If you love hot chilli sauce and you are hunting for “Something Different”, then Ewen Mackenzie has the answer.
Hot sauce producer Ewen Mackenzie makes and sources a range of hot chilli sauces for his shop, Something Different in Cowdenbeath.
Initially beginning his enterprise by stocking a variety of hot sauces in 2016, Ewen decided to try his hand at making his own, and Mack Chilli was born.
The 47-year-old was inspired by his sister’s passion for chilli sauce and decided to give selling hot sauces a go himself.
He said: “I started the shop in 2016, Something Different Gifts, and I started selling chill sauces which I got into through my sister who is in Belgium selling Grim Reaper Foods’ chilli sauces at markets.
“She started doing it and I followed suit. Then I started selling them at markets. Two or three years after selling their stuff, I thought I would just have a go myself.”
On the hot side
Ewen believed his first attempts at making chilli sauce to be on the hot side, but a few years down the line he knows his initial products were tame in comparison to what he produces today.
“Back then I thought I was making hot chilli sauces, but I know now they weren’t hot. They are certainly hot now,” he said.
“If people want hot sauce, then they get hot! That is why I call myself The Satanic Scotsman.
“I tried doing a few other things, like chilli chocolate, and just got experimental – and a lot of it is still experimental. I get bored and go through to the kitchen and give it a go. A lot of it works, a lot of it doesn’t.”
The self-proclaimed Red Hot Chilli Fifer, Ewen rates his sauces on a scale of one to five for mild to medium, six to 15 for hotter sauces. He says there is also a 20 level which he claims is the “hottest sauce in Scotland”.
And he ropes in an old friend to help him test his creations to see if they will be bottled for sale or not.
Ewen continued: “I have an ex-army buddy who has a very high tolerance for heat. Once I have been cooking all day there is no point in me tasting it as my senses are full of chilli. Someone else tasting it tells me yes or no or if it needs more or less.
If people want hot sauce, then they get hot! That is why I call myself The Satanic Scotsman.
Ewen Mackenzie
“I taste myself the ones that I can, but the ones I can’t he gives me a straight yes or no.
“Medium to hot sauces are the core products. People always say ‘I like hot sauce’, but they don’t always when they actually try it. Sometimes I will take a bottle of sauce to the pub and let people try them – and torture them,” Ewen joked.
“You get the hot sauces in the supermarket and you get the hot sauces from a specialised maker like myself which are two entirely different things. The supermarket sauces will say ‘extra hot’ but my extra hot will be 10 times stronger.”
Chilli syrups
As well as sauces, Ewen has a number of other chilli products available, some of which are made with some unusual ingredients, such as well-known Scottish drinks.
“I have 16 sauces just now, seven jams and chutneys and two honeys. I also have six chilli syrups,” he added.
“A lot of people don’t know what to do with syrups. My background is catering. I have 20 years in the bar trade so cocktail syrups is basically what they are. You can have them on ice cream, put them in cocktails, put them on cider, put them in whatever you want.
“Some of them have an alcohol base, which is burnt off – Golden Ninja is made with lemon gin, Ghost Ninja is made with orange gin and Red Ninja is actually made with Barr’s Red Kola.
“I try to keep the ingredients as Scottish as possible, like the Ginger Ninja, which is made with Irn-Bru. That is my sweet chilli sauce which works wonders,” continued Ewen who sold more than 1,000 bottles in 2020, including to the British Army.
Last year he was approached by Edinburgh Castle and asked about his hot sauces. The Royal Regiment of Scotland were so impressed that they put in a large order and placed their own labels on the sauces – Green Tiger, Demon BBQ and Satan’s Blood.
Going global
The hot sauce producer is also selling his creations on the world stage.
“I am online selling as far as Australia where I have a couple of customers, America, where there are four or five, and a handful in Europe.”
Remarking that he is still “very new” to the hot sauce scene, Ewen is always developing new flavours, but keeps his core range the same.
He also gets out and about selling his wares, and has attended a few events with fellow producer, Allan Ferguson, from Allan’s Chilli Products.
“I will carry on going with the popular ones, but I am always looking to try and create different things.
“I have done a couple of events with Allan from Allan’s Chilli Products – I have done Glamis and I have done Perth. His sauces are a lot milder than mine though. Allan’s products are really popular and he is good at what he does.”
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