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About
our company:
Figueroa Brothers,
Inc., specializes in the development, manufacturing and marketing
of specialty gourmet food products. Its most successful line is
Melinda's Gourmet Food Products
which features pepper sauces made with the world's hottest chile
pepper -- the habanero. The Figueroa Brothers have been accredited
with the vast popularity of the Habanero Pepper in the U.S. Market
due to the overnight success of Melinda's. Melinda's was the first
habanero pepper sauce available in grocery stores nationwide and
continues to rank number one among all other habanero sauces.
In addition to Melinda's, Figueroa Brothers, Inc., produces various
other popular brands (see product list for details).
Figueroa Brothers, Inc., is owned and operated
by Greg P. Figueroa, CEO and David O. Figueroa, Jr., President.
Both were honored in 1992 as today's hottest entrepreneurs by
Entrepreneur Magazine's 40 under 40 issue. The Brothers were recently
honored by New Orleans Magazine as two of "1997's People
to Watch."
Hot
Concepts, Inc., the latest Figueroa Brothers venture, carves
out a whole new niche market for Hot Sauce. Hot
Concepts produces private-label pepper sauces for restaurant
chains, celebrity product lines and companies that use it as a
trade-show hand-out or a gift for customers. Companies can put
their logos, slogans, advertising messages and contact information
right on the bottle. Companies like UPS, Bank One, American Express,
Kinko's Corporate, and Aetna are turning to Hot
Concepts for the hottest way to get their advertising message
across.
Hot
Concepts currently makes over 1000 private-label hot sauces
for its clients. Recent accomplishments include a gift set of
3 sauces for Playboy Magazine, an authentic Mexican sauce line
for the actor Cheech Marin (Cheech & Chong), two sauces for the
House of Blues, part owned by the actor Dan Ackroyd, and six sauces
for Joe's Crab Shack, a 60 plus unit seafood franchise owned by
the Landry's Seafood Restaurant Corporation based in Houston,
Texas.
About Melinda's
Gourmet Foods:
Melinda's
Original Habanero Pepper Sauce entered the market in June
of 1989 and within in five years became the number one selling
habanero pepper sauce worldwide and is ranked fourth in U.S. grocery
sales for pepper sauces (source: A.C. Neilsen Scantrak, 1994).
It was the first brand to use the habanero pepper and is highly
responsible for the habanero pepper craze that is currently sweeping
the country.
The Habanero is the hottest pepper in the
world. Measured scientifically with high pressure liquid chromatography
(hplc), the Habanero rates 200,000 to 300,000 Scoville units.
To put this in perspective consider that a jalapeé÷ only measures
about 5000 Scoville units. Pepper connoisseur consider the habanero
to be the ultimate chile because of its intense heat and exotic
flavor.
Taming the world's
hottest pepper:
Melinda's unique vegetable-based recipe
boast the perfect balance of heat and flavor.
The average hot sauce is a watery combination
of four ingredients: red peppers, salt, vinegar, and sodium benzoate
as a preservative. Melinda's is quite different. Melinda's blends
fresh carrots, onions, garlic, and a hint of lime juice with Mother
Nature's hottest pepper ? the Habanero.
The result is an all natural sauce that harmonizes
heat and flavor without the overpowering pungency found in traditional
vinegar-based pepper sauces. Melinda's is vegetable-based, not
vinegar. Melinda's has a thick texture of ingredients that you
can see and taste, allowing you to spice your food without drowning
out the original flavor.
Percentages of habanero pepper are added
to the vegetable base to make Melinda's available in four distinct
heat varieties: Hot, Extra
Hot, XXXtra Hot
and Melinda's XXXXtra Hot
Reserve, the first limited edition, reserve pepper sauce ever
produced, now in its fifth year of production. This provides a
heat level for sparing users, moderates, and chile pepper fanatics.
Melinda's is available in grocery and gourmet
stores nationwide. In New Orleans, the 'hot sauce capital,' it
is the best selling pepper sauce in the French Market and other
gourmet stores that cater to tourism.
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