Chattanooga's Hoff & Pepper will have a sauce on 'The Hot Ones'

Sep. 17—First We Feast's "Hot Ones," the YouTube web series that features Emmy-nominated host Sean Evans sharing 10 hot wings covered in increasingly hot sauces with celebrity guests, will feature Hoff's Haus Sauce made by Chattanooga-based Hoff & Pepper during Season 16.

Hoff & Pepper owner Aaron Hoff said getting one of the sauces on the show is the big time.

"In our industry, 'Hot Ones' is the Olympics. It's something we've been working on a long time," he said.

He said the Haus Sauce is a nod to his German roots with "hints of mustard and dill. It's very flavor-forward."

The sauce was created especially for the show, which has the exclusive rights to sell the 55,000 bottles Hoff & Pepper bottled until the series ends, at which time Hoff & Pepper can add it to its line.

Hoff said the Haus Sauce would fall about in the middle of the line as far as heat goes and that it will be the third of the 10 sampled on the show.

"I don't really know what the Scoville rating is. They send it off to a lab for that, but we're not really known for creating 'super hots,' as I call them. It's about enhancing the flavor of the food rather than covering it up."

The series kicks off Sept. 23 on YouTube. Past celebrity guests have included Machine Gun Kelly, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and Billie Eilish.

On the series, Evans asks the guests about their work and other typical interview questions while they eat wings with increasingly hot sauces based on their Scoville rating, with the numbers typically going from around 2,200 to around 2,000,000.

The appeal of the show is essentially watching famous people cry real tears as the wings get hotter and hotter.

First We Feast was founded in 2012, and its online shows blend pop culture, music, travel and more through its innovative slate of food-driven video franchises. It is also home to "The Burger Show," "Feast Mansion," "Tacos Con Todo," "Gochi Gang," and "Coneheads."

This new season of "Hot Ones" features a variety of sauces including a Honduran chocolate ghost pepper sauce and a sauce featuring strawberry and coconut. "Hot Ones" releases on Thursdays at 11 a.m. ET on the First We Feast YouTube channel.

This season's sauces are:

— The Classic: Gals Fresno Edition (Hot Ones)

— Bliss & Vinegar (Yellowbird)

— Hoff's Haus Sauce (Hoff & Pepper)

— Los Calientes Verde (Hot Ones)

— Revolutionary (Hot Heads Official)

— Señor Lechuga Hot Sauce .718 (Señor Lechuga)

— Bhutila Fire (Chile Lengua De Fuego)

— Da Bomb (Beyond Insanity)

— Kranked (Hellfire)

— The Last Dab Apollo (Hot Ones) — Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.