The Pepper Zone Newsroom

THE PEPPER ZONE NEWSROOM

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2010 SCOVIE AWARDS RECOGNIZES
PALM BEACH GARDENS COMPANY FOR PRODUCT EXCELLENCE

(November 19, 2009) When the results of the 2010 Scovie Awards, the world's leading recognition
for hot and spicy products, were announced, Chef Wayne Howey of Tropical Island Gourmet was
excited to get the call from the competition organizers. Palm Beach Gardens-based Tropical Island
Gourmet Co., which distributes a wide assortment of bottled sauces and Spice Blends, has received
a First Place 2010 Scovie Award. In the industry's most rigorous blind tastings, a panel of the
country's top culinary experts sampled hundreds of the world's most lauded gourmet foods, and the
top scoring products each won a coveted Scovie banner.

First Place in the Medium Hot Sauce category was awarded to Tropical Island Gourmet’s top selling
“Fire Ant Juice” which is manufactured locally by Sauce Crafters (www.saucecrafters.com) in Riviera
Beach Fl. Over 600 products from around the world competed for top honors. The Scovie Awards
were created by Dave DeWitt, the nation's leading author on fiery cuisine and founder of the National
Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show. The awards are named for Wilbur Scoville who pioneered a rating
scale for spicy foods. The Scovie Awards have become the industry standard for excellence in more
than 60 categories of fiery foods.

"This year's entrants really represented the cream of the crop in fiery foods products," notes Dave
DeWitt, dubbed by The New York Times as the "Pope of Peppers." "Our 2010 winners represent
some of the largest companies in the industry, such as Pace Foods, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Garden
Fresh Salsa, as well as start-up companies just getting off the ground. The common factor is their
commitment to excellence and the real quality of the products they produce."

DeWitt was also pleased with the geographic diversity of the winners. "This year, our winners
represent companies from 32 different states and countries and provinces as diverse as Panama,
Australia, Japan, Antigua and Canada," lauds DeWitt. "Scovie winners truly exemplify the diversity
and quality of this industry."

Many of the Scovie award winning products, as well as thousands of other products, will be available
to both trade buyers and consumers at the 22nd Annual National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show,
March 5-7, 2010 in Albuquerque, NM. For information on exhibiting in the National Fiery Foods Show,
call 505-873-8680, or visit www.fiery-foods.com.

Chili Fact:

What is the world's hottest pepper?
According to Wikipedia and the Guninness Book of World
Records, the Naga Jolokia variety of chili pepper grown in the
hilly terrain of Assam, India is reportedly much hotter than the
infamous habanero. Other names for this variety are Bih
Jolokia and Bhut Jolokia. It has a reported heat index of just
over 1,000,000 Scoville Heat Units, compared with 577 for the
red savina habanero. Most published values for habaneros
top out at about 300,000. The Naga Jolokia is about three
times as hot as the average habanero

Little Rascals - Spanky Eats Tabasco Sauce