3rd Annual   NC Hot Sauce Contest!

September 14, 2009

BY WILLIAM F. WEST
DAILY DISPATCH WRITER
OXFORD — The heart of Granville County is aiming to become the Tar Heel State’s Olympics of those spicy liquids to pour on meals and snacks.
And on Saturday the second an­nual N.C. Hot Sauce Contest drew scores of people to central Oxford.
In addition to the opportunity to sample and buy products with catchy names, comers got the chance to taste and purchase beers and wines produced within the state.
And comers could participate in a simultaneous Heritage Festival by shopping for antiques, flowers, plants, old books and a wide variety of other items.
The hot sauce marketers, however, were attracting the attention.
Tyrone Holmes, of Oxford, in particular, was the most visible in his tropical attire. His brand name: “Spice It Up!”
“Oh, baby, I’ve got to have it hot!” Holmes exclaimed. “If my nose ain’t running, I don’t want it!”
“That’s the hottest stuff I ever had,” Ricky Jackson, of Stem, said minutes after he took a taste test. “It made my eyes water.”
“I just drank two lemonades,” Jackson added. “It’s good, but it’s hot.”
At a nearby tent, Raymond Woodward was promoting “Colonel Cooper’s Mile High Hot Sauce.”
That is a product of Michael Cooper, a retired Air Force fighter pilot who grows his peppers on the side of the flight line of the Goldsboro-Wayne Airport, with the production being in the back of the hangar. “He makes his hot sauce the way a Frenchman makes wine,” Woodward said of Cooper’s approach. “He says if it’s too hot and you can’t taste it, then what’s the point? And of course he’s right.”
Woodward praised Oxford for hosting Saturday’s event, which, he noted with great pride, is “getting bigger.”
“I think within five years thousands of people are going to start coming to this thing,” he said.
The event was originally the idea of Julia Overton, an Oxford Main Street activist who owns Stovall’s Gifts.
She discovered that the Atlantic region’s biggest supplier of chile peppers, Bailey Farms, is southeast of Oxford.
Overton on Saturday said she was not overwhelmed by the crowds.
“It’s what I imagined and hoped for, plus a little bit bet­ter,” she said.
In the back of Overton’s business, a panel of five judges tasted and debated over several sauces before declaring their best choice: “Chocolate Habanero” by Bailey Farms.
The panelists were Oxford Public Ledger Editor Al Carson; freelance food writer Debbie Moose; Chef Ross Ragonese of Vance-Granville Community College’s culi­nary technology program; John Rushing, a food science expert at N.C. State Univer­sity; and Liz Taylor, who is the mid-day host at Oxford radio station WLUS.
Ragonese was quick to add that “Spice It Up!” was by far the hottest of the sauces. And, by the end of the day, the brand additionally received the people’s choice honor.
Ragonese, who is from Long Island, N.Y., joined Vance-Granville this past summer after several years in the catering business. Saturday marked the first time he had ever been a judge in a hot sauce contest.
And Ragonese said after­ward that he believes there will be a twist in next year’s competition.
“We’re going to put it with a little bit of food,” he said.
“We’re going to actually see how it compliments the food we’re going to be serving it with. And we’re going to use it as a criteria, too.”
Outside on Main Street, more than a few samplers of hot sauces were heading to get either a cup of beer or a cup of wine.
“It’s pretty good,” brewer Mike Morris said of the chance to promote his com­pany, Big Boss Brewing Co., outside of the Triangle area.

 The company is based in Raleigh.
“What we’re doing is grow­ing little by little,” Morris said.
Jonathan Murphy is an executive with Duplin Win­ery, which is located at Rose Hill in the southeastern part of the state.
Murphy said he was tick­led at his products being so well-received in Oxford. “Hopefully, we can pick up one or two new customers,” he said. “It makes it worth our time.”
Down Main Street and around the corner along Spring Street, several people were outside the Richard H.
Thornton Library browsing or buying old books or reposi­tory materials.
And at the adjacent ga­zebo, the Granville Garden­ers were having a plant sale.
“I think it’s wonderful,” said Sue Bryant, of Oxford, as she eyed flora in her fa­vorite color, which is purple.
“Sometimes you buy stuff at a nursery and then you get home and it dies on you, but everything here grows,” she added.
Contact the writer at bwest@hendersondispatch.comm.