Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick DeSimone.
Hi Rick, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always enjoyed spicy food and put hot sauce on just about everything. So, when my wife got me a hot sauce-making kit for Christmas in 2018, I was excited to experiment with some recipes! As it does, life happened, and I never got around to opening it. Fast forward to December of 2020. As movie theaters, bars, and music venues had been closed, I’d spent all my time off that year playing disc golf and working on the yard. The colder weather forced me inside, and I stumbled across the kit while looking for the last of the quarantine snacks. Opening the kit, I discover that it’s filled with dry, powdered ingredients and a couple small bottles of vinegar. The included instructions directed me to soak the dry ingredients in the vinegar for a couple days, then strain the remaining liquid to make hot sauce. That wasn’t what I’d had in mind, so I threw out virtually everything except the bottles and headed to the store.
There was a roasted jalapeno salsa that I’d made several times and couldn’t get enough of; I decided to try turning that recipe into a hot sauce. I returned home with fresh jalapenos, garlic, and onions and roasted them under the broiler, then blended them with a big of vinegar, some chili powder, and a touch of water to get the consistency right.
After letting the flavors marry for a couple days, I brought a bottle into work for my coworkers and gifted a few to friends. The reviews were very enthusiastic, and I was excited to pursue the hobby more! I ordered a large case of bottles from Amazon and started exploring hot sauce groups on Facebook and reading recipes online. Eventually, I honed in on the exact flavor I wanted on the jalapeno garlic sauce and created a chipotle hot sauce with lemon juice as the acid-base instead of vinegar.
My coworkers started asking to buy bottles, and a month later, Quarantine Project LLC was formed!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I wouldn’t say it’s been smooth, necessarily… Ha.
There were some very big hurdles the first several weeks, some nearly debilitating. Navigating Colorado’s food laws is terribly tricky, and feels like a maze with dozens of traps built in. I read and read, and reached out to other small hot sauce makers in Colorado and other states. Long story short, I learned that I would need to choose between renting a commercial kitchen and working with a co-packing company. Both of these were new concepts to me, so I made lots and lots of phone calls and asked what would now seem like very stupid questions.
I came to understand that I would either need to spend a couple dozen hours a week cooking in a commercial kitchen or commit to producing over 2,000 bottles with a co-packer. In the beginning, either option sounds like an insurmountable challenge, and that’s not considering label design, nutrition testing, setting up a website, keeping books, shipping orders, managing social media, buying all the farmer’s market equipment, registering with all the required agencies, and dozens of other random tasks required of a business owner. How could I possibly pay for everything and make all the pieces fit? Not to mention I still had a wife, pets, a house, AND a full-time job requiring my attention.
And yet, I couldn’t let it go. From day one, I’ve felt more pressure pushing me forward than holding me back.
So, I opted to run a Kickstarter to gauge interest and raise funds. I set what I felt was an ambitious but reasonable goal of $5,000 in 28 days. It wouldn’t cover the entire cost of starting up but was enough that I could convince my wife to let me take the rest out of savings. We met our goal in half the time and ended up raising another $2,500!
Since then, every seeming mountain has become a molehill, and it’s been a joy to come up with creative solutions to the novel challenges every day.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We create hot sauces for the home chef that spends 2 hours crafting a perfect dish and still wants to taste their food. Too many sauces these days are painfully hot or loaded with vinegar. They are geared towards chileheads who can’t find enough pain or budget-conscious shoppers who don’t mind spicy vinegar. Our sauces are designed to complement the flavors you create, not overwhelm them with heat or acidity. You’re going to taste the roasted jalapenos and garlic, the chipotle peppers and paprika. And you’re going to love it.
How do you think about luck?
I’ve had a privileged life with many opportunities and second chances, and I’ve stumbled across success despite every attempt to fail.
Pricing:
- $8.00 per bottle
- $22 and up for apparel
Contact Info:
- Email: quarantineprojectsauce@gmail.com
- Website: qpsauce.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/quarantineprojectsauce/
- Facebook: facebook.com/quarantineprojectsauce/
