An Interview with Shaun Goodwin, Founder of Sauce Leopard

A lot of musicians have side businesses or creative endeavors outside of their music career, what made you go toward making hot sauces?

Making hot sauce has been a hobby of mine since around 2014. In fact, it was always tied to music one way or another. What has now become the Colfax Killer tropical habanero sauce began as the Munsen Mango Mash (named after my band the Munsens). I also made a batch called the Love Gang Lightning at one point. I loved the idea of making sauces for bands, I don’t know many metalheads that don’t love hot sauce.

Colfax Killer is definitely a favorite at my house. It’s a great name and nod to a Denver landmark. The naming process seems like it would be fun, and maybe similar to coming up with song titles. How do you come up with the names? Are there any names that you’ve considered and decided maybe they’re a little too METAL! for the non metalhead hot sauce fan? 

Naming is definitely a fun and creative part of the process. I’ve tried to keep my product names unique, striking, and expressive, as it’s a great way to attract new customers. The Emerald Slime was once the Green Bastard, but I wouldn’t say I tossed out many names that were too metal. I was just always trying to come up with the most attractive names that fit the sauce and still align with my branding. You’d be surprised at how many stores don’t care about risky product names though, like the Assgasher sriracha. We just had to roll with that one since it’s an Axeslasher collab hot sauce and the play on words was too good to pass up. I’ve seen more ridiculous names on shelves, but it’s mainly in the hot sauce industry due to all the after effects these products induce haha.

Having pizza in their logo, there probably isn’t a more appropriate band collaboration! I would expect you’ll have many more requests when bands are able to tour again, but have any other bands or organizations expressed interest in collaborating?

Yes we’ve had a fair amount of collaboration requests and I wish we could do them all! I can’t say who they are, but we may have one or two collabs on the horizon for 2021. We are in a bit of a transition phase at the moment scaling our production and distribution. Once the dust has settled, we’ll have more time to take on fun projects like these.

How do you go about identifying possible sauce flavors? 

Usually I come up with a theme or general flavor idea first and then run some test batches. For example, this past fall I wanted to make a couple limited release sauces that would fit well with a thanksgiving meal, primarily on turkey. So I settled on a cranberry sauce inspired hot sauce and apple cider scorpion pepper sauce. The Emerald Slime and Crimson Drip (formerly the Red October) came to be because I wanted to develop some classic red and green sauces. Sky Rider was a long running experiment with random spices/ingredients I had in my cabinet at the time haha. That sauce has come a long way from where it started. Lots of trial and error for a year. Since Assgasher is a collab with Axeslasher, and Axeslasher is a pizza/gore-obsessed thrash metal band, I obviously had to create a sauce that was perfect on, if not meant for, a big greasy slice of pizza.

Has the process made you explore foods you might not have before you started this endeavor?

I don’t think the process has led me to try many new foods directly, but I’ve been lucky to try a lot of great Denver food at outdoor markets where we sell at. I’ve also been eating more hot sauce than I ever have. I’ve always loved hot sauce and spicy foods, but now every meal is an R&D or marketing opportunity haha. I get to do a lot of trades with other companies too, so my fridge is like a condiment vending machine.

And have you discovered any combinations that surprised you?

When I first got into the sauce game, I hadn’t thought much about using hot sauce in cocktails. Turns out, the Colfax Killer is fantastic shaken into a margarita or on the rim of a Mexican lager, and Crimson Drip and Assgasher are great Bloody Mary additions.

Have you found similarities in the creative process for songwriting and coming up with sauce flavors? Has being a musician helped you in that regard?

I haven’t thought of it that way, but yes it’s a very similar creative process. If a certain ingredient of the sauce is working, keep it. If something is not working, eliminate or modify it. Same goes for song writing. In general, I think it’s really important to have an artistic outlook in culinary practices.

Let’s talk about music. What’s going on with The Munsens and Love Gang? Any new music on the horizon?

Ah yes, live music.. remember that? Both of my bands are currently working on new full length albums. In fact, Love Gang is going to Austin in March to record the album with Gian Ortiz of Amplified Heat. The Munsens are a little further behind in the process but the album is coming along nicely. We hope to be recording the album later this year as well. Work and life in general has obviously thrown a wrench in most musicians’ careers lately, but we’re trying to stay productive and come out the other side of Covid with our best music yet.

That’s great news! I know it’s impossible to predict the future of music festivals, but can you speak to any plans to resurrect Electric Funeral Fest in some form in down the road?

I really needed a break from booking fests. But the longer it’s been since the last EFF, the more I want to plan another. I’d say 2022 is a possibility, although I can’t say for sure. It really depends where the sauce game takes me this year and what kind of time I’ll have to work on something like that. I truly do miss those events, but I don’t miss the headache leading up to it. However, I think I learned some valuable lessons that would make the next one a lot easier.

I think 2022 is going to be quite a year for live music! I’ll let you get back to the kitchen, but before you go, maybe you can leave us with a favorite pairing for each of your sauces.