November's Best-Selling Carolina Sauce Products

November was a wild and crazy month, both for me personally and also for the Carolina Sauces online store. The good thing is that we both survived, and we also enjoyed some pleasant surprises -- including the impressive finish of quite a few new top-ten finishers on our best-sellers list along with the return of some old favorites.

Here are the top 10 best-selling sauces at the Carolina Sauce Company for the month of November:

1. Matouk's Flambeau Sauce: This is by far the hottest of Matouk's hot sauces, but it also scores at the top of the flavor scale with a savory, pleasantly pungent aged-pepper flavor and a thick, rich mouthfeel, both courtesy of the select chili pepper mash that's the sauce's primary ingredient. If you can handle the intense heat, you'll find Matouk's Flambeau to be a superb choice for firing up any savory dish from scrambled eggs to burgers, pizza, beans & rice, roast meats or chicken, stews and chili. Although this seriously hot sauce makes occasional appearances on our top-ten list, this is the first time I can recall it finishing in first place.

2. Wells Hog Heaven BBQ Sauce is our best-selling barbecue sauce and is the archetype of a classic eastern North Carolina vinegar BBQ sauce for smoked pulled pork barbecue. It's also a tangy, slightly spicy marinade for chicken and meat (I recommend mixing in a little oil to keep poultry & meat from drying out), and you can also splash it on fried fish, French fries and Southern style greens. Wells almost always finishes in the top 5 on our monthly best-seller list, and it frequently sits at number one on any given month.

3. Blair's Death Rain Habanero Potato Chips: This newcomer to our top-sellers list is a favorite of fiery-foods fans who like to snack on spicy potato chips. Premium potatoes are sliced, kettle-cooked to crispy perfection, and then generously dusted with ground habanero powder and other savory spices for a satisfyingly crunchy, salty and fiery-hot spicy snack that's irresistibly good. These habanero potato chips are great for gameday parties and tailgating -- but be sure to bring plenty of cold beverages to help wash them down!

4. Tied for fourth place are Gator Hammock Swamp Mustard, a feisty, savory and spicy mustard sauce and condiment from Florida with a hint of tropical fruit (guava is one of the ingredients), and another tropical favorite, Matouk's Calypso Sauce, a zesty West Indian hot sauce from Trinidad & Tobago that's made from pickled scotch bonnet peppers, mustard, sugar and island spices. While Calypso Sauce is a regular top-10 finisher, this is the first time that Swamp Mustard has broken into the top ten.

5. Matouk's West Indian Salsa Picante Hot Sauce is similar to its Calypso sibling, but a little bit more mellow on the heat scale with a slightly sweeter flavor, all thanks to the inspired addition of lusciously sweet papaya for a festive tropical twist. This hot sauce is fantastic with fish and seafood, vegetarian dishes including stir-fry and rice & beans, poultry, and more.

6. Matouk's Salsa Picante Hot Pepper Sauce is yet another member of the renowned Matouk's family. This traditional Caribbean hot sauce has plenty of peppery flavor and fire with a robust, savory-tangy flavor and thick mouthfeel, making it ideal for all sorts of red meat (including game and exotic meats), hearty bean dishes (e.g., red beans & rice), roast or grilled chicken, and other similar fare.


7. November saw another pair of products in a tie, the fun and fiery Ass Kickin' Habanero Microwave Popcorn making its debut appearance on a best-seller list, and Gator Hammock Hot Gator Sauce, a versatile all-purpose Florida hot sauce that moved up from its tenth place finish in October. Both of these popular hot & spicy products would make great Christmas gifts or holiday stocking stuffers for your favorite chilehead or fan of fiery foods.

8. Georgia Peach & Vidalia Onion Hot Sauce: Making its return to the list of best-selling sauces after a surprisingly long absence, this delightfully sweet & sassy Southern style hot sauce blends juicy ripe peaches with mellow and savory Vidalia onions for a mildly spicy heat and delectable, palate-pleasing flavor. Pair it with roast pork or ribs, beef roast or grilled chicken, shrimp kabobs or vegetable side dishes, and pour it on burgers, chicken wings, fried foods and more.

9. Marie Sharp's Habanero Hot Sauce: This classic Caribbean hot sauce from Belize is a favorite of habanero pepper purists who want to taste the pepper's true flavor as well as experience its gloriously bright heat. If you're looking for an all-purpose everyday hot sauce for the table and the kitchen but are tired of the bland, overly vinegary or watery grocery store varieties, this hot sauce is the one for you. Marie Sharp's Habanero Hot Sauce comes in three convenient sizes: The regular 5oz bottle most people are used to seeing for hot sauces, the large economy-size 10oz bottle that's perfect for hot sauce enthusiasts who use it regularly, and little plastic 2oz mini-bottles which are ideal for gift-giving, sampling, and carrying with you in a purse or pocket so that you can spice up your food when eating out.

10. Fifty Shades of Red Cayenne Pepper Sauce is one of the newest sauces added recently to the Carolina Sauces online store, and yet it has already proven to be a big seller -- no doubt because of its play on the whole "Fifty Shades of Gray" craze. With a name and label art inspired by the insanely popular "hot" novel, this all-natural Louisiana style hot sauce is a fun gift to give anyone who's a fan of the book and who also appreciates a well-made hot sauce.

Zestfully yours,
Gloria