By Jojo's Sriracha Owner Jolene Collins

Jolene Collins of the Colorado based artisanal sriracha company Jojo's Sriracha, is our guest for the fourth Craft Hot Sauce podcast. Brian and Jojo talk about how she decided to start her business, a great fundraiser she is working on right now, and her motto (love hard, give a fuck).

Jojo mentions a fundraiser on the podcast which you can support by buying her Sriracha sauce, and also mentions getting the early bird alert of new srirachas by signing up for her newsletter, all of which can be done on her website jojossriracha.com.

• Craft Hot Sauce Podcast • 

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Jojo’s Sriracha started the month I took refined sugar out of my diet. I began reading the ingredients list on all the foods I was eating and when I looked at the back of my beloved squeeze bottle of sriracha, I knew our relationship was over. SUGAR was the second ingredient, followed by salt and then a host of preservatives. That’s when I decided I would make my own sriracha.

We are a tiny crew that includes myself, my partner Rachel, my little sister and occasionally a few extra hands. The peppers are ground with organic garlic, sea salt and coconut palm sugar – then fermented until I say they’re done. :) After fermentation, we add organic vinegar and then puree everything in a four horsepower Vitamix. We hand fill, seal, label and stamp every jar according to it’s unique batch number. All this happens in our 323sq ft. commercial kitchen!

I firmly believe that our OG (original gangster) red sriracha kicks all other srirachas asses. Additionally, our hands-on process allows us to be creative, resulting in new flavor profiles like our super-hot batches, green chili sriracha made with Colorado green chilis and Ravenswood Petite Sirah wine-infused sriracha.

Our super-hots are a collaboration with a chile-head pepper grower in Illinois who is also a Jojo’s super-fan. Together we’ve developed batches using some of the hottest peppers in the world including: Carolina Reaper, 7-Pot, Chocolate Scorpion, Infinity and Brain Strain peppers. The peppers go through the same fermentation and jarring process as our OG sriracha. The batches are a blend of both super-hots as well as a milder, sweeter red fresno pepper (although we are pretty heavy-handed with our super-hots!). Our goal was to create something that is packed with heat AND flavor.