Hot Sauce Sale

After giving away over 60 bottles of my hot sauce so far this year, I have approximately 40 bottles remaining; and, alas, these are for sale.

There are a total of ten varieties (listed below) with updated numbers of remaining bottles (after the equal (=) sign). 

ALL chili pepper plants were grown on our roof here in the East Village, NYC. 

Sauces are made with only fresh, selected, organically grown peppers, apple cider vinegar, pink Himalayan salt (for the darker brews) or sea salt (for the lighter brews), and, depending on the taste profile of the chilies, fresh garlic. That's it.

All prices include shipping in the USA. Email first if ordering from Hawaii or Alaska.

If you are picking up bottle(s), subtract $3.00 from the cost of each purchase.


Here's a group photo of the remaining varieties. :

From left to right: Ram, Bonda Ma Jacques, Ghost Hab, Choco Hab, Stupid-Fuckered-Up Mix, Golden Ghost Mix, The Last Hab, Orange Teapot, Brazzy Star, and Beni.

Sauces are rated 1 (very mild) to 11 (melt your face) on my personally dysfunctional heat index scale (pdhis). Still, what's "mild" to me many not be "mild" to you; and sauces that I find to be spectacularly, deliciously soul incinerating (like Orange Teapot), others may think, "Meh."

More information on individual peppers can be found here: http://brianphilipkatz.blogspot.com/2017/09/chile-harvest-hoedown.html

All bottles are 5 ounces.

Scroll down to the sauce (or sauces) of your choice, click the PayPal link, then send me an email with your selection(s) and address to rooftoppeppers@gmail.com. 

Ram Sauce (2 pdhis) = 4 bottles @ $12.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

After the Tear Drop, which is no longer available, this is Maria's go to flavoring for her morning eggs. A relatively mild sauce with a hearty cayenne profile -- like a Tabasco with guts.

Bonda Ma Jacques (6+ pdhis) = 7 bottles @ $12.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

More citrusy sweet (on its own) and spicier than Habanero, Bonda Ma Jaques is among my more prolific growers -- one plant produces at least 200 pods. This is a good entry-level sauce for those wishing to discover the complexities of super-hot peppers.

Ghost Habanero (5 pdhis) = 6 bottles @ $12.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

Fruity AND rich, my Ghost Habanero sauces tend to be thick and packed with flavor. Perfect for spicing up a guacamole or bean dish.

Choco Habanero (6 pdhis) = 0 bottles @ $12.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

Choco Habanero (from chocolate habaneros, duh) is my second favorite sauce (Orange Teapot being the Supreme Ruler of the roof). This brew has everything: a nice kick with some legs, an addicting savoriness (that makes me want a taste as I write this), and, yes, a chocolate finish (but that might be me deluding myself). If you order this pepper, I will include one fresh pod with the purchase. (I brought this plant inside fro the winter because it was still producing beautiful peppers the first week of November. It is now happily growing in the window.)

Stupid-Fuckered-up Mix (5- pdhis) = Last bottle @ $11.00, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

A mix of ALL peppers remaining after single-brewed batches: I've given more of my these sauces away than my others. They tend toward familiar taste profiles for those who are only dabbling in hot sauces -- simply spicy and salty (with a dash of fresh garlic). Goes with pretty much everything you would want it to go with. 

Golden Ghost Mix (6- pdhis) = 2 bottles @ $11.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

A mix of my remaining yellow chilies, this is a surprisingly complex sauce that, after feeling the burn, releases a lemon meringue finish.

The Last Hab (5 pdhis) = 1 bottles @ $11.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk

Made from my giant red habaneros, this is exactly what you think: a bawdy, sassy sauce with lots of tang.

Orange Teapot (9+ pdhis) = 2 bottles @ $15.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk  

This is my favorite pepper (the Orange Teapot), my favorite plant, my favorite sauce... just, my favorite. Period. Ever. 9th level heat and bursting with orange (flower and fruit) -- this is the pod that almost sent me to the emergency room two years ago. The pepper is deceptively cute and I munched on half a fruit as if it were a grape. 

Subsequently, I slipped into a painful panic attack. But on the other side of the endorphin-fueled meltdown was a damn near religious experience. I recovered quickly, returned to my steak dinner, and drank my hoppy beer by myself on the roof... and I swear, the pepper opened every flavor complexity in everything that night. Perhaps the greatest meal I've ever had. This sauce will not duplicate that experience, but it will bring heaven (or hell) closer to earth.

Brazzy Star (3 pdhis) =  3 bottles @ $12.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk  

My go to sauce. Made with Brazilian Starfish chilies, this is a meaty brew with a soul. 

Beni (5- pdhis) =  4 bottles @ $12.00 each, PayPal.Me/hotsaucesbpk  

Normally among my highest yield plant, my Beni Highlands plant had a comme ci comme ça year. The peppers make a nice, fresh sauce that should be enjoyed now. This is not a brew that develops as it sits on the shelf (ages). When you receive it, use it. This sauce reminds me of summer. 

R.i.P., Stanley "More Than a Mere Mortal" Martin Lieber

I swear when I write, I thought about him this morning. During my afternoon class, my iPhone pinged the news and I had to gather myself... but I wasn’t surprised.

When I was a kid interning at Marvel Comics, I kind of met Stan (the Man) Lee. At the time, he wasn’t much of a physical presence around the midtown offices; but when he was there, everyone knew it. There was a wave of his energy that moved through the building. I worked at a desk in the hallway and before I could process the idea of the actual person, I sensed him — the normal Marvel buzz shifted its buzziness — and then he was passing me with a smile and a “Hey kiddo.” I was 18 and, striding by like a jaunty West Wind, was my Charles Dickens. He was taller than I expected, elegant, and mannerly. He entered an editor’s office, closed the door, and I waited for him to re-emerge, but he didn’t. I don’t know how he disappeared — there was no other way to exit but to pass me by; however, I knew Stan Lee was gone before I knew he was gone. I just felt it... like this morning.

Eternally Opessimistic [sic]

Optimism can be painful. 

When Bush #1 was president and my political awareness started to really form, I thought it couldn’t ever get any worse. When Newt planted the seed of what was to become Trumpism (when Trump was just an Ivory Tower blowhard), I thought it couldn’t get any worse. When Bush #2 used “compassionate conservatism” to level the economy and wage another crusade in the Middle East, I thought it couldn’t get any worse. And then there was a break when things didn’t get any worse and my positive outlook was validated. Now, I wake up every single morning in the torrent of a Tweetstorm with the thought that it couldn’t get any worse as it continues to get worse. The daily disappointment is crippling! In no way am I apologizing for my reactions to the Bushes and the Newts of the past 30 years, but Damn(!), what I would do for those days when attempted versions of civility and  reasonability were, more often than not, an American responsibility. Now... now, our American discourse is completely soiled, seemingly well beyond an industrial stain remover, as a steady stream of verbal diarrhea is sprayed from the Puckered Anus of the White House. I’m covered in shit, you’re covered in shit, the whole country is covered in shit... and I’d like to believe it couldn’t get any worse; but the odor is horrendous and it’s getting harder to imagine a future without this excrement all over everything. Maybe it’s the confusion of morning after another fitful sleep, but I’m no longer saying, “It couldn’t get any worse” because it did and it did and it did get worse; but yet, there is still promise: It’s not the worst it could be... I mean, after the events of the last two weeks (and the last two years!) and the direction America seems to be traveling, my imagination can really imagine what the worst could be and this ain’t quite it... yet. So, starting today, in the earlier glow of daylight savings and on the cusp of the seemingly hopeful midterm elections, I’m going to stop comparing today to the halcyon days of Bushes and Clintons and Obamas because there may be a time, say ten years from now, should the Earth still be inhabitable and I still be alive, when I look back at two terms of Trump and long for the shittiness of these days. Starting this morning, I’m adjusting my perspective: I’m no longer saying, “It couldn’t get any worse,” and instead I’m saying, “It’s unlikely to get better.” Somehow, someway, this makes today seem okay.

Pessimism is less painful and, in an attempt at being in the here and now, the only optimistic way to embrace the day until the time comes when the worst is behind us -- and it will be! -- is to say, "It's unlikely to get better." Repeat. 

Optimistically pessimistic or pessimistically optimistic? Whatever gets me, you, us through the day.

The Vacuum of Anger

“Angry white men” are “making America great again” for “angry white men.” It was “angry white men” who used their “anger” to win the election in 2016 and it is “angry white men” who are doggedly shaping policies to benefit “angry white men.” Now, an “angry” white man will be tipping the Supreme Court’s scales in favor of “angry white men” (and future generations of “angry white men”). When “angry white men” have secured a country of “angry white men,” they’ll be angered by their lack of “anger” over being “angry white men”... like they are now. It’s a vicious cycle in the Vacuum of Anger.

This Year's Models...

... of roof-grown chili peppers:

A Remembrance of Pigswill Past

“Champagne quality without the champagne price.” The ad on the back cover of the first issue of Epic Illustrated (spring 1980) is a reminder of some of the worst mornings of my teenage life. My Champale moments led to a steady stream of neon vomit and a general sense that by drinking this “Extra Dry” or “Pink” pigswill I was no longer celebrating life but rather welcoming a kind of death... at least until I discovered Bartles & Jaymes. Oh, what a world of variety (of vomit) those wine coolers introduced to me!

Liberals Lambasting Liberals

Words are speaking louder than actions... and this might be our undoing in 2020.

I’m wondering if the liberal backlash against liberals (some of which I’ve experienced in academia) is going to stall any momentum we’re gaining. Lefties like James Gunn (the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies), a person with a solid history of supporting humanistic goals and ideals, but undermined by his juvenile attempts at boundary-pushing via Twitter, was revealed by the far right media to be a lousy provocateur. He tweeted some really stupid shit a decade ago. Still, he has been fired (I know, boo hoo) along with many others who’ve said and tweeted some really stupid shit despite living and acting differently. Is this, in some twisted political maneuvering, validating the right’s view of the left? Easily offended Snowflakes all?! We need to chill the fuck out, look deeper, dance the mea culpa dance, and apologize when necessary because it’s getting ridiculous. Some on the left will start to move to the center or even, shudder, the right just for shelter. With the magnificent groundswell of young liberals storming (and saving!) the Democratic party, this might also be the time to forgive and fortify.

Let's go beyond Twitter and Facebook and embrace this tired cliché anew: Actions speak louder than words.

W.W.R.D.? [What Would Ronnie Do?]

From my copy of Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition Unabridged, printed in Springfield, Mass., U.S.A., 1946. This is how we defined and understood the term “traitor” after WWII: “... specif., one who violates his allegiance and betrays his country; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to an enemy...”

Is the definition lost to us now? It used to be that the Republican Party stood as staunch defenders of America (even as we debated, within and without our borders, its principles). Seems like the time has arrived when many lefties like myself actually long for the G.O.P. of yesteryear.

Oh, if only Reagan could resurrect himself and his party.

The New Revolution Will Be Advertised in Four Colors

Since its proto-era, cartoons and comics books have embraced social and political agendas (often of the left-leaning variety). Exploding WWII propaganda across its pages in the 40s; cowering in the corners of the Red Scare and hogtied by religious and right wing political fervor in the 50s [The CODE! The dreaded CODE!]; earnestly addressing social issues in the 60s (mostly thanks to Stan and the "King"); embracing subculture and sneakily promoting elements of universalism in the 70s (partly thanks to one of my favs, Tony Isabella); flipping the bird at the establishment in the 80s; sucking its thumb in the 90s [Worst. Decade. Ever.]; commercializing the idea of the “Other” in the Aughts; and, I suppose, galvanizing itself in the teens: Something is now brewing in mainstream comic books... something akin to a REVOLUTION. A more overt sense of resistance is expressing itself in many Marvel, some DC, and quite a few Image books. My daughter (and her dad with a horrifying “case of arrested development” (-- Hemingway)) still reads some of the best of these books and the new _X-Men: Red_ is the ideal representation of what “conventional” comics can inspire in readers. The most recent issue, #5, by Tom Taylor and Mahmud A. Asar reminds my genes (the part that is European and Russian Jew), my ideology (ummm… far left), and my (lack of) belief structure (pluralistically plural with a heaping dose of Pope Francis) that the fight is on! I’m beyond thrilled that my 16+ year old daughter can find an ideological similitude in the comic books she’s reading. The New Revolution is in four colors. As Jean Grey(-Summers) (a.k.a., Phoenix) says in the last panel of the most recent issue, "We're going to crush the lies. We're going to weaponize the truth." Check it out: