Written by Frankton Heat Hot Sauce Owner Lucas

Lucus of Frankton Heat Hot Sauce tells us about his journey into the world of hot sauce making. This post was from September in 2015. Unfortunately in 2019, fires took over his kitchen in the South Islands of New Zealand.

In this post, Lucus shares how his local New Zealand competition has supported him along the way and how the collaboration has helped NZ bring home lots of awards at the 2015 World Hot Sauce Awards.

How I got started in hot sauce

About a year ago I made too much Hot Sauce on my night off and decided to give it away on a local Facebook trading site. Next thing I knew I had people asking for more and more and more.

I was rushed with requests for extra batches to be made with more flavors. Before I knew it, supermarkets and local restaurants were asking for it, but they wanted a legitimate sauce, none of this black market stuff. Following all of this I had the local council hit me about not paying taxes (they wanted their cut).

I held a vote on Queenstown Trading FB site with an option between my top 3 names and with a 90% vote Frankton Heat was the One!

About Frankton Heat

Frankton Heat is The South Islands first Hot Sauce brand produced in a very unique way using methods of caramelization, reduction, clarification and maturing finalizing in a sauce with significant savory notes. Well-balanced acidity and an expansive and lasting medium heat finished with notes of roast hazelnut.

All our fresh vegetables used are NZ grown, our chilies we use are from a local farmer in Cromwell who supplies us when chilies are in season, and in the off season we use baby Thai red chilies.

We are proud to be 100% GMO free, Gluten Free, MSG free and use no chemicals or preservatives.

Expect more variety of sauces to be released as the company grows. Made with love and passion with the mindset of being a supreme hot sauce with a price tag available to everyone

Frankton Heat just entered its first awards competition the “Mr. Chili" awards, which is the biggest in the antipodean region. The NZ hot sauce industry is all quite tight knit and everyone so far (I’m the new kid on the block) has been really helpful.

Big shout out to Huffman’s Hot Sauce and Fire Dragon from the north island, they’ve really been awesome towards me, over here it doesn’t feel like "competition" because we all love what we do and enjoy sharing our progress and giving a hand up. New Zealand recently cleaned up at the World hot sauce awards taking away plenty of first and second prizes throughout the competition.

What’s Up with the Label?

Everyone asks about the label, Yup, its a gang patch.

NZ has the highest rate of gang members per capita in the world so most people here have a family member or at least a friend who’s in a gang of some sort. I grew up in an area with a lot of patch members and it always stood out.