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I’ve always loved the heat. From 100-degree days to mouth-searing chile peppers, I’m a big fan of turning it up. Tabasco in my mixed drinks? Yes, please. Reaper-level at Dave’s Hot Chicken? Why not! A dare to eat the hottest chile in your garden? I’m with it. I’m the guy at the Indian food cart asking them how hot they can make their jalfrezi…and paying for it dearly. There’s just something about the fire in my sinuses and the droplets of sweat behind my ear that keeps me coming back to the spice with increasing bravery, even though finding community in Portland that loves the burn like I do is not always easy.
The 7th Annual PDX Hot Sauce Expo cranks up the heat at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s adjacent 2–acre gravel Bridge Lot on Aug. 10–11, when temperatures are already projected to hit the mid-90s. Steve Seabury—a record label veteran and founder of PDX Hot Sauce Expo’s main sponsor, High River Sauces—says more than 700 sauces from almost four dozen companies spread across 20 states and Ontario, Canada, will be on hand to sample.
Local legends like HAB Sauce, Secret Aardvark Trading Company, Shaky Highway Sauce Company, and Hot Mama Salsa represent the Rose City’s heat index alongside other Pacific Northwest heavyweights. Bellingham-based Funky’s Hot Sauce Factory, for example, won the Grand World Champion title at the 2022 New York City Hot Sauce Expo, which High River Sauces sponsors alongside other regional expos in Chicago, California and New Jersey.
“It’s a scene, like bands. I might be the greatest band in the world, but I still want you to play on my stage,” Seabury says of the hot sauce expos. “It’s all about community, not ‘your brand sucks, fuck off.’ Everyone is making different sauces, and all of the vendors are from different parts of the country, and every part of the country makes sauces completely differently because their indigenous ingredients are different throughout the country.”
Sauces featured on the YouTube talk/game series Hot Ones are set to be a hit with the terminally online, but even bigger stars will shine at the PDX Hot Sauce Expo. High River Sauces will roll out its newest flavors, while PuckerButt Pepper Company—famous for engineering the Carolina Reaper, which up to now has been the hottest pepper in the world, PuckerButt founder Ed Currie will unveil the company’s newest creation, Pepper X. Jalapeño peppers, for reference, measure around 8,000 Scoville heat units, while Carolina Reapers clock in at a whopping 2.2 million SHU. Pepper X is said to measure an excruciating 2,693,000 SHU.
“This is an all-star lineup of hot sauce companies from around the country bringing their best to Portland,” Seabury says.
If watching strangers sweat on the verge of tears isn’t fun enough, the PDX Hot Sauce Expo’s Stage of Doom provides reliable entertainment. Interactive food attractions like the Spicy Taco from Hell Challenge, the Italian Sausage of Spicy Love Challenge and the Hot Diggity Dog Ziggity Boom Challenge pull participants from the audience, while semi-pro wrestlers will rumble every two hours in between dining challenges.
Guests can expect there to be plenty of watering holes on a weekend where Scoville and Fahrenheit seem likely to meet. But bar staff will keep the 21-and-over crowd cool with cocktails and craft beer. Drink ticket packages are available at the Hot Sauce Expo, including an unlimited option for VIP ticketholders.
PuckerButt will close out the PDX Hot Sauce Expo with its annual Guinness Book of World Records challenge. Fredy Rubio set the record for Most Carolina Reapers Eaten in One Minute at last year’s Portland expo. Rubio chowed down on pure pain, eating 122 grams of Carolina Reapers.
Rubio won’t be in town to defend his title, but Seabury passed along his regards: “If somebody beats that record, they can have it.”
WW assistant Arts & Culture editor Andrew Jankowski contributed to this story.
SEE IT: PDX Hot Sauce Expo at OMSI Bridge Lot, 1945 SE Water Ave., pdxhotsauceexpo.com. 10 am–6 pm Saturday–Sunday, Aug. 10–11. $20–$100. All ages.