12/15/2011
Miss Mona’s Sauces and Spices, LLC, has only been a company four years, but if the experts at the 2012 Scovie Awards are any judge of quality (and they are), then Miss Mona’s is destined to become a household name, at least in West Virginia food culinary circles.
Taking part in a food contest for the first time ever, Ramona Price’s four Miss Mona’s entries placed in the top three in their respective categories, a rare feat according to organizers of the prestigious contest, which this year included 792 products and 161 companies from 38 states and four countries.
A personal fan of “fiery foods,” Price never could seem to find products that satisfied her straight out of the bottle.
“I spent so much time doctoring them up to make them the way I wanted them,” she said. “I decided that if I had to spend so much time on somebody else’s product, why not make my own.”
In late 2007, she put some of her homemade products into Christmas gift baskets and gave them to co-workers. In short order, she had sold 200 jars to those same co-workers.
By January 2008, Price was drawing up papers of incorporation and Miss Mona’s was born. Her first products were four barbecue sauces. She followed up on those with a variety of salsas and hot wing sauces. Her lineup now includes 16 products, including Tropical Salsa (third place), Liquid Lucifer Hot Sauce (second place), Caribbean BBQ (second place) and Extra Hot Salsa (first place), made from the infamous ghost peppers Price grows on a small plot beside her Sandyville home.
Also known as Bhut Jolokia or Naga Jolokia peppers, the “ghost” pepper is a weapons-grade experience if eaten whole. Where the typical Cayenne pepper rates about 30,000-50,000 on the “heat” scale developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912 – and the firey Habanero chili tops out at around 350,000 Scoville units – the ghost pepper can approach 1.5 million.
By comparison, pepper spray used by law enforcement agencies is rated at 500,000 Scoville units to start, although more potent sprays are available. Bear repellent is about 9 million units, if you really want to bring the pain.
However, one should not underestimate the power of the ghost pepper just because it’s not bear spray. Numerous YouTube videos document the exploits of ill-advised dare-takers and the oftentimes speechless agony they endure for the sake of internet semi-stardom and the amusement of their so-called friends.
“I don’t pick them off the plant without gloves. I made that mistake the first year I grew them. I got some juice on my hands. I invented some new words that day,” said Price with a laugh.
Deer walk through her garden, “but they don’t mess with the peppers,” she added.
Price personally grows all the peppers she uses, which also include garden salsa chilis, habaneros and jalapenos. That helps keep her costs down.
“To buy four ounces of dried ghost peppers is $20. Off of one plant from my own garden, I can get 100-plus peppers, plus 30 or 40 seeds that I germinate and plant in the spring.”
Her freezer is stuffed with frozen peppers from the past season with only one shelf of food. She said she needs to buy another freezer, either for peppers or food. Keeping her pepper costs down also allows Price to make her products that much hotter.
“Every show I went to I heard that ‘it needs to be hotter, it needs to be hotter,’” she said. “My mild is comparable to most people’s medium – I don’t do anything that doesn’t have a little bit of a bite.”
But it’s not all about the heat. Liquid Lucifer is her signature product - or at least the product with the most memorable name. Although it’s produced with three of the four varieties of hot peppers she grows, the “front end” of the flavor is surprisingly sweet and complex before the peppers kick in.
She credits the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) for helping her fine-tune some of her recipes to make them more shelf-stable, and for helping her with some of the more technical aspects of launching food products, such as determining nutritional content and meeting federal labeling requirements. WVDA has also worked with other state Scovie winners, including Uncle Bunk’s, Duck’s and Gourmet Central.
“They have been great. I’ve worked with them now for three years, and you just won’t find a better group of people,” said Price, who conducted public samplings at the WVDA “West Virginia Country Store” during the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte, N.C.
“There are just thousands upon thousands of people that go through that show. It’s a regular winter wonderland and it’s a great opportunity to build public awareness,” she said.
Even her hotel stay turned into a business opportunity. While checking out, she was chatting with hotel staff about the purpose of her stay. Before long, the staff and another guest were sampling her products.
“Are you in stores here in Charlotte?” he asked. She replied that she was not.
“I need to go to New York this week, but I’m going to think about how to get you in stores down here,” the man promised.
“Usually in a situation like that, they’re just blowing smoke, but by the time I got back from Charlotte, he had sent me an e-mail confirming that he wanted to work with me,” Price said.
She said she’s looking forward to growing her company to the point that she can start creating jobs in her hometown and give back to the community that has supported her. You can find Miss Mona’s products at a variety of West Virginia Fairs and Festivals, at Capitol Market in Charleston, at Dutch Pantry in Williamstown and at Tamarack. A website is in the works. Until it’s up, you can reach Miss Mona’s at 304-273-4684 or
ramonaprice@frontier.com.
Contact Information
Buddy Davidson, Communications Officer
304-558-3708; 304-541-5932 (cell)
bdavidson@ag.state.wv.us