Piquant*Wholesale

Small-batch hot sauce · Port Alsey

Good fooddeserves a littledanger.

Fermented three weeks, bottled by hand, sealed in wax. Three sauces, five heat levels, zero apologies. Well, one apology, but that was about Batch № 03 and we have all agreed to move on.

Meet the lineupFind a bottle
Wax-sealed bottle of First Alarm hot sauce, tilted, with drips of red wax down the neck

Batch № 7 bottled Thursday · 212 cases · gone by Sunday, historically speaking

The lineup

Three sauces. No filler episodes.

  • Wax-sealed glass bottle of First Alarm hot sauce with a hand-drawn yellow label

    Batch № 01

    First Alarm

    The everyday ripper

    Fermented jalapeño, tomatillo, and a hard squeeze of lime. Bright, green, and loud enough to open both eyes. This is the bottle that lives on the counter, not in the fridge door.

    Polite burn
    Bottle
    150 ml · $12
    Put it on
    Fried eggs · tacos al pastor · cold pizza
  • Squat jar of Deep Cut hot sauce tied with twine

    Batch № 04

    Deep Cut

    The slow burner

    Habanero and charred pineapple, aged nine weeks in a bourbon barrel we won in a bet. Sweet first, smoky second, then a long third act that keeps improving your posture.

    Committed
    Bottle
    200 ml · $14
    Put it on
    Smash burgers · grilled corn · brave marinades
  • A single glossy red scorpion chilli, stem up

    Batch № 07

    Last Words

    Sign the waiver

    Scorpion pepper, smoked date, black garlic. Made once a season, 212 cases at a time, each numbered by hand while wearing two pairs of gloves. We are legally proud of it.

    Famous last words
    Bottle
    100 ml · $16
    Put it on
    One drop per taco · dares · apologies

The heat scale

Calibrated by our own tears

Every batch is tasted by the same three people in the same order on the same stools. It is not science, but it is rigorous, and two of us have notarised the results.

A single bright red chilli with a curled green stem

  1. Whisper

    A rumor of warmth. Your grandmother could drink it. She has.

  2. Polite Burn

    Noticeable, friendly, gone in a minute. First Alarm lives here.

  3. Committed

    You reach for water and then, wisely, decide against making it worse.

  4. Slow Burner

    Deep Cut territory. Arrives late, stays long, tips generously.

  5. Last Words

    One drop. We mean it. The label says so in three languages.

How it’s made

Slow sauce, fast opinions

A market stall stacked with crates of red, orange and green chillies, printed in riso style
Beckoner Street market, Thursday, before coffee.
A big pot of red sauce bubbling on a kitchen range, steam rising
Kettle two, doing its loud little job.
A wooden crate piled high with fresh chillies

  1. The market run

    Every Thursday, 6 a.m., Beckoner Street market. We buy chillies by the crate from the same four growers we started with, and we squeeze every pepper like it owes us money.

  2. The ferment

    Three weeks minimum in salt brine, in crocks older than the business. Fermentation does the heavy lifting: depth, funk, the tang that vinegar-only sauces fake.

  3. The blend

    Small kettles, wooden spoons, a radio permanently tuned to the wrong station. Nothing thickened, nothing stabilised, nothing you cannot pronounce with your mouth on fire.

  4. Wax & number

    Every bottle dipped by hand and numbered in pencil. If the wax drips crooked, that is not a defect. That is provenance.

From the test kitchen

Midnight tacos

Serves 2, generously · 25 minutes · uses № 04 Deep Cut

You will need

  • 8 small corn tortillas, doubled up
  • 450 g skirt steak, or mushrooms if it is that kind of week
  • Deep Cut (№ 04), applied with confidence
  • 1 white onion, minced fine
  • A fistful of cilantro, stems and all
  • 2 limes, quartered, non-negotiable
  • Flaky salt, more than feels right

Then

  1. Salt the steak an hour ahead. Watch a show. Ignore the group chat.
  2. Sear hard in a screaming pan, 3 minutes a side. Rest it as long as you seared it.
  3. Warm tortillas directly on the flame until they smell like a good decision.
  4. Slice against the grain, pile it on, top with onion and cilantro.
  5. Deep Cut in stripes, lime over everything, salt last. Eat standing up at the counter like you mean it.
An overstuffed taco with steak, onion, cilantro and stripes of hot sauce

Stockists

Shops with excellent judgement

  • Marrow & Rind

    Port Alsey

    Full lineup + refills

  • The Brine Room

    Copperline

    Ferments on tap

  • Halbury General

    Halbury

    Batches 01 & 04

  • Night Owl Grocer

    Port Alsey

    Open until 2 a.m.

  • Sagemoor Deli

    Sagemoor

    Ask for the back shelf

  • Westhollow Wine Co.

    Westhollow

    Pairing flights

  • Kettle & Crate

    Ferrow Bay

    Gift boxes

  • The Corner Torta

    Copperline

    On every table

Somewhere we should be? Tell your favourite shop to write to shelves@piquant.example.

Put us on your shelf

Case of 12, mixed or single-sauce, wholesale from $84. We deliver ourselves within forty miles of Port Alsey and we always bring a tester bottle for the staff. That last part is strategy, not generosity.

wholesale@piquant.example

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