Olde Virden's RED HOT Sprinkle......simply the best.

Pepper Sprinkle, you say. Indeed, I reply, the best there is. But why the pepper sprinkle as opposed to a myriad of other concoctions and permutations which adorn the aisle of your local grocery. Olde Virden's flavor is unmistakable, fresh, and spicy..............

For me Olde Virden's is completely within my scope of practice. Spending time traveling, hiking, and camping I've been known to carry around a spice kit. The spice kit is a great addition to your backwoods pantry. My own spice kit is a relic from the bygone days of my time spent as a Canoe Guide at the Charles L. Sommers Canoe Base in Ely, Minnesota. The summer of 1999 it was, and no better time was had. Mosquitoes and Black Flies were small nuisances I endured to experience the grandeur and history that is the Boundary Waters.

My Spice Kits current holdings include the following:

1. Pepper
2. Garlic Powder
3. Creole Seasoning
4. Onion Flakes
5. OLDE VIRDEN'S RED HOT SPRINKLE.

http://www.oldevirdens.com/ - Their website.

That's it. Those five things, probably should add a sweet to all that savory. On a recent jaunt to the green hells of Southeast Asia, my spice kit was all that stood between me, and the madness of the jungle. And of those five spices Olde Verdin's was the top dog in the show. 

My friends, Chris and Allyson are the makers and originators of East Tennessee's most famous Pepper Sprinkle. Accept no Substitutes. The idea was born of Chris's fertile imagination, Allison's encouragement and keen business sense, coupled with a desire to do something different. Chris and Allyson (C & A) are business people, and have been for years. C & A were managers at Mount Leconte Lodge in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park for 12 years. They managed a lodge that in order to secure lodging you were required to hike 6 miles up hill. No I'm not joking, it's wildly popular. C & A managed this lodge. They've got mad business skills, everything from coordinating helicopter airlifts to ferry supplies and equipment, managing the finances and staff, even coordinating medevac's for injured hikers. C & A did it all, have seen it all. They are truly some of the most responsible and capable people I know. We were introduced through a mutual friend who shall remain nameless, for the time being.

Olde Virden's Pepper Sprinkle is made in East Tennessee and contains just one ingredient, peppers. Now there may different varieties and colors that make Olde Virden's unique but they are all peppers, just peppers. There's no flavor stabilizers, no MSG, no salt, no coloring , no preservatives, no pork rinds (I tried), nada, nothing. It's just one thing Organic Peppers. Here, why don't I let Chris explain.

Chris tell me about Olde Virden's Red Hot Sprinkle.

So a while back when I was working up on the Mountain I realized there are a million different kinds of hot sauces out there, but there's this secret society that says the only thing you can put on your pizza is a generic jar of crushed red peppers. There's only crushed red pepper. You can go to any grocery store in America and all your gonna find is cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, and that's really just it. There's a million different hot sauces: habanero hot sauce, chipotle hot sauce, Cajun hot sauce ad nauseum. Dried peppers, where all the flavor is, there's only one. So one day I went to every market and bought every pepper I could find, brought them home, dehydrated them, and got started. And that's sort of how I got started in the specialty food business.

How did you get the name?

We were up on the mountain, and me and my whole crew we were hanging out and they were crazy about hot sauce and I kept talking about pepper flakes and how you had no choice in what was available, and one of my employees Matt said as a joke, well you know what you should call your company is: "Olde Virden's Red Hot Sprinkle" and he's being funny, but I thought it was hilarious so that's how I named the company. 

Where is your company based and tell me about your ingredients?

We're located in Gatlinburg Tennessee, and I built a small production facility, where I dry all my peppers. My product has only one ingredient, it has chili peppers. It's got five different types of peppers. If you look at typical hot sauces for example Sriracha has 11 ingredients. Mine has peppers, it's five different peppers but it's just peppers. There is no salt, xanthan gum, or stabilizing agents. It has everything hot sauce has but none of that other crap. Because hot sauce has vinegar there's a sourness to it. For example, I can make fudge with my pepper flakes. You can add Olde Virden's to anything it's more versatile. There's a reason Lay's number on selling potato cheap is not Sriracha or Texas Pete. None of the hot sauces have been able to break into that market because it can't cover a whole potato chip the way my sprinkle can. You can take a little Kosher Sea Salt to my Pepper Sprinkle, add it to potato chips and it's phenomenal, but hot sauce because it's a liquid it doesn't have the range my product has.
So it's better on Italian food, Bloody Mary's, Pizza it has more flavor. You know habanero is one of the peppers I use. After the habaneros are dried, they have this tremendous scent, it's like a bouquet of flowers, and if you take a jar of habanero hot sauce you just get this pungent vinegar taste and the flavor is lost. That is where my product is different. Olde Virden's Red Hot has tremendous range, it smells good, it's hot but it's not too hot. That's where people go wrong, they talk about their Ghost Pepper Sauces, my stuff is hot but it's reasonable. My product is not sending anyone to the hospital as of yet..............

Let's talk about your KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN.

I HAVE four small dehydrators that I dry my peppers in. Up to this point they've worked really very well. But in order to take my stuff to the next level. I want to get into the big grocery stores. To do this, I have to be able to produce much larger quantities. In order to produce 50 pounds of peppers it takes 18 hours to dry. This new dehydrator I'm looking at will do 170 pounds of peppers in just 3 hours. It will do it with more flavor, better colors, and less nutritional loss. It will improve my product considerably over night which is amazing, because my product is already awesome. So far I have Kroger expressing interest but in order to get there I need to go through a distributor which will place me in 94 grocery stores but I need to be able to produce a great deal more of Old Virden's Red Hot Sprinkle. So I need to raise $19,000 dollars to get a commercial dehydrator........

One last question, straight outta left field. Briefly tell me about what drives you make this kick-ass product
You know my wife has always said that  I come up with all these crazy ideas and she's like well you should do that, you should do that.  Finally, I had the idea and I went with it. Sometimes you gotta shake the dice and throw'em across the table. It's terrifying but it's also very rewarding.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1767927820/olde-virdens-red-hot-sprinkle-say-no-to-sauce  Kickstarter Campaign Site.

Thanks for your time.