The “world’s hottest chilli shop” Hellfire Global Sauces has opened in Bundaberg with owner Dion Forbes saying they’ve only scratched the hot surface of the world of chilli.
Chilli lovers will be on cloud nine with the variety of hot and spicy goods available at the well-stocked boutique store.
The Bundaberg East business has everything to get your taste buds firing from sauces and confectionary to freshly brewed chilli coffee.
Dion said that since Hellfire Global Sauces opened its doors on Tuesday they had been inundated with not only chilli-loving customers, but also people with curious minds wanting to know more about the little hot chilli peppers.
“It’s going remarkably well and we have been quite busy,” Dion said.
“We’re pretty much the biggest chilli shop in Australia and the hottest in the world.”
Living in the Bundaberg Region and being close to chilli producers such as Austchilli was one of the reasons why Dion said he chose to open the store here.
“We’ve also worked in with Jakes Candy to create our own confectionary line,” he said
“We have tasty marshmallow, coconut chilli ice, honeycomb, peanuts, boiled lollies, bars of chocolate and fudge; there is something for everyone.
“I supply all the chilli to them, and they make it up for us.”
Dion said the toffee pods made at Jakes Candy were also a new product, made from a whole chilli and covered in toffee, like a toffee apple.
“They are a whole chilli covered in toffee, like toffee apples and when you bite in to them it’s like biting in to a toffee apple, but it’s hot,” he said.
“Then we also make chilli coffee here on site, and people can enjoy a mild heat right up to really hot chilli coffee.
“We have really tried to cover everything chilli related and sell it here in the store.”
Hellfire Global Sauces fire up
The eye-catching signs outside the Hellfire Global Sauces store in Bundaberg East may resemble a portrait of Dion, but he said there was a limit to the amount of heat he could take.
“I like chilli, but I don’t like the hot-hot stuff myself,” he said.
“We have Highway to Hell here and that’s 13 million Scovilles – so we have some of the hottest sauces in Australia right here.
“People here in Bundaberg just really seem to love chilli.”
A Scoville Unit is named after pharmacist Wilbur Scoville who in 1912 invented a way to measure the heat of peppers by the levels of Capsaicin, the chemical compound in hot peppers that is responsible for their heat, present.
“We have the Deathstract which is the hottest product we have at 9 million Scovilles, and the sauce is actually 13 million Scoville, but on a gram size it’s the Deathstract that is the hottest,” he said.
Dion said he's glad but not surprised about the response from the community during the initial opening of Hellfire Global Sauces, and he said he hoped to one day franchise the business out and open stores across the country.
“I thought about opening at Christmas and decided to do it, and I’m pleased to see so many people walk through the doors in less then a week,” he said.
“We are doing a grand opening on 3 October, and we will be having a chilli festival a week new year, and we hope to have people from all over Australia come along to that.
“We are really only just scratching the surface and we can only get bigger and bigger!”
Dion said anyone wanting more information about Hellfire Global Sauces could join the Facebook group or pop into the store at 1/11 Princess Street, Monday to Saturday from 9am.
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