Capsaicinoia Caption Competition!

Capsaicinoia is offering a prize of £20 to spend in our on-line shop to the witty wonder who comes up with the best caption for this photo.  Just what is the customer saying to Mike?  Drop us an email at jackie@capsaicinoia.com

The picture was taken at the Woburn Abbey Garden Show last weekend which was a scorcher in more ways than one.  We were inside the Food and Gift tent and for once we were glad to be indoors as it was very, very hot outside.  Although it was humid indoors we were out of the blazing heat of the sun which was a blessing for our more delicate products such as our Dried Chillies and Chilli Chocolate.

It was an interesting weekend - a very different type of customer than those we generally meet at the chilli festivals.  Most had obviously come for the Garden Show and the Food and Gifts were an unexpected extra.  The average age on the Saturday was slightly higher than usual for a Chilli Event and true chilli fans were rare.  Some people did not even know what a chilli was and many had never even tasted one!  Nevertheless. we met some great people and introduced a few of the more adventurous to the delights of Chilli Chocolate, Beef Jerky and Jerk Sauce and Marinade.

Sunday was even hotter outside and things hotted up a bit inside too.  The Chilli Fans were out and about and we even spotted the odd celebrity, namely the Duke of Bedford himself who stopped for a brief chat, and Ken Hom, who dashed through the tent.  Ken, why didnt you stop?!?  Sales were much better than Saturday and our best sellers were the Chilli Mills, the Chilli Chocolate and again the Trailhead Beef Jerky.

Other highlights for us over the weekend were the Steel Band, the Pimms, the Frozen Yogurt and the privilege of working in the Woburn Abbey Estate which was absolutely fantastic.

Finally, a huge thank you to the Frosts Team who were wonderful!  Friendly, helpful and supportive even to the point of supplying us with rehydration in the form of squash served from a watering can!  A clean one we hope..........as Simon said, no sudden withering or excess hair growth observed after consumption!  Looking forward to working with you guys again over the next couple of weekends at Woburn Sands Chilli Festival and again at Millets Farm.

UK Chilli Festivals

Over the past couple of years the UK has seen a rapid expansion in the number of Chilli Festivals taking place throughout the summer months.  The West Dean Festival is by far the largest with a footfall of around 20,000 people and over 100 stalls.  It has been going since 1995 and now attracts visitors from all over the world, not least to see the 300 different varieties of chillies that are grown in their gardens.  Other large and well-established festivals include Great Dorset and Fiery Foods in Brighton.  Recent newcomers on the scene are the highly successful North East Festival at Seaton Delaval and Eastnor Castle in Ledbury, and several cities are getting in on the act, including Birmingham and Manchester.  This year there have been as many as 25 individual festivals taking place across the country.

Typically a Chilli Festival will involve a multitude of cookery and gardening demonstrations and tastings with the UKs growing number of chilli producers and retailers promoting their wares.  It is truly inspiring in the current economic climate to see the imaginative and creative entrepreneurial spirit that exists in the chili retail community, with young people just starting out and semi-retirees all coming together in their passion for the humble chilli pepper. You can buy hot sauces, chilli jams jellies and chutneys, relishes and marinades, nuts and crisps, chilli chocolate, chilli ice cream, chilli cheese, chilli beers and almost any chilli product you could possibly imagine!

If it gets too hot for you, or you need to cool your mouth down after the tastings, there will always be a beer tent and often local ciders and fruit drinks will be on sale.  Hungry?  Every type of spicy food you fancy will be available from Mexican to Indian and you will sometimes find a Caribbean food stall offering Curry Goat or Jerk Chicken.

All of this is usually taking place to a background of music and entertainment from Rock Bands to Gospel Choirs.  You might even spot the odd foodie celebrity, and ex Masterchef contestants are often found running the food stalls or giving cookery demonstrations.  The climax of the event is usually the Chilli Eating competition, which has to be seen to be believed, as a group of kamikaze volunteers consume a variety of fresh chillies, gradually working their way up the Schoville Scale, with the winner being the last man or woman standing.  Often it takes some seriously  hot potions to separate out the last few macho contestants.

So, if this has whetted your appetite you can find the next Chilli Festival near you by checking out the upcoming events on the Chile Foundry or Chile Festival listings.  Go on, give it a go!  You won’t regret it. 

Great Dorset Chilli Festival

So, the Olympics are over and its time to get back down to earth and regain some sense of order again.  It's been a busy couple of weeks for us as well, as the glorious Great Dorset Chilli Festival fell right in the middle of the 2 weeks and we spent "super Saturday" in a charming little B&B in Upton.  Well worth a visit - Laurel Cottage.  That was after a lovely supper in the local pub - St Peters Finger.

The Chilli Festival was great, probably our best yet.  Fantastic weather, beautiful setting and as ever positive feedback on our products.  Once again we went home with a nearly empty car on the Sunday night.  Best sellers were without doubt the Chilli Mills and we sold out of the Portable Mills on the first day.  The Scarves and Jewellery went really well, especially the Jalapeño Bunches.

We took down a new product for us, in the form of some exceptionally good beef jerky made by Trail Head Foods.  Wow!  That went down really well.  We sold two flavours over the weekend, Naga and Chipotle.  We will be selling these again at the remainder of the events we are doing this year but have no plans to sell it on-line at the moment.  If you can't get down to the festivals you can get these flavours and other directly from their web-site.

Talking of web-sites, we have a few more products that have just arrived or are expected any day now. Watch out for a wonderful new Mexican cookbook, Chilli and Chocolate by Isabel Hood which should be on-line by the end of this week along with some really special and unique new silver chilli jewellery.