The Toad & The Butterfly, a Blog

This is shaping up to be a spectacular season, which is great, but it also means that the peppers come early and fast.

This is the third time that we have been called out in Food & Wine - more than any other craft hot sauce maker in the world. I’m incredibly proud. But the coolest part of getting national attention like this is knowing the folks who helped us get here.

Word of mouth built this company one bottle, one jar, and one customer at a time. It worked - for over 20 years. But over the last year I realized that nobody can tell our story the way I can.

Walking those fields last week reminded me that every bottle starts long before we light the smoker or pour the sauce. It starts with choosing the right varieties, healthy soil, and months of tending a crop that we'll eventually turn into hot sauce.

I was positive that I'd figured out the best possible ice cream sandwich.

Turns out I hadn't bought a caramel company yet.

My favorite thing about making new micros every month is that we're pushed to be creative on demand. Sometimes creativity comes in a flash of insight, but there is a special earned feeling to creativity that you have to build as a skill.

This is exactly what I want Pepper Patrons to feel like. A chance for connection and learning, understanding why ingredients taste the way they do, and share in the experiments happening around our kitchen.

Last week about half of the Butterfly Bakery crew headed down to Honey Field Farm in Norwich for our annual Farm Day. Once a year we trade sauce making for farm chores.

This month we went into the freezer and pulled out some peppers that don't always get the spotlight. Boldog Hungarian peppers. Velociraptors. Beautiful, classic cayennes.

When we sat down to decide what we wanted to do for Pride this year, I knew I wanted to do something different. One person suggested that we simplify things. Then another suggested we make it more complicated.

Today we're officially launching Pepper Patrons, which means you can now join the farms, peppers, experiments, and flavor obsession behind this year’s sauces.

When I made my first hot sauce back in 2010 with my now husband, I definitely didn’t picture 13+ million people watching the biggest band in the world take on the hottest sauce I’ve ever made. But here we are.

If you’re putting together your own picnic condiment kit, this sauce pulls it all together.

The April Microbatch drop features a no heat, a low heat and medium sauce that makes folks lose their ever-loving minds.