Hot sauces are the spice of life for Rob's business

A business is seeing the sweet benefits of success after becoming a national trailblazer for a growing overseas trend.

Hot Star Honey, run by Rob Dale from his base in Tivetshall St Margaret, could soon be looking for new premises due to rising demand, after less than four years in business.

“I had been making other sauces before, but when I noticed this new trend in America of hot honey to go with pizza, I could see that trend would soon make its way here,” said the 59-year-old.

“We had been making sweet chilli sauces, so blending spiciness with honey became the next step. Once Hot Star Honey took off, it made sense to focus everything on that.

“For the first year, we just had our original flavour, but, in year two, we introduced the Scotch Bonnet flavour, before launching five new flavours in our third year.”

The business, which is now in its fourth year, launched three new flavours at the end of March, including Korean BBQ honey sauce, American Hot Honey Mustard and Habanero Hot Chilli Honey.

It has become a rapidly expanding enterprise, taking part in numerous food festivals each year, including 30 lined up for this summer.

“The sweet heat trend is still in its infancy, but food festivals have been so valuable to us in terms of seeing people’s reactions to each flavour and allowing us to both publicise, and develop, our brand and make recipe tweaks,” said Mr Dale.

“There are many different recipes we can explore and develop, and we currently have 10 available.

“Food festivals are a fundamental part of our growth strategy and, while we won’t be moving imminently, if we continue to grow at the current rate, that strategy will involve a bigger location locally to increase our capacity.”

To find out more about Hot Star Honey, go online to www.hotstarhoney.com.