Hot Hot Hot! : Tasting Z’s Hot Sauces & Marinades
By Ted Scheffler
If you’re looking to spice up your life a bit, Z’s Hot Sauce & Marinade is a small, local artisan food company that can help. Owned by Julie Lindsey, Z’s produces gourmet all-natural hot sauces, spicy pasta sauce, kimchi, and spicy bloody mary mix. Says Lindsey, “We pride ourselves on sourcing our peppers, tomatoes, peaches, cherries, berries and more from local ORGANIC Utah farmers, and that our sauces are handcrafted and small batch. We also have won multiple awards, one of them a Chili Chompers Global Hot Sauce Award in New Zealand which we took first place out of hundreds of entries from around the world!”
Although Julie and her husband - who helps with making sauces and with markets - both still work at full-time jobs outside of the hot sauce biz, she talks about how they got started making artisan hot sauces. “We started this solely to create and market a superior product(s). We are very conscious of what we eat and noticed most hot sauces out there (not all) put so many unnecessary items in their sauces. We don't add fillers, gums, dyes, MSG, etc. And when we need the use of salts or sugars we opt for better options like raw sugar and high mineral content Himalayan salt.”
When asked how the idea of Z’s Hot Sauce & Marinade first occurred to her, Lindsey says, “Honestly, I was on my honeymoon in Las Vegas eating at a restaurant on The Strip somewhere. They had this delicious bottle of hot sauce. I can't remember the name of it. We were both enjoying dumping copious amounts of this sauce over our burgers. I think we cleaned out the entire bottle! After finishing our meal one of us was reading the label and noticed some ingredients that were questionable for our dietary rules. Right then and there we decided we could and would create a cleaner, just as tasty hot sauce. From there it spread into spicy noodle sauces, spicy lemon hard candy, spicy HOT kimchi from my mom's friends recipe who came here from Korea, spicy bloody Mary mix, fruit hot sauces, pepper hot sauces, spicy jams, spicy marmalade, spicy mustard hot sauce, sweet and hot honey infused hot sauce, and so much more.”
Lindsey prides herself on creating sauces with ingredients sourced, whenever possible, locally, saying “Most of our ingredients are sourced from local Utah farmers. We actively meet these farmers at the markets we attend and create awesome relationships with these people and their families. They are the salt of the earth type folks and we love that.”
When asked if she had received any help or guidance from others in creating Z’s, Lindsey says, “Mary and Dave at Grandma Sandinos (Garlic Sauce) helped us since day one. Those two are veterans in market attendance, kitchen building, marketing and so much more. When I reached out in the beginning for advice, they didn't hesitate to help us. They invited us to dinner at their home and basically schooled us on what to do and how to do it. They still help us to this day and we would not be here if they hadn't been there in the beginning! They were also a huge inspiration to both my husband and I. We hope one day we can help someone else get going with the knowledge we acquire moving forward.”
In addition to Etsy and Amazon, here’s a list of retailers who carry Z’s Hot Sauce & Marinade:
Grounds for Coffee, Morgan
Grounds for Coffee, 25th Street, Ogden
Burn Your Tongue Hot Sauces, Ogden Newgate Mall
Locals - Layton, Layton Mall
Smith and Edwards, N. Ogden
Smith and Edwards, SLC
Grove Market and Deli, SLC
Pirate O's Gourmet Market, Draper/SLC
The Island Market, Logan
Cox Honeyland and Gifts, Logan
Tradition, SLC - You can't purchase here but they have Z’s sauces on their tables at this award winning restaurant!
Gargoyle's Gift Shop Telluride, CO
Three Little Llamas Toys & Gifts, Helper
We Olive Wine Bar, SLC
