Maryland, called Burrito Madness. The food was obviously spicy and in an attempt to drive out the late-night unruly customers Dave started making his sauce hotter and hotter. Finally resorting to the addition of industrial flavour enhancer called oleoresin capsicum. This is concentrated heat, offering the ability to create a hot sauce above and beyond what can be manufactured from chillies alone, it’s like super-charging your sauce. Despite everything, this new ‘Insanity’ sauce gained a following and Dave entered it into the 1993 National Fiery Food Show. It didn’t win… better than that, it got banned… a marketing man’s dream. The reason for the ban was as a result of an incident involving a man with a minor respiratory problem. Dave’s bottle now contains the warning notice "Use this product one drop at a time. Keep away from eyes, pets and children. Not for people with heart or respiratory problems."
From this point on the race is on to produce mouth-searing sauces, hotter an hotter, driving the chilli-heads insane. Dave took to wearing a straight-jacket at hot sauce shows to underline how insane anyone would have to be to try his sauces. It certainly worked since Insanity is now one of the biggest brands in hot sauce.
Hot sauce is by now ingrained in the culture of America and is big business. In 1994 the two biggest players, Pace and Old El Paso controlled about half of the market for Mexican sauces in the US. The market was still growing and attracting outside interest. Two landmark deals saw both of these companies change hands in 1994. Pace was bought by the Campbell Soup Company for an astronomical $1.1 billion, about five times Pace's 1994 estimated sales of $220 million, an amazingly high sales multiple. And Pillsbury, a division of the giant British food and beverage company, Grand Metropolitan PLC, purchased Pet Foods, maker of Old El Paso Mexican foods for $2.6 billion. Terry Thompson, a spokesperson for Pillsbury, called Old El Paso "one of the crown jewels" of brand names.
And the final watershed in hot sauce history, the year 2000 sees the launch of Chilliworld.com and finally all these hot sauces become available to the European market.