“Smash Mouth Gourmet Foods” was born from a personal obsession with spicy foods, combined with a distaste for vinegar based hot sauces, especially as my spice tolerance eventually climbed to very high levels. I started making hot sauces as a hobby so that I could make sauces that were unique, delicious, and not overpowered by the intense flavor of vinegar. Vinegar is used to make hot sauce “shelf stable” (as a preservative) by lowering the PH of the sauce to inhibit microbial growth that leads to spoilage. The problem is that it tends to overpower at worst, and heavily influence other flavors of the sauce, at best. Vinegar is used because it is inexpensive as an acidifying (natural preservative) ingredient, not because it tastes better than other options, like fruit juices, which are exponentially more expensive (as an acidifying ingredient compared to vinegar). Vinegar is used in our sauces, but at greatly reduced amounts due to using fruit juices which add appealing flavor notes while also helping to lower the PH to ensure a shelf stable product. Years were spent experimenting and developing the recipes that now comprise the hot sauce product offerings by Smash Mouth Gourmet Foods. I sincerely hope you enjoy them!!

- Chad Hamilton, Owner of Smash Mouth Gourmet Foods