God bless Sriracha. I'm willing to take the dent in my average post score, that's how much I love the dang stuff. Long live Sriracha.
P.S. You haven't smelled a bad factory smell until you've driven past the sugarbeet processing plants in Nampa, Idaho, or the miles upon miles of factory farm dairies in eastern Idaho. Maybe Sriracha could use something like that for their Chewbacca defense.
Dairy farms are nothing compared to pig farms. Absolutely foul. The smell is so penetrating it feels like you can smell it through your eyeballs. Cow manure you can get use to, but I could never get use to pig shit.
Papermills are also infamously smelly, though you can get use to those pretty quickly.
A friend of mine who is an industrial photographer got an assignment to photograph an anchovy processing plant. He said that you could smell the plant from over ten miles away. Part of his contract was to have all of his clothes and equipment replaced since there was no way to get the smell out.
ha ha, I can confirm. I live and work in Nampa and the beet factory puts off a stink like you wouldn't believe. What's awesome is how the smell transforms from day to day. Some days it smells like strong peanut butter, some days it smells kind of musty and some days it smells extremely putrid. Luckily I moved across town a few years ago and the smell rarely makes it to my subdivision.
Can confirm, I grew up on a dairy near Twin Falls Idaho, and now live in Boise (near Nampa). Occasionally I can smell that sugar beet plant from my house and it is as bad or worse than any dairy.
I've read lots of interesting stories about the founding of this company, and of course I love the product. It's nice to see an entrepreneur that values the quality of their product first, before business considerations.
As for the dispute with the city, it's the city that enticed him to move his operations there, then he invested his money, and now they're trying to shut him down. Very shady business on the part of the city of Irwindale, something that demands a judge's attention...
> Inspectors from the South Coast Air Quality Management District have visited the plant several times without issuing a citation. Tran said in court documents that the complaints about the smell originated with an Irwindale city councilman's son.
Wow, I would've never imagined the Sriacha founder to be such a nice, conscientious guy. A Nobel Peace Prize for him:
> Q: What do you think about copy-cat Srirachas? A: “It’s good…[take] a red flower, it looks good but [it’s] not colorful. You need to have green and yellow ... So [in] the market, [if there was] only my hot sauce, [people] cannot compare. More competitors [are] better for consumer [choice].”
> Q: Inflation has more than tripled food prices since you started making the hot sauce, but you have never changed your wholesale price. Why? A: “The price has increased…but we can cover the increased [food] price. We just want to sell more product….[also] if we export to some expensive country, I don’t have two prices. Not domestic price and another country, another price – only one price.”
Q: What do you think Sriracha’s fandom? A: “I enjoy it. I enjoy it because more and more people enjoy my product. I need to say thank you [to] everyone. Help me big or a little bit – I thank you.”
Given his relative success (the article states its a multi-million dollar business) running the outgassing from the plant through a water bath should be pretty straightforward. Basically blowing the air through pipes which bubble it underwater. The water runoff would then have the pepper oils in it.
In fairness to the NIMBYs, the factory has grown immensely in the last few years and the "smell" is aerosolized peppers, basically pepper spray.
To quote the LA Times: "...the hot sauce’s production facilities are, residents are complaining of burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches caused by a powerful, painful odor that the city says appears to be emanating from the factory during production."
It's even more amazing when you look at a satellite map of the city. It consists mostly of warehouses, industry and a rock quarry. You'd think they would want companies like Huy Fong Foods. https://maps.google.com/?q=Irwindale,+CA
It's the responsibility of Sriracha to not reduce the quality of life of others. How is it any different than pollution? If Sriracha is pumping irritants into the air and it affects neighbors, the should be doing a better job of filtering their exhaust. It's not fair that their property value drops because a neighbor isn't being responsible.
I think being transported to the International Spaaaaaace Station [1] is one of the highest honors a commercial object of any kind can receive. I remember reading about it in this article [2].
Love the stuff, it's on the table in front of me now.
Serious? I have like 2 of those bottles in my closet on 5 feet away from me.
Someone always brings it along from Brussels... (live in Belgium), so this is quite awesome. Really didn't expect this :-D
Previous to the past couple of months, I had never seen any interviews with the founder of Sriracha. The Google Trends data also shows a big increase for searches on his company, Huy Fong Foods.
This may be a legitimate grassroots social media phenomenon - the sort that big multinationals try to create but fail at.
Sriracha has obviously been a mainstay at Asian restaurants for years. But like bacon, it didn't become A Thing until Digg/Reddit/the greater internet subculture rolled around.
Folks like the Oatmeal started writing digital love letters to the sauce[1], which helped boost its mythical status amongst the Reddit crowd.
I'm guessing he started doing interviews when people actually started wanting to interview him. Prior to the internet's obsession with sriracha it was just an easily-overloooked condiment associated with Asian food.
> On Nov. 22, a judge is set to hear a request from the southern California city of Irwindale to close the hot sauce’s factory because of complaints over smell from neighbors.
He's been doing marketing for ages. Search back on HN a bit; every six months or so someone links to a new profile piece on him and his business. He's just really good at PR.
Hot peppers can be deadly to people who are not used to spicy food. I bought a few raw habañeros a few weeks ago. I have cooked with jalapeño and serrano's but never habañero. Wow! Just a thin slice was hot beyond description. My wife is hyper-sensitive to spicy food. I was so certain these things were dangerous to her that I threw them away after using a couple to cook with. Here it is in numbers [0].
I can see the potential for fumes from the manufacture of hot sauces being irritating a lot of people. Sriracha isn't particularly hot. If you really want to try hot buy a bottle of Dave's Insanity. BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU DO. They ask that you use it one drop at a time. Believe me, that is good advice.
Those not into hot sauces don't believe that these sauces actually have taste. And sauces such as Dave's and Sriracha taste really good. There are many sauces that just burn. I don't know many hot sauce afficionado's who enjoy sauces devoid of taste.
This would be a great place to bootstrap a startup. Cheap rent, this sauce is great on ramen, and the smell would make it so only the most dedicated co-founders who really love their product can stand to work on it. Almost zero distractions because no one would come to visit. It would also help with the 'elevator pitch' although you would have to get your timing down to sub-floor latency because everyone is certain to leave at the next stop.
What a lot of people are complaining about isn't necessarily the smell of it. The fumes from the plant are essentially pepper spray. People are complaining about difficulty breathing and its getting in their eyes.
Remove the last 3 ingredients then just shoot for texture. for any given bottle, probably 75% chili, 10% vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic for the last 15%.
If you can match the consistency, you can probably match the flavor. You just need a line on fresh California Red Jalepenos.
I'd probably throw out the salt and just go for MSG.
I have not tried this recipe yet as I have not been able to get my hands on a large quantity (for me) of good chilis, but I've had this bookmarked to play around with:
[+] [-] zackmorris|12 years ago|reply
P.S. You haven't smelled a bad factory smell until you've driven past the sugarbeet processing plants in Nampa, Idaho, or the miles upon miles of factory farm dairies in eastern Idaho. Maybe Sriracha could use something like that for their Chewbacca defense.
[+] [-] jlgreco|12 years ago|reply
Papermills are also infamously smelly, though you can get use to those pretty quickly.
[+] [-] amiramir|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] curiousphil|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] witek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elwell|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cwbrandsma|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mikeb85|12 years ago|reply
As for the dispute with the city, it's the city that enticed him to move his operations there, then he invested his money, and now they're trying to shut him down. Very shady business on the part of the city of Irwindale, something that demands a judge's attention...
[+] [-] dubfan|12 years ago|reply
> Inspectors from the South Coast Air Quality Management District have visited the plant several times without issuing a citation. Tran said in court documents that the complaints about the smell originated with an Irwindale city councilman's son.
[+] [-] danso|12 years ago|reply
> Q: What do you think about copy-cat Srirachas? A: “It’s good…[take] a red flower, it looks good but [it’s] not colorful. You need to have green and yellow ... So [in] the market, [if there was] only my hot sauce, [people] cannot compare. More competitors [are] better for consumer [choice].”
> Q: Inflation has more than tripled food prices since you started making the hot sauce, but you have never changed your wholesale price. Why? A: “The price has increased…but we can cover the increased [food] price. We just want to sell more product….[also] if we export to some expensive country, I don’t have two prices. Not domestic price and another country, another price – only one price.”
Q: What do you think Sriracha’s fandom? A: “I enjoy it. I enjoy it because more and more people enjoy my product. I need to say thank you [to] everyone. Help me big or a little bit – I thank you.”
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|12 years ago|reply
Next up Sirachi Spicey Hot Bottled Water!
[+] [-] dubfan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] judk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rayiner|12 years ago|reply
> a request from the southern California city of Irwindale to close the hot sauce’s factory because of complaints over smell from neighbors.
[+] [-] guyzero|12 years ago|reply
To quote the LA Times: "...the hot sauce’s production facilities are, residents are complaining of burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches caused by a powerful, painful odor that the city says appears to be emanating from the factory during production."
[+] [-] dubfan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluthru|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vacri|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imethan|12 years ago|reply
Love the stuff, it's on the table in front of me now.
[1] http://i.imgur.com/n1Y7B.jpg [2] http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-21/sriracha-hot...
[+] [-] NicoJuicy|12 years ago|reply
Great hot spicey sauce!
[+] [-] murtza|12 years ago|reply
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=Huy+Fong+Foods#q=Huy%...
Aside from increasing awareness about his product, why do you think he started doing interviews?
[+] [-] potatolicious|12 years ago|reply
Sriracha has obviously been a mainstay at Asian restaurants for years. But like bacon, it didn't become A Thing until Digg/Reddit/the greater internet subculture rolled around.
Folks like the Oatmeal started writing digital love letters to the sauce[1], which helped boost its mythical status amongst the Reddit crowd.
I'm guessing he started doing interviews when people actually started wanting to interview him. Prior to the internet's obsession with sriracha it was just an easily-overloooked condiment associated with Asian food.
[1] http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha
[+] [-] bmelton|12 years ago|reply
Edit - apparently the judge denied the shutdown, possibly in part to the huge amount of outpouring by the community.
http://www.refinery29.com/2013/10/56374/sriracha-lawsuit-fac...
[+] [-] jonknee|12 years ago|reply
Because he's in court facing a factory shutdown?
[+] [-] jasonlotito|12 years ago|reply
> On Nov. 22, a judge is set to hear a request from the southern California city of Irwindale to close the hot sauce’s factory because of complaints over smell from neighbors.
[+] [-] BryantD|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robomartin|12 years ago|reply
I can see the potential for fumes from the manufacture of hot sauces being irritating a lot of people. Sriracha isn't particularly hot. If you really want to try hot buy a bottle of Dave's Insanity. BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU DO. They ask that you use it one drop at a time. Believe me, that is good advice.
Those not into hot sauces don't believe that these sauces actually have taste. And sauces such as Dave's and Sriracha taste really good. There are many sauces that just burn. I don't know many hot sauce afficionado's who enjoy sauces devoid of taste.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale
[+] [-] dnautics|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MrMeker|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NDizzle|12 years ago|reply
In my humble opinion, I think we need tap sriracha in homes of today! Down with soylent!
[+] [-] JshWright|12 years ago|reply
(This comment is intended as humor... I have never tried soylent)
[+] [-] mattmaroon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aeflash|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] staunch|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mmuro|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grinich|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nsxwolf|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] castis|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greyfade|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ars|12 years ago|reply
It would smell like that for a few hours, and then you wouldn't smell it anymore.
After that even if you ate it you wouldn't get the proper taste, so I'd think you'd stay as far away as possible.
[+] [-] garybizzle|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fein|12 years ago|reply
Chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite and xanthan gum.
Remove the last 3 ingredients then just shoot for texture. for any given bottle, probably 75% chili, 10% vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic for the last 15%.
If you can match the consistency, you can probably match the flavor. You just need a line on fresh California Red Jalepenos.
I'd probably throw out the salt and just go for MSG.
[+] [-] robflynn|12 years ago|reply
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Sriracha-aka-Rooster-Sau...
[+] [-] vtbassmatt|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lnanek2|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brosco45|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gopalv|12 years ago|reply
Sure, it tastes good but can we track down a fair bit of the popularity/availability on shelves to the cost factor?
[+] [-] Raphmedia|12 years ago|reply