Underground Owl Hot Sauce is on fire.
That’s according to the New York City Hot Sauce Expo, which awarded the Blaine-based hot sauce makers third place for two of their spiciest bottles during the annual competition last month.
Co-owners Doug and Diane Cross said they’ve entered the contest for the past three years. After not reaping the success they wanted, the husband-and-wife duo added more heat, hoping to pack an unforgettable punch to the judges.
“We never understood how a judge could taste 50 sauces and actually know what that 50th sauce tastes like, or even five sauces,” Doug said. “We were wondering if the milder stuff we were sending in was getting passed over because the judges weren’t able to taste it.”
The pair earned third place for Diane’s Reaper Sun Day in the triple-X category and Reaper Salad in the Reaper category on April 25 in Brooklyn. The medals were part of the “Screaming Mi Mi Awards,” a sought-after title in the industry.
The Crosses have focused on submitting to the New York competition, which is considered one of the most prestigious among hot sauce fanatics in the country.
The hot sauces began shortly after their farm, Spotted Owl Farm, opened on Sweet Road in 2017. After the first year, Doug and his family made hot sauce from peppers they hadn’t sold and repurposed them as Christmas gifts.
Doug was faced with high demand from friends and family, which inspired him to start selling the sauce in March of 2022. The line, Underground Owl Hot Sauce, quickly appeared in Whatcom County restaurants, including Semiahmoo Resort and The Vault Wine Bar and Bistro.
The sauces have since expanded from restaurant kitchens to shelves at Haggen grocery stores in Whatcom County and boutique grocers in northwest Washington. The Crosses also sell their hot sauce online, at spottedowlproduce.com, and year round at their Blaine farm stand, at 4371 Sweet Road.
Underground Owl has over a dozen organic hot sauces that range from mild to the winning sauces that have four Carolina Reaper peppers in each bottle. The two winners are Underground Owl’s newest sauces and are currently only available through the company.
“It shows us that we belong,” Doug said of the awards. “That we’ve been able to create sauces that are tasty and hot.”
