Shops / Shop of the Week
Shop of the Week: Dr Burnorium’s Hot Sauce Emporium
If you’ve got any palette for spice at all, then Dr Burnorium’s Hot Sauce Emporium will have something for you.
“I’ve loved chillies ever since I first tasted them in a little Schwartz packet back in about 1980,” laughs owner John Finch, whose stall is tucked into the side of St Nicholas Market’s historic Corn Exchange building.
“It was very hard to find chillies in the UK back then in any form, I didn’t see shops like this until I went to the US in the 1990s and it just blew me away.
is needed now More than ever
“I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I never possibly imagined that I would one day own my own chilli shop.”
John has only been the proprietor since November 2017 but his shop – which moved a dozen or so yards to a new location a couple of years ago – has been a part of the St Nick’s scenery for a decade.
It stocks everything from the mild sriracha sauce (2,500 on the Scoville scale – a measurement of the pungency of chili peppers) to the dangerously hot chilli extract Psycho Slayer (nine million on the Scoville scale), which is kept behind lock and key in a glass case.
The shop’s hottest chilli extracts are kept behind glass
“That is just a collector’s item really, and it is horrifyingly hot,” John tells Bristol24/7. “It comes in two boxes and a glass jar and it’s probably best that it stays locked up in there.”
“If you were planning on using this product in cooking, then a drop in a large amount of food would be all you need. It’s just human curiosity to want to try the hellishly hot ones and it’s always entertaining when people do. People just want to understand – and believe me, they will understand!”
Most of the products in the shop come from central American countries including Mexico and Belize which is where the best chillies are grown and the best products are made, according to John.
However, there are more products being produced in the UK and the shop is keen to support ventures such as the Upton Cheyney Chilli Company between Bristol and Bath.
Just a few of the shop’s many sauces, which are sourced from around the globe
The shop does not only stock sauces, but all things chilli. There are sweets, chocolates, crisps, nuts, chilli seeds and growing kits, and even items of clothing.
Having lived in Bristol his entire life, John is happy being able to share what he loves with the city: “I work right in the centre of Bristol, in an historic building in a very interesting market, and it all just suits me down to the ground.”
John adds: “I hope to give the shop a makeover in the next few months, I want to take on some more ranges and products and make a real good go of it. I can see myself here for many more years to come.”
Dr Burnorium’s Hot Sauce Emporium, St Nicholas Market, Bristol, BS1 1JQ
0117 930 0175
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