Baltimore’s newest hot sauce festival was a spicy success!

Baltimore, in my humble opinion, is an awesome food city. Aside from some delicious local favorites, we have some excellent food festivals as well.

In fact, this past weekend Baltimore’s Power Plant Live hosted the first Some Like it Hot hot sauce festival! Hosted by Transcendent Events, this festival focused on small batch and locally made hot sauces, hot foods, and spicy drinks. The festival featured 48 unique hot sauces from 8 regional vendors, as well as spices, dry rubs, and even pickles!

The drink list contained 5 unique drinks, some with a little heat, and some with no heat. They were each priced at only $5, so you wouldn’t be breaking the bank if you wanted to try them all.

Beverages included Sweet Heat, Some Like it Hot (bloody Mary), Chill Grape Buzz, Live! Punch, and Little Beers (shot). According to Transcendent Events own Kevin Hock,

"We wanted a great mix of spicy themed drinks, and tasty beverages to cool off the palate between hot sauce samples. as always, we like the names to be in good humor so people are excited to check them out. The “Live! Punch” sold well. That’s more of a Power Plant Greatest Hit. I witnessed quite a few people  enjoying the “Little Beers” shot."

The first one I went for was Sweet Heat — pineapple Captain, pineapple juice, orange juice, grenadine, jalapeno garnish. This drink was very sweet, but not in an artificial kind of way. I also found the pineapple and orange juice blend to be very light and refreshing.

The jalapeno garnish added a light kick to the drink, but it in no way overwhelmed it. This would pair well with mild or hot wings, or even brunch.

Some Like it Hot hot sauce festival, Sweet Heat cocktail, photo provided by Laura Sisselman

I followed this up with a Chill Grape Buzz shot. Grape Smirnoff, white Monster, and peach schnapps. The peach and grape blended beautifully together, making this a floral, summery shot.

This cocktail would simmer down the heat in your mouth after a dose of hot sauce, and I think it would taste fine without the addition of Monster.

These drinks are rather trendy, and perfect for summer cookouts. Bloody Mary’s are traditionally a hit at brunch, and one of the most popular food trends right now is adding excessive garnishes to your drinks.

This festival showed that people were willing to throw any kind of heat into their beverages for a nice kick. They were perfect for cooling you off after several hot sauce samples, and they were both exceptionally delicious.

There’s no word yet if Some Like it Hot will return for a second year, but I sincerely hope it does.

Will you be checking out any hot sauce festivals this summer? Let us know in the comments below! Cheers!