I had to laugh when I realized that I was once again heading to the Hot Sauce Expo after having attended a crushing Metal show the night before. In this particular case I was actually at a few shows in sequence but that is just the way life rolls in a Metal Metropolis such as this one. Last night was the final night of tour for Children Of Bodom and that is not easy to pass up but now that this stuff had completed it was again time to offer up an objective and informative view of this year’s Hot Sauce Expo. I attended last year and it was a blast and of course I am not just speaking about the levels of heat that would invade my stomach at that affair but instead just a damned good time. This year’s Expo offered a few changes that I felt immediately worked out for the better and the first was that it would be in Manhattan, at the Penn Plaza Pavilion. This particular space often plays host to Comic Conventions and with it being indoors would not have weather as a concern for vendors and the all so important patrons with the money. Some readers might recall that last year’s Expo was held outdoors in East River Park down in Williamsburg. Once again I would be a journalistic guest of the fine folks at High River Sauces and was not going to decline based on our having known them for years now. They have a killer sauce from Savatage’s Chris Caffery among many others and I would be hoping to catch Eddie Ojeda once again since this year is the 30th Anniversary of Twisted Sister’s seminal release “Stay Hungry”. This year I would endeavor to be better prepared for the onslaught and brought along some unsalted crackers to ensure that I had a proper coating if necessary in my stomach. Sampling hot sauce after hot sauce after hot sauce was going to do me in otherwise and I wanted to avoid that.

As I approached my second go round at the event I thought back to the enjoyable time that was last year’s happening and should you want to see that report just click HERE. As mentioned, one of the main organizers of the affair is Steve Seabury of High River Sauces and since there are Rock notables often present it made sense to visit this one more time. Check out the poster. It’s cool isn’t it? Trust me, this was going to be one of the only cool things that would be encountered across the course of the day and I am speaking about temperature. Now it was time to get a little spicy.

Joining me for the fun was my good buddy and often constant media traveling companion Skeleton Pete Parrella and this made sense since he is a bit of a foodie himself.  Last year I found that the lack of stuff like crackers or a cheese at many of the vendors was a dilemma for my poor Metal stomach so this year I brought alone a couple of sleeves of unsalted Premium Saltine crackers just in case.  Laugh all you like.  First up here is Luscious at the Hound Comics table.  They make a variety of sauces and more.  Tasty stuff.

This giant hot pepper was with Torchbearer Sauces and they had a type of Zombie Apocalypse sauce that if you survived you get you a sticker stating the fact.  I survived and it was likely because this was very early in our wanders.

Most of my coverage of this event will be in the photos but I do plan on chiming in from time to time. I did make sure to note every single company that I could in their images for good measure. Let’s continue along.  Here is the Whitehouse Station Sauce Company.  Tasty fare.

Next up, the World Famous Hot Sauce company.  Nice folks, good product.

We found the team over at Hoboken Eddie’s to be quite fun.  Sadly we did not get to meet Eddie.  He was elsewhere and we had to move on.

I did very much enjoy the Homemade BBQ sauce from Hoboken Eddie and also had to say that these three statues brought a smile to my slowly melting mouth.  At this point we had not traveled too deeply into the Expo and this fact scared me just a little bit.

Jacky’s stuff was also very tasty and it was probably the first time that I had ever sampled a spicy jam and jelly.  It was hot but had a sweetness to it as well.  Nice work Jacky 🙂

It seemed to get Metal for a moment with the cool cats at Hellfire Hot Sauces.  I loved their shirt design as well as it was quite imposing.  We spent a little time at this booth talking and sampling.

I will say right now that “The Elixir” from Hellfire Sauces is one wallop of a punch as a sauce.  You had about four seconds of peace before your soul was onto damnation.  I was tearing up after this one and am not embarrassed to share that notation with you.

This was also one of my quick favorites as I love chips and pretzels of many kinds.  The difference is that these are thinly slicked peppers and they had some kick to them.  I did not try the also pictured “bits”  however.

The team at Voodoo Chile were totally awesome as well and had a Bacon Sauce that had a lot of flavor to it.  I will be directing all of my bacon loving friends to this guys wares.

Do you want to grow your own peppers?  You do?  Well then have we got a booth for you.  This is the Homesweet Homegrown booth.

They had a drink at the expo also but I neglected to shoot it and of course a hot sauce which you see below.

Clearly the youth is NOT wasted on the young when it comes to the hot sauce offerings by one Jordan Brenner who came up with his own sauce and we see with his folks and little sister.  Good job dude, keep it up.

Now this was some interesting stuff from St. Lucifer’s.  A habanero table top seasoning.  Clearly will give a jolt to anything you add it to.  Like the popcorn they were serving.

Can ice cream be spicy?  Bonfatto’s says “Yes”.  This was tasty stuff.  Part of me was glad that I would not get it home without melting because I really enjoyed it and felt I would be quite the spectacle eating a tub of ice cream on the train ride home.

Hey look who it is, it’s Steve Seabury from High River Sauces.  Thanks for the invite Steve I am having a blast so far.  You put together one hot affair (sorry I had to)

The folks at Dragon’s Blood Elixir Hot Sauce were not afraid to give me a little Metal signage.  Great people, great tasting sauce.

This was pretty cool but a little hard to shoot since it was in a glass and I did need the flash.  Its a 3D Rendering of Brimstone himself.  I want one of these.

Here is our co-host and also event organizer, Lisa Seabury 🙂

The folks at Hearbreaking Dawns were pretty damn awesome as was their tear-inducing sauces.

In passing one of these lovely ladies looked familiar but alas was not who I thought it was but they still kindly allowed a photo and told me that they were loving the offerings of the Hot Sauce Expo.  Be warned girls, there is some super hot stuff around these booths.

Now its over to the High River Sauces table and since they extended the invite to me I had to be sure to give a healthy amount of presentation here.  Let’s start off with Steve Seabury who is enjoying a cold brew and showcasing the Hellacious Hot Sauce.  I love this one.

Okay, so I’m going to take a breather after this one, and get back to sharing images from the NYC Hot Sauce Expo in a second post that will run tomorrow. I’ve parsed it out after “50” images much like I’ve tried to do with my NY Comic Con postings since that allows for ease of visual enjoyment and doesn’t bombard you. I’ve listed a number of the vendors and people we’ve met during this chapter for you below so please do peruse their official websites or social networks to show some support. Oh and speaking of support, you can help out the PiercingMetal cause by lending some love over to our own Official Socials by following the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Thanks again to the gang at High River Sauces for the invitation. I’ll be back with a lot more photos tomorrow. Stay tuned and keep it saucy. Now its time for me to get a glass of milk and some unsalted crackers to help me ease the volcano in my stomach 🙂

Official Websites:
NYC Hot Sauce Expo: http://www.nychotsauceexpo.com/
High River Sauces: http://highriversauces.com/
Heartbreaking Dawns: http://heartbreakingdawns.com/
Hoboken Eddie’s: https://www.hobokeneddies.com/