Hot Sauce Nation is a red-hot ride through the story of hot sauce in America. Why should the world’s most painful food have inspired such adoration in the USA? While chili pepper-based sauces have transformed cuisines worldwide, successive waves of immigrants landing in the New World have turned up the heat on the American palette with their native pungent sauces. Today, the fast-growing hot sauce industry has made it into everything from salsa to barbecue, buffalo wings, chocolates, and cocktails, inspiring passionate romances and changing people’s lives along the way. With fascinating detours into science, history, and current events, as well as stories of the people who make, use, sell, and love hot sauce, this flavorful volume explores the unique hold the condiment has on the American heart.

"If you've ever wondered how such massive flavors and such paralyzing pain gets decanted into those little bottles, this is the book you've been waiting for. Denver Nicks weaves history, science, culture, and little bit of a lot else into a tidy, fun-to-read bundle. Enjoy this book by the drop or the spoonful." —Wayne Curtis, author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails

"With verve, wit, and plenty of spice, Denver Nicks has captured the true flavor of the American experience. Hot Sauce Nation reads like gumbo on a page." —Dane Huckelbridge, author of Bourbon and The United State of Beer

"As wonderful a condimental accompaniment to American cuisine as hot sauce itself. It is substantive, detailed, and, best of all, fun to read." —Tom Acitelli, author of The Audacity of Hops and American Wine

“Nicks has managed to sneak a road novel into a hot sauce history class.” —The Currency of Cool

"A very highly recommended celebration of the most popular condiment on earth and a tribute to the people who make it and the people who love it.” —She Treads Softly

“Calvin Trillin meets Hunter S. Thompson, with some John McPhee thrown in for good measure.” —Palm Beach Illustrated

Denver Nicks is a regular contributor to Time magazine and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History and his work has also appeared in Money, Newsweek, National Geographic Traveler, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, he lives in New Orleans and Washington, DC.