A local hot sauce company was recently recognized nationally for their product.

Electric Pepper Company, located in Russell, won a national award at the Fiery Food Challenge in January. EPC won the award for Medium Hot Sauce for their sauce, Frohlich: That Garlic Sauce.

The Fiery Food Challenge pits products from across the US and internationally against one another in more than 90 categories. Professional judges evaluate hundreds of sauces, salsas and other spicy treats and award first, second and third place prizes in each category. Awards are proudly displayed at ZestFest, a spicy, zesty and flavorful food event held the same week as the Fiery Food Challenge at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas.

Electric Pepper Company has now won a number of awards, including the highly coveted Golden Chili Award for DJ Smokey’s Ol’ Smokey in the Chipotle Hot Sauce category, another Fiery Food Award for Bhut Kisser in the Extreme Heat Hot Sauce category, a Scovey Award for Ole in the best Table Spice category, and another Scovey Award for El Humo in the Ghost Pepper Sauce category.

For being “a small hot sauce company” in the words of owner D.J. Steinberg, EPC has come a long way from their humble beginnings.

“I actually got started with my pepper passion back in high school in northwest Indiana,” Steinberg recalled. “I used to grow jalapenos then, and I guess I was always amazed how a plant could cause such a profound heat sensation to a person, and how good that heat sensation could be when paired with the right ingredients.”

“When I was in college at Indiana University, I diversified into growing several different chili types,” he continued. “I was a Biology major and got heavy into botany, which helped my efforts. I absolutely loved studying plants. Soon after graduating, I got a job as a microbiologist for a pharmaceutical company. I learned laboratory techniques that I still use to this day. At that time, I started drying the chilies and experimenting with different ways to grind and make chili powders, and experimented with the best methods to preserve the chili flavors in sauces.”

What started as a hobby for Steinberg quickly turned into much more.

“I brought my passion for creating different concoctions when we moved to Akeley/Russell; we purchased a small farm in Akeley,” he said. “It was always my hobby. My wife loves horses, and I love organic farming…the byproduct from her passion literally fuels mine.”

“One day about six years ago, my former boss, who loves hot stuff, found out that I had been organically growing peppers and making spices and sauces. He tried some, and insisted that I should start selling them. So I started selling, and they literally just took off. I always worked diligently, using my scientific background and laboratory skills to develop products that were as perfect as they could be. I began to submit the sauces and spices for nationally recognized awards, and they kept winning. It was always imperative that I absolutely love a product before I offered it for sale, and it still is imperative to this day. Thats why I ate a quarter bottle of our latest award winner, Frohlich: That Garlic Sauce, right after getting it dialed in. It was tweaked until it was absolutely perfect.”

Frolich isn’t the only sauce EPC produces. In fact, they create over 20 unique sauces as well as dry products.

“We currently have 21 different sauce products ranging from very mild to rip roaring hottest of the hot hot sauces, we make some of the hottest sauces in the world,” Steinberg said. “We also have dried chili pepper products and award winning spice products.”

While Warren County may not be a hot bed for hot sauce ingrediants, EPC does the majority of their producing locally.

“We grow as much as we possibly can on our own,” Steinberg said. “We believe in producing locally and hiring local people to help us make our products. We have grown so fast that we are now contracting with local farmers to help us keep up with the demand for our products.”

And they’re not done growing yet – EPC is planning expansion in the new future.

“We plan on building our new manufacturing facility and store front on Route 62 this summer,” Steinberg said. “We are anticipating that the facility will be open to the public this fall. We have contracted with one of the top contract actors in the area, Complete Construction, to design and build the new building.”

“We are proud to operate out of Warren County, PA and we are all extremely excited about our new expansion this summer. Ultimately, this will help us to meet demand and continue with our efforts to share our award winning products with the rest of the world.”