How my taking a cold plunge and tasting hot sauce approach is the same. A lot of thought and pause before I dive in!

Tasting hot sauce, especially without too much time separating one flavor from another, is a lot of sauce! It is an all-in kind of thing when hot sauce is not your first choice, especially after the Chinese doctor who looked at your tongue and said, "Don't eat spicy foods."

Empress Hot Sauce has a wonderful history of how it came to be. In 2001, Jane Chen and Alex Denner left their prosperous careers in NYC and moved to Taiwan to change their lives.

So when they first arrived, every morning they would wander through their neighborhood wet market, tasting fresh fruits and getting to know local vendors and farmers.

It was on these trips to the market when they began experimenting with Taiwan's unique fruits to create hot sauce.

They chose the Irwin Mangoes, a Floridian who now is the dominant mango in Taiwan and is described as "the flesh is creamy and tender, with a flavor that is incredibly sweet with just the right amount of tartness, with notes of peach and citrus and a slight floral quality—and it is extraordinarily juicy (known locally as "Aiwen" or "apple mango," it is the most widely available mango at fruit stands across the island)" and created their very first hot sauce!

The fruits they settled on are made with local Taiwanese chaotianjiao, the "facing heaven pepper", as a base. Some of the sauces also include Ghost Pepper to expand the floral notes already in the sauce and to add heat.

This creates a unique pepper blend that has been fermented for more intense flavor.

They worked closely with local family farms, planning production around harvest for peak freshness and fruitiness.

All sauces are made and bottled in small batches in Taiwan. They are vegan, gluten-free, and all natural.

The Empress name was inspired by the last, and arguably most powerful, empress of the Chinese dynasty: Empress Dowager Cixi. She always kept fresh fruit in her chambers and was famously known for her extravagant meals, with a fruitszillion of dishes at each sitting. The empress demanded that food was found from around the world to try the best flavors available, a concept known in Chinese that means mountain treasures, ocean flavors.

One year in Aspen, Charlotte and the other two of the triplets, created this mind-blowing dish. They created it on the spot, using the ChefShop ingredients the chefs had requested we bring to the stage, and the protein left over from the demos.

The recipe calls for chicken and fish, and any firm, light-colored fish will work.

There are lots of adjustments you can make to the recipe to fit the day and your preferences, and you can always make it spicier!

There are five Empress hot sauces: Pineapple Miso, Smoky Hibiscus, Irwin Mango, Passion Fruit Mustard, and Ghost Pepper Maqaw. All are easily distinguishable from each other. They are all really nice with varying degrees of heat.

I tasted them in this order based on the names and anticipation that this order is from hot to hotter.

When I first sampled these, like all hot sauces, I was cautiously enthusiastic.

We've tasted a lot of hot sauces here and in general we don't strive for or crave heat the way some other hot sauce people do. It doesn't mean we don't appreciate the spice of life, but we don't carry a jar of Tabasco sauce in our carry-on just in case we have an unexpected meal. We're not like that.

I used my nose to confirm the alignment of the order for which I would taste and test. That means the one with the least amount of scary pepper tickle will go first. The one with the most frightening tinge of pepper will go last.

This was my third tasting, and from memory, the first and second rounds had pleasant flavors that did not destroy my taste buds."

To the nose, it's sweet. You can smell the passion fruit right off the bat along with pepper vinegar and some hidden heat.

The coloring is brownish orange making me feel safe

I dipped my tongue in first to see what's there.

To the sip, it tingles and right away makes me cough. It has a nice flavor and you get a fruity passionate taste, and an overall tingly sensation. That's quite nice. And there's definitely heat here.

What's particularly nice is that the remaining flavor on my lips was quite enjoyable.

To nose, you know it's a hot sauce with a lot of flavors you recognize and can't quite name.

To the eye, it's a dark brown with a little hint of an orange twist.

To the tongue, the first flavor was quite pleasant, smoky for sure, and a lot of other nuances including citrus.

To the sip, it is an extension of what the tongue had just learned. You get the smokiness and you start to recognize the other flavors.

If you take a big enough sip, the pepper comes through in a distinctive way, not overpowering, but you can taste the heat. This one has twice as much heat, if not more than that of the passion fruit.

Taking a break and making some rice.

To the nose, you can smell the pineapple intermingling with the pepper as it tails off with hints of the other spices and ingredients.

To the taste, the tongue tingles, and then you get the pineapple, and then the cough from the hot pepper.

The pineapple does this wonderful spread across the tongue and then you can feel the vinegar and the pepper is also there mingling with the pineapple. The heat pokes at you, and it is definitely hot, but a different heat than the smoky hibiscus.

To the eye, it's a bright pleasant orange carrot-like.

To the nose, you can smell the pepper and it may even make your nose dance.

The mango wraps around the tongue nicely. You definitely enjoy it, and then the pepper kicks in. And even a touch to the tongue had me coughing.

It has a sweetness to it, which is nice. There's a lot of other things going on which may or may not be identifiable. It definitely allows you to enjoy it, but it is hot. It's got some heat to it and got me flush pretty quick.

Definitely a very nice hot sauce flavor with mango and you get the other flavors mixed in that make it well rounded and full of distinct nuances. Clearly the most heat so far.

To the eye, it has the same nice orange color, very pleasant looking and a little misleading. Friendly is not its middle name. This pepper is hot and it jumps out at you and for me all the way to the back of my throat.

One dip of the tongue and my head is exploding and the towel is out.

A sip gives you a nice sweet feel before everything explodes. The tingling is hot, and has some fire. My mouth is not quite burning because that's the wrong word. Exploding is the wrong word as well, but it is in there. For me, remember I am wimpy, it's so hot my ears are sweating.

To a real hot-loving person, what they are gonna find is it that this has a lot of flavor, a lot of personality and some good heat.

I'm going to go rest now and eat some rice....

What's Happening in the Store

A new chocolate maker has arrived at the shop--and this one comes with the taste of Aloha.

Come, taste and check it out! Pick your favorite and meet friends new and old who all love food. We love it when you hang out! Don't forget about our other parking lot!

April 11th, 2026
Saturday Noon to 4 PM
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

Valley Isle Chocolate is a young bean-to-bar chocolate maker rooted in the lush landscapes of Maui. Founded in 2021 by Samuel Schwartzkopf, Susan Schwartzkopf, and Sam Phillips, the company began in the most humble way possible—small experimental batches made in a home kitchen, driven by curiosity, friendship, and a shared love of working with plants and food.

After years of living and working apart...

This bar pairs Valley Isle Chocolate's silky 70% dark chocolate with one of Hawaii's most beloved ingredients: macadamia nuts.

The chocolate itself is crafted on Maui using cacao from the Costa Esmeraldas Cacao Company orchard in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, then finished with Big Island-grown macadamia nuts and a touch of Alaea red Hawaiian sea salt.

Tasting this bar, the salinity of the red sea salt awakens the palate in waves, followed by the rich cacao. Macadamia nuts bring a light crunch with the natural butteriness of the Hawaiian nut. The beautiful sea salt comes back in waves, lapping at your senses.

This bar earned a Silver Medal at the 2025 Academy of Chocolate Awards, and it's easy to understand the appeal. For me, it's the kind of chocolate that feels both indulgent and comforting—rich dark chocolate, crunchy macadamias, and just the right touch of Hawaiian salt.

These brownies are simple, low lactose, and a ChefShop favorite. Cocoa Powder is also perfect for making your own drinking chocolate or microwave pudding.

For many of us, apricots are a whatever or never touch'em and others can't wait until May or June when the first of the apricots are ripe on the tree.

A great fresh apricot is like candy. Hard to comprehend when our first taste of an apricot is a dried one, tart and chewy and quite unappealing. So we think, why bother.

So many foods, when you enjoy them fresh, as close to the earth as possible and picked-at-their-peak, can be mind-blowing good. Like a fresh apricot.

And sometimes, those foods can be transformed, placed into a jar and come out just like you want them to be. Freshly delicious!

And that is what we have here. Abricot fruit cooked in a copper cauldron with brown sugar, where time and patience make all the difference.

This jam is by all standards, amazing! It tastes like fresh apricots, though never sharp or sour, it is a spoonful of a sweet treat.

The flavor of apricot, the way a freshly bitten fruit would be, is all there, swelling like a balloon rising, the smoothness of the flavor envelops all the senses, with the right cheek filling more than the left and then the tongue feels the weight of the flavor. And then suddenly you realize the physical being is gone, and all you are tasting is the memory!

And what a memory! It is indeed splendiferous.

And it is indeed spoon-ready, perfect for a croissant, sourdough bread, scone, oatmeal, cheese, pork chop and chicken. And of course crepes!

"I always had crepes as a child, and made them countless times for my daughter and granddaughter. There is nothing easier than making crepes. I put a piece of butter to melt in a skillet, and by the time that butter is melted I have mixed enough milk, flour, and an egg to make half a dozen crepes. You can serve them with jam inside or something savory, like ham or cheese. Easy and delicious."

Go to the recipe and look for the link to the video.

Crepes, those wonderfully thin treats, that are a challenge to do just right and outright fun to make. What makes them perfect? It is this French buckwheat flour from the region where they make the best! Even the label says it. Flour for "pancakes"!

What Makes French Buckwheat Flour Special for Crepes?

French buckwheat flour, known as farine de sarrasin or farine de ble noir, is the secret behind authentic Breton galettes. Here is what makes it truly special.

Buckwheat has a distinctive earthy, nutty, and slightly bitter flavor that is far more complex than wheat flour. This depth is what gives authentic Breton galettes their characteristic taste—something you simply cannot replicate with regular flour.

Brittany (Bretagne) has been the heart of French buckwheat cultivation for centuries. The region's climate and soil give the grain a particular character. Some producers even hold IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) status, similar to wine appellations.

Buckwheat is technically not a wheat at all, it is a seed related to rhubarb. This means galettes bretonnes are naturally gluten-free, which is a bonus, but more importantly it affects texture: the lack of gluten gives crepes a slightly crisp, lacy edge and a tender, almost delicate interior rather than a chewy one.

Buckwheat's starch behaves differently from wheat starch. It absorbs liquid more readily and creates a thinner, more spreadable batter that cooks into beautifully thin, slightly crispy galettes.

It produces a distinctive dark grey-speckled crepe that is visually very different from pale wheat crepes. That color is part of the authentic experience.

In Brittany, buckwheat galettes are strictly savoury (filled with ham, egg, cheese, etc.), while wheat crepes are reserved for sweet fillings. The flour's robust flavor stands up to savory ingredients in a way that mild wheat flour simply does not.

As a lover of Parmigiano-Reggiano and lemon, this is one of my favorite recipes. Quick, simple, perfect.

Did you miss the parmigiano-reggiano? More is available now. Shipping soon! If all goes well, Monday!

This Deep Dark Dutch-processed dark unsweetened cocoa powder is in a class unto itself. We have removed less fat from our cocoa (22-24% fat content), which results in a more intense and immediate chocolate flavor.

This "service pack" of ChefShop cocoa powder is designed for commercial users like baristas, bakers, and gelato makers. It is sealed in a thick zip-lock style bag for production baking with a Plain Jane label.

Price relative to quantity is also a crucial part of the commercial kitchen—quality and consistency relative to cost. The resealable bag keeps the cocoa powder fresh for a good long time.

SHARE THE LOVE Give the Gift of Love Through Food Gift Certificates available for any amount you choose. Get Gift Certificate →