There’s a lot of heat at Winchester’s House of Hot Sauce

Don’t tell Rich Moyette that you don’t like hot sauce because he will make it his mission to prove you wrong.

“I love it when people tell me that because I can change anybody,” Moyette said. “Trust me. I’ve got sauces here that you can have that are very mild.”

At the center of The House of Hot Sauce & More on Winchester Terrace, just off Thompson Street, is a tasting table laden with a random array of hot sauce bottles just waiting for testers.

During a recent visit, the brave could have tried Queen Majesty Red Habanero & Black Coffee Sauce or Funky’s Wild Child Hot Sauce or even a cayenne and garlic hot sauce. Or, according to Moyette, who owns the shop, visitors can ask to try any one of the hundreds of hot sauces he carries, including his own creations, “Big Rich Gourmet Hot Sauce and Marinade.”

Moyette has been creating hot sauce for more than 20 years and for one basic reason.

“I’ve always liked hot sauce,” he said with a broad smile.

And he knows how to use it.

Backstory

Moyette went to culinary school and worked as a chef for over 25 years, but he always came back to sauces, both barbecue and hot. He began making them at home and giving them away to friends until it started getting costly.

When friends said they’d pay for it, he decided to test theory and took a risk.

“So I went and ordered plastic bottles and I made a batch,” he said. “And they bought it.”

Shortly thereafter, Moyette found a Bay State company that would create his sauce and package it for him and ordered his first batch, about 50 cases. And he sold that too.

“That was just me hitting the streets,” he said.

Moyette drove around peddling his hot sauce to local stores, restaurants and farmers markets. Even today, with two stores — Moyette opened a second store last year on the North Shore — you can still find him at the Salem, Beverly and Wakefield farmers markets.

What’s in the store?

Moyette has a roster of about 20 different sauces that he has created, including pineapple, blueberry habanero, peach mango, maple, “Hot as Hell,” teriyaki — his biggest seller — and his flagship “Original, all the goodness wrapped into one bottle.” Also what Moyette calls a good intro to hot sauce.

You can find them in dozens of stores in the commonwealth as well as New Hampshire.

And while hot sauce is his first love, it’s not all the shop has to offer. He also has racks of rubs, and shelves of pickles and salsas that he has created, along with some House of Hot Sauce & More merchandise.

He also has more hot sauce.

“We’ve got sauces from all over the world, South Africa, Hawaii, Portugal, Australia, Costa Rica, Alaska. Kind of everywhere,” Moyette said.

There is also a local rack with New England based companies, though Moyette is perhaps most excited to be carrying Johnny Hexburg, handcrafted hot sauce from Cape Town.

“I’m the sole distributor in the United States,” he said.

He even has a shelf of hot sauces used on the show “Hot Ones,” where host Sean Evans interviews celebrities while they attempt to eat rounds of chicken wings covered in hot sauce.

Moyette also carries Crack Balls, hot crack balls, chips, spicy chocolate and a variety of other treats.

“There’s lots of fun stuff,” he said.

How to choose a hot sauce

The best way to choose a hot sauce is to try them. Moyette will tell you to open your fridge and throw out whatever hot sauce you have in there then go see him.

“Start fresh. Come in and try a sample and buy a bottle,” he said. “Come back in a week. Try another bottle. You have to try them. I love trying them — that’s key.”

Also keep in mind

Many people believe Ghost peppers, which are currently enjoying their moment in the sun, are the hottest peppers around, but Moyette said that’s not true. In fact, they lost their ranking due to cross-breeding and the introduction of the Carolina Reaper, which is currently ranked as the hottest pepper in any town.

The major difference between the two, Moyette said, is “Ghost peppers will linger. That’s why people think they’re the hottest … The Carolina Reaper will bite you, but go away quickly.”

He said the Carolina Reaper is also sneakier, hitting you in the back of your skull rather than the tip of your tongue, which is a little like getting smacked in the face with hot sauce. Habanero peppers are also what Moyette calls creepers, their spiciness sneaks up on you.

Last October, the Carolina Reaper was dethroned as the hottest pepper by a small green-and-yellow pepper coined Pepper X, according Guinness World Records. The new world’s hottest pepper is grown by Ed Currie, founder of Puckerbutt Pepper Company, who also created the Carolina Reaper.

Moyette said tasters should also consider that if a hot sauce is fruity, it will have less of a bite and once it’s added to food, its bite also goes down.

If you want to know what food to add it to, Moyette can help you out there too with his “Cooking with Big Rich” cookbook. Inside are recipes for baked macaroni and cheese with hot sauce, mashed potatoes with hot sauce and bacon wrapped meatloaf with BR’s SpicyWhite Garlic Sauce and his Texas Style Spice Rub, to name a few.

How hot is hot?

If you want to know how hot any given pepper might be one can always turn to the Scoville Scale, though despite the poster on the shop wall, Moyette is not a huge fan.

Created by pharmacologist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, the scale measures the heat of peppers and chilies. Moyette, however, looks at the chart as more of an opinion. He argues that not only can peppers by the same name vary in hotness, peppers on the same plant can vary in hotness.

“Let’s take the jalapeno,” he said. “Jalapenos are rated 2,500 to 8,000 (Scoville Heat Units). Why? Because on that same tree, one can be 2,500 and the pepper right next to it could be 1,000.”

He also said while something might be labeled as being made with Ghost peppers, that doesn’t mean it will light your mouth on fire.

“Hook and Arrow makes a seasonal (hot) sauce,” Moyette said. “They do it once a year. It’s a blueberry and strawberry and made with ghost pepper, but I have a little girl that comes in and buys it all the time. She's like 4 years old.”

That’s because what they don’t tell you is they use only a tiny amount of ghost peppers, Moyette said.

Still not convinced?

Still think you don’t like hot sauce? Then Moyette has an invitation for you.

“I say please don’t have that opinion. Come see. Come sit down. Let’s try some because you don’t know what you like,” he said. “I can get you to go ‘Oh, my God, I love that one.’ And now you do like hot sauce, you just haven’t tried the right one.”

House of Hot Sauce & More is located at 7 Winchester Terrace or if you’re on the North Shore, Moyette has a second shop at 166 Cabot St. in Beverly. Or find the shop online at Big Richs Hot Sauce | Hot Sauce & Marinade | New England.

Or check out his YouTube channel “Cooking with Big Rich” and watch as Moyette whips up hot sauce recipes.