Wow, That's Spicy: California Hot Sauce Expo

The Anaheim-based bash'll break out the pepper-laden toppers over one sizzling August weekend.

FACTS ARE FACTS, and you can't spell "capsaicin" without a "c" and an "a" and that final "n." Yes, that spells "can," and you'll find capsaicin-loving eaters often say "I can totally eat that" when they behold a bottle of hot sauce that purports to be the most fiery liquid ever concocted. The word "can" and the devotion to diabolically flavored condiments go hand in hot hand, in summary, and the need to top that last topper, whatever the hot sauce fan last drizzled on nachos or tacos, is an extreme one. That's where the annual California Hot Sauce Expo steps in, for all of those sauce-forward fans who have to push past that last extremely incendiary, capsaicin-rich taste they tried. And push past it, they soon can, for some 40 vendors purveying in the most piquant of condiments and sauces and dips will show up at the City National Grove of Anaheim to set mouths afire. If you're looking for zesty tastes at the expo, you're in luck, though you may want to tell your tongue to prepare. For there are intense events, like the... 

SPICY TACO OF HELL CHALLENGE, and the Inferno Spare Rib Challenge, and the Spicy Pizza of Doom showdown. A cocktail competition on Sunday, and a Carolina Reaper eating contest, are other to-dos, in a busy, event-packed weekend. Thinking about entering a challenge? There's an email address, to let the organizers know you'd like to join, if you're really, really feeling it. The ten-buck general admission means free tastes from the hot sauce vendors, but there's a Craft Brew Package to consider, and an Ultimate Fiery VIP Package, too, which includes an expo t-shirt, an issue of Chile Pepper magazine, and other take-home goodies that should appeal to those who like their toasty tastes to be on the upper end of the "can you really eat that?" scale. 

DOES IT NOT MATTER THE FOOD... you consume, as long as it is slathered in pepper-strong sauce? You've got friends of the fieriest sort at the California Hot Sauce Expo, which delivers that quintessential, wave-your-hand-in-front-of-your-mouth experience to Anaheim on Saturday, Aug. 18 and Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018.

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