going to get one more of these. That's delicious. I could drink that. Yeah, I could drink the whole thing. I mean you want it.
Speaker 2:We got to get to other stuff. Yeah, that's true. It is that damn good, ron, you've done it again, even though you've probably had this one out for a while. We just haven't had it, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm afraid to look to see how long this has been out, for he's like I know all these things. It's a great hot sauce and it is. It's beautiful Retro jalapeno, all right, definitely highly recommend this.
Speaker 2:That definitely taco tuesday material. Okay so all right, could go on a steak too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, totally puberto, next West Side Red. And this is a Sriracha Louisiana style hot sauce. I like that. Let's take this.
Speaker 2:Let me shake it first. Give it a shake, gotta shake it. Well, shake it up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, smells wonderful. It definitely has that sriracha, sriracha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll get you sriracha, don't go through the skull eyes.
Speaker 1:Don't go through the skull eyes, alright alright, alright, damn, that's really fucking good too. That definitely has. It's definitely a a little bit hotter than that. Oh, totally yeah. They nailed the uh the rating on here. What, what pepper did they give it? Uh, two peppers, two peppers. And yeah, before we do the others, what else is in there?
Speaker 2:We got Fresno peppers as the lead, red habanero peppers, garlic, raspberries, lime juice, salt, shallots, vinegar, blue agave, nectar. The creativity on that is just wonderful. I'm going to have more. It's a great sauce, great solid sauce. It's a great sauce, great solid sauce. It's a solid red. That's good. That's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're gonna go watch the Patriots after this, so we're gonna arrive with three.
Speaker 2:We're too used to winning that, we just like to watch them lose now, yeah, yeah, we're changing it up.
Speaker 1:No, I'm good, I'm just balancing the flavors in my mind all right, so west side red, this is good too. It's definitely um more flavor over heat you know, and the heat's there, but the flavor is just so good like I don't. I don't even care if it's hot or not, it's a good freaking sauce. So Westside Red Flavor is the most important part. Hell's Kitchen hot sauce.
Speaker 2:Ron Dunham again. Yep, alright.
Speaker 1:Skulls. So, last but not least, we have Habanero Mango Salvation.
Speaker 2:I feel like we've done this in the past, but what does it say? Oh, it doesn't say anything. Okay, let's just go for it. Then I'll read the ingredients after Okay.
Speaker 1:So I want to say that in my giant stash of hot sauces I think I have a full bottle of this that I've had since last July as well.
Speaker 2:I feel like we reviewed this on 6 Terrible 6, but I also.
Speaker 1:No, that was Ginger Devil. Oh okay, yeah. And then we did the balsamic one. Oh yeah, cheers, cheers. Annual salvation.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, cheers, Cheers, mango salvation Going up on heat here. Shit, that's good too. Lots of mango, I like it. Yeah, mango puree, carrots, honey, habanero peppers, garlic, vinegar, water, lime juice, salt.
Speaker 1:But you just get a jolt of habanero and you all of a sudden can fucking read it's hitting my throat now. This is fucking good. I'm into all these.
Speaker 2:Ron never lets us down. I'm not going to lie, he's a good guy too. Take some more Such a nice guy. He gave me a hat last time and he gave me this little sample pack. I think I sweated through the hat that he gave me. And then I saw him again and he's like why aren't you wearing the hat? And I was like, well, I think I've already sweated through it. That was at the new york fest, where we were just the new york fest, great. Yeah, by the way, we joined the competitions. Uh, kind of like in the moment. We're not usually cool like that, but we just did it in the moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, we definitely didn't win, because we didn't win.
Speaker 2:I think it was more of a chewing thing than a spice thing. I could have kept going for hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, habanero mango salvation is good. Yeah, so we did not review this before?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my bad.
Speaker 1:The cinnamon toast punch. Oh, so we did not review this before?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my bad. The cinnamon toast punch? Oh, cinnamon ghost punch, Cinnamon ghost punch, you know what it's? Because it looks like it has a similar color as the ginger devil. So my brain is just malfunctioning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, definitely good shit, awesome. So yeah, so shit. So we're not going to clean these, no, stick them in the dirt, cool. So um, yeah, I think, um, I don't think we're done yet. I think we should do, like, maybe one more thing yeah, I think I can keep going it's not like I mean, these were like earth-shattering, where my day is ruined, type.
Speaker 2:They're just beautiful. Uh, flavored sauces, exactly so. Oh, now you're gonna bring extra pain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got um so I was at the mall yesterday and every time I'm at the mall and now we're we're based out of massachusetts, so every time I'm at the natick ball, I always forget that there's a pepper palace there and yeah, sorry, and pepper palace is cool, it's's cool. You go there, you know they have all their sampler spoons out. You can try pretty much whatever, mostly everything in the store, and we actually have. I think we were there, god, last fall, a year ago. We were there. I think between the two of us we picked up like 12 hot sauces. My collection's going, yeah, so we're going to have to do those at some point too. But I saw this and I was like, huh, this will be fun. It's pickles, it's Sickle Pickles, fear the Spear. Spicy pickle A little scared, I mean Reaper pickle. Yeah, oh, it's got Reaper Habanero and Ghost, uh, ghost peppers all in one oh, jesus christ so baby jesus, help me help me do we fear the spear?
Speaker 2:don't fear the spear. Yeah, where's? The cowbell fuck somewhere in this room. How do you get this off? Oh, I think it's just pressurized. I'll use my special strength oh, there you go.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna get some paper towels so we can prevent a mess here, just so we don't. We don't want to piss the landlord off here, so mess here, just so we don't. We don't want to piss the landlord off here, so we like to give a. Also, we'd like to give a big shout out to punch dance studios for having us here and using their space. Yes, yes, spicing up the joint. You know, you know what I'm saying smells spicy in here. All right, so I'm kind of thinking that maybe we I don't know what the I should have got you a fork too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll use my hands, Alright, just don't. Just don't flick it into my eye. Yeah, the fuck. Alright, it's a pickle.
Speaker 1:It's definitely. You want to grab it, yep.
Speaker 2:Alright, I'm just going to lay it there until we go for it. All right, all right, oh boy pickle juice on my arm all right, there we go.
Speaker 1:This looks fucked up yeah, it's weird, cheers touching pickles yes all right. Oh yeah, oh it's hot. Oh yeah, oh it's hot. Oh, it's definitely all in there.
Speaker 2:Mmm, oh, mmm, tastes like a pickle.
Speaker 1:Don't wait, I have mixed feelings about this because usually eating pickles is like refreshing, nothing but refreshing. Oh baby, it's fucking hot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hot, it's got a pretty cool flavor, but it's also like yeah, like you said, like I've had spicy pickles and I enjoy them. This is kind of like eh.
Speaker 1:I mean, maybe if you put them in a sandwich though oh yeah, we're just doing these straight up you should probably eat another one. Oh my God, I can't believe I need water. Oh, it's definitely yeah they definitely it's a lot fuck sweating. I kind of want to get another one. I want to have another one just for the effect. But I don't know, I don't want to throw up. Not the worst thing I've ever had. No, it's good, just a lot, just like I I've ever had.
Speaker 2:No, it's good, just a lot. Just like I think it's just the pickle and it's like, yeah, it's a pickle and you just want to fucking, you want to keep eating it because it's a pickle. But then you're like, yeah, but it's hurting. You Went around the house with a pickle in my mouth misbehaving. It's fucking hot and, stan, I feel like it's burning my soul a little bit.
Speaker 1:But he also had like a little spice before that. Oh, look at this, it looks like a leaf.
Speaker 2:It's a grape leaf.
Speaker 1:It's a pickle leaf, all right.
Speaker 2:The top of that was refreshing For a second Usually I'm down, but I'm not in the mood today for extra spice. I don't know why.
Speaker 1:the guy from Apocalypse doesn't make spicy pickles. I'm sure it's coming. He said he's got some new stuff coming out next year Nice yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it's burning me. Usually El Diablo is down, but today he's not down.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, anyway, All right. So yeah, I think we've come to the end.
Speaker 2:It was our first test run, so you know so. Yeah, so I think we've come to the end. It was our first test run, so you know the pilot episode. I think we're going to get a little wild and there's going to be some other wild videos to go along with this stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, thanks for listening. We're just getting started.
Speaker 2:So you can find us on everywhere, everywhere Instagram, spotify, youtube, youtube. Us on everywhere, everywhere. Instagram um, spotify, youtube, youtube. Yes, um all the pod places, yeah we will tell you after I submit. Yeah, once we figure it out. Uh, currently don't have a sponsor yet. So that's good, you don't have to fast forward through our sponsorship yes but I have a feeling our first sponsor is going to be Dude Wipes, but yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll see. Thanks again to Peanut Brothers Inc and the Dog House here. Punchdown Studios, thanks for listening Over and out. Have a spicy evening. Have a spicy morning lunch Over and out.
Speaker 2:Have a spicy evening. Have a spicy morning, lunch and dinner and sleepy time.
Speaker 1:Sayonara Au revoir, we got the spice. We got the spice.