Hot sauce committee : Ledz' latest hot sauce

Planet Eclipse. Designers, manufacturers and users of the best paintball equipment on the Planet.

And hot sauce.

Yep, we also do a hot, and we mean a HOT, hot sauce.

And who's behind the hot sauce project? Pretty obvious really. Ledz, who looks really chuffed with the latest one, so we decided to put him under the grill.

So, Ledz, a little bird told us that you like chillies and that you’ve just received shipment of your latest batch of chilli sauce. How true is this?

I like it a little too much if I'm honest. Everybody thinks because I like hot sauce I like the STUPID hot ones, but that’s not true. I like a good strong flavour and it has to pack a punch but I'm not a fan of the ones that will put you on your knees and make you beg for mercy.

What’s your favourite ‘Off the shelf’ sauce?

I have two favourites at the moment. Encona special reserve and Habanero Tabasco. Both are hotter than ‘Standard’ sauces but not super hot. These are my everyday go-to sauces and there is the undisputed King of hot sauces, plain old, straight up Tabasco. Can’t beat it. I love not having it for a while then going back to it, like wearing your favourite old jeans.

This isn’t your first chilli sauce rodeo either is it? How long have you been getting your own sauces made?

No it’s not, we have made several different sauces from several different suppliers. We are probably into 10+ years now. Most of the sauces have been made in the UK as it’s fun finding the companies to make them (lots of testing and tasting, but I’ll take a hit for the team). We have only made sauces in America once or twice though. Any takers?

Labels hand applied... by Ledz himself

Who currently makes them for you?

Our current batch is made by Big Rick, an ex Baller who used to play on Team Bouja. One of the strings to his bow is making some pretty good hot sauces. You can check him out on Facebook here Home Grown Chillies.

Where are they based?

Guernsey, which is one of the Channel Islands. They get a lot more sun and heat that mainland UK that’s for sure, which is the ideal climate for growing chillies.

How on earth did this partnership even come about? Did you shoot each other one day and say ‘hey, ever thought about making chilli sauce?’

Something like that. I’ve been friends with Rick for years, we have played Paintball together, drank together, snowboarded together and I even went to Rick's wedding. His Dad was a farmer on Guernsey and had some space in the greenhouses - Rick and I chatted and said we should grow some chillies and make hot sauce. That’s pretty much how the conversation started. So Rick did just that. And along with his wife (Nong) they set about making a pretty kick ass range of tasty sauces and I’m happy to now be buying private label hot sauce from them.

When did your obsession for hot sauces start?

Before I was 20 I didn’t like hot food at all. Then something changed and the hotter the better was the order of the day. As I travelled more, playing Paintball around the World I’d come across hot sauces in different countries and give them a try. You then become a bit of a collector and before I knew it I was hooked, and pretty much have a drop or ten with everything. Not in booze though, that’s just wrong! Someone should ask Jack Wood to tell us the story of when we had Chilli vodka in Revolution! It didn't end well.

BOOM think you can handle it?

What (and where) was the hottest sauce you ever had?

At World Cup. One year with the Banzai’s we found a hot sauce store in Old Town, Kissimmee, and I bought a hot sauce called Pure Cap. I had to fill in a document to say that I wouldn’t give it to anyone without then knowing the risks, seriously. That stuff was HOT! I mean, if you put the head of a tooth pick into the sauce and licked it that would be enough for most people to need milk and get the sweats!

Anything special in your collection.

I have a very rare sauce called Blair’s Reserve. I bought it for about $250 when it came out and I got #514 out of 999. These were exchanging hands for $5000 not so long ago…..Crazy!

My preciousssssssss

And we’re right in saying your sauces aren’t for the feint hearted either. How hot are these latest sauces?

When I commission a sauce I don’t want to go into the mass produced mild to medium supermarket sauces, I want a sauce that I like and my chilli head friends will like. They have to be MUCH hotter than normal but not Stupid hot. I had a pasta salad for lunch, 5 or 6 drops of the latest sauce mixed in was perfect. Sauces that make the short list are put in Planet HQ canteen and people give them a go. If we get the thumbs up we go for it. Some recently have been a little disappointing but this one is top notch.

Putting the E in Heat

Which has been the hottest sauce you’ve had made? How does this latest one compare to previous ones?

Hard to say. Hot sauce can be a little like pain in terms of how quickly we forget the feeling (pain). But what's important to us before we put our name on a sauce is 100% that the flavour is good and this current sauce has great flavour and kick-ass heat. I’d say this is one of our hottest for sure.

So how do our victims, I mean friends, get their hands on these little bottles of lava?

Well, the current batch is only 100 bottles and you can buy it from the Planet Eclipse web site and dealers will also be getting some into stock I’m sure. When it’s gone I’ll see if we can get some more but you never know with this type of thing. There is a slight catch though - we can’t sell the sauce to America / Canada (sorry guys) because FDA approval costs are a lot so we can’t ship to America or Canada. So you will need to visit the Planet Eclipse Europe / UK sites and look for it there.

The sauce is called the Eclipse Habanero 7 Pot (red) and comes in a 100ml bottle.

Get it while it’s hot (see what I did there).


So if you like your sauce hot and tasty then keep your eyes open (but don't touch them with chilli on your fingers) for more details.

Feel the burn!