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26th annual I Like It HOT! Festival
If you're looking to turn up the heat, Pinellas Park is the place to be. Florida's longest running hot sauce festival is celebrating 26 years of fiery flavor, wild eating challenges and serious heat. FOX 13's Heather Healy reports.
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Organizers and business owners showcased hundreds of spicy samples, rare pepper plants, and sweet treats designed to cool down attendees.
Hot sauce event Pinellas Park
What we know:
The 26th annual "I Like It Hot!" Festival took place at England Brothers Park in Pinellas Park, offering visitors hundreds of samples with flavors ranging from mild to wild. Event organizer Michelle Northup, known as "The Saucy Queen," said visitors can sample their way through the grounds and purchase items from local makers. "It is a tradition. The Chile head community in the Tampa Bay area is strong," Northup said.
Attendees can try extreme items, including a hot lollipop that requires signing a waiver. Vendors are also selling specialty foods like cinnamon rolls. Ashley Leon, co-owner of The Cinnabus, showcased a cinnamon roll topped with a custom five-pepper jelly. "It's a regular cinnamon roll, and then he made this five-pepper jelly. It has jalapeño, Carolina Reaper habanero, scotch pepper, a scotch bonnet and ghosts," Leon said.
The event offers cooling options like ice cream and lemonade alongside contests throughout the day. Farmers and vendors are also selling rare pepper plants directly to visitors. John St. Hilaire, representing Infinite Capsicum Supply, displayed peppers ranging from mild orange Thai peppers to the Dorset Naga pepper.
St. Hilaire noted that the Dorset Naga pepper ranks up to 1.6 million Scoville heat units, making it thousands of times hotter than a jalapeño. "You can't find that in a grocery store around here. The only way you're going to find it is by growing it yourself," St. Hilaire said.
Pinellas Park festival details
What we don't know:
Organizers have not given the total number of people that attended this year's festival.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from "I Like It Hot!" Festival organizer Michelle Northup, who spoke about the event's tradition and setup, as well as vendor owners Ashley Leon and John St. Hilaire, who detailed their products and pepper varieties.