Horseshoe Brand Hot Sauces, Where Heat Meets Flavor
I consider myself something of a heat seeker. I’ll put hot sauce on just about anything. But while I can handle a hot, hot sauce, what I truly love are those that focus first on the complex, deep and fruity flavors of hot peppers and how they are enhanced by other quality ingredients. These days my favorite sauces come from Horseshoe Brand right here in Milan, New York.
Now a national, and even an international brand (and available in most markets around the region), Horseshoe was started in the kitchen of former Dutchess County Sheriff's Deputy Ken Millet. Millet’s childhood friend and now business partner Ryan Fleischhauer said Millet was always that guy who would just nonchalantly cook something amazing for any party. Millet started making hot sauce as a hobby to share with his friends and family. In 2008 he began bottling small batches and selling them at events.
The brand features an original and a hot barbecue sauce, and wildly varied flavored hot sauces that include peaches, kiwis and maple syrup, as well as traditional habanero and chipotle peppers, and roasted garlic.
Fleishhauser, who lived in California working as a sales rep for Indeed (the job site), believed so much in his friend’s sauce that he left his corporate job three years ago and moved back to sell sauce full time. He's helped get Horseshoe into 500 locations nationwide and stores in Germany and Austria.
“I got sick of the corporate grind,” said Fleishhauser about taking the leap of faith into the business. “The further expansion of this business is all for our community, family, and friends who have supported us. We want to give back as much as we can."
This past weekend at the New York City Hot Sauce Expo — the biggest show in the industry —their Maple Cayenne sauce won third place in the “Pepper Blend Mild” division. In 2017 their Kiwi Jalapeño sauce (which is amazing on anything from fish tacos to cold pizza) took top prize at the same event for the best jalapeno sauce.
“I know it’s silly to say but our hot sauces are made to be used on food,” said Fleischhauer, adding they never use the pepper extracts that make some hot sauces comically unbearable. “We want you to put these sauces on pork and seafood and in dips.”
Horseshoe’s award-winning line of sauces brings both heat and expertly measured flavor that’s great for hot sauce addicts and heat-skeptical eaters alike. As much an ingredient as a condiment, you can actually see the all-natural ingredients in the thick blends. The milder sauces are great as marinades, the two barbeque sauces elevate anything on the grill and even the XXX hot sauce at the top of Horseshoe’s heat index is filled with flavor, even as you start to sweat.
“When we are talking to a grocery chain about putting us on the shelves they’ll ask us what sets us apart,” Fleischhauer said. “All I want to say is ‘take a look.'"
Horseshoe Brand’s sauces are undeniably great, but they’re also yet another superior example of a local business working hard and doing things the right way.
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