Well, anybody who knows me well
knows my love for hot sauce.
It's a little obsessive,
but I have met my match.
Vic Clinco just moved from Arizona
to high point with a job transfer,
but what he brought with him is unique.
It may one day be the world's
largest hot sauce collection.
Everybody in The Newsroom said
I have to do this story and
I couldn't wait to see it.
Take a look at his well shrine,
better known as his basement.
So, Vic, when I came down
the steps and looked in here,
I said, I'm in heaven.
I found my hot sauce.
Heaven. How in the world.
I mean, there are thousands in here.
How what? How did you get
started doing all this?
You know, I get started simple enough,
a lot. Like other people,
my grandfather had a garden in his
backyard and he grew jalapenos.
And I can remember him just
taking them off the vine and
just eating them and sweating.
Right. Just giggles and I thought.
That's kind of cool.
So as you got older, you started to cool.
You started collecting a little bit,
but you tell me about that book.
You said that book made
it. So my wife had given me the first
bottles that were in my collection.
I think it was about three months or
so later I found the great hot sauce
book by Jennifer Trainer Thompson,
and it just opened my eyes to a world that
would that had no idea was out there, right?
It broke the sauces down by heat, by styles.
And again, I had no idea.
Selective anything like this.
And just I guess it blew up from
there and that was how many years
ago when you were six years, so
26 years you have amassed how many
bottles have you had to guess?
So I've lost count in the move,
but I'm pretty close to 11,000
bottles and they're all unique.
Again, they're from literally everywhere,
so not double s in here, right.
They're all single individuals.
There are some label variations, right,
as people have changed their labels
or have done some different things.
But yeah, everything else is
all unique and individual. So
now, I mean, you've gotten
yourself firmly and.
Planned as far as collectors go,
do you rank or how?
How do they handle that?
Yeah. Hi. This is the largest hot
sauce collection in the world.
You're kidding. No. My God.
I wouldn't kid you.
Nobody give me some really hot,
hot. I could do that.
And you have tastings and all that. You
do? Yeah. I'm.
So I'm starting myself up in this area.
We've been here about a year and a half,
right. The room has just kind of,
I guess, gotten to a point where I
feel comfortable bringing people in.
But yes, that's what I want to do.
I want to, I guess, educate.
Folks on all of the different flavors
and flavor profiles that are out there
tell me real quick because when I
glanced at that wall over there,
why are the flags out?
So that's my international wall right.
So what I did is I broke it down
by country of origin if you will.
To me again that I've gotten to
this size and and the the collection
itself has taken on a life of its own.
I really wanted to have that museum
feel that shrine feel if you will.
So I thought what better way than
actually showing where the sauces. From.
Alright so even if you,
I mean he's the guy, right?
He's connected in all the hot sauce culture.
He goes to challenges
where he he'll try some.
He's really more of a collector.
OK. But he says he loves it when
he goes to those conventions and
someone comes up and goes I can
handle anything he goes we'll try
this one and he says and just break
him down because people love that.
So I brought us just three.
He just did some random ones.
These are habanero pepper base,
so it's not jalapeno which is kind of
lower on the scale and it's definitely
not ghost pepper or Carolina Reaper.
And so I'm gonna tell you the proper
way you do it anyway you want to.
And he said the proper way to do hot
sauce is not to put it on your finger.
You can if you want to, he said.
Just make a fist and then
let a drop fall out.
And that would be the way that you,
I'll let you do it.
These aren't that bad,
but I really wish you would have
brought the jalapeno version,
which is the the,
the wussy version.
That's
the that's the starter kit, right?
That's really good. It's not bad.
I'm just gonna put some on this
side, a little kick to it.
I will tell you that this one is probably.
So why don't you put it on your finger
only because you said later, if you forget,
even if you've washed your hands,
some of the oils can stay on your
finger and you put that in your eye,
that's not going to feel very, very good.
He will be getting this is the harder one.
He will be certified by Guinness.
He says the Guinness World Book of
Records he thinks in about a year and a
half to two years and and he has nearly
11,000 and he says he's not stopping.
I just can't believe it's right here in high
point. What a cool thing to collect.
You know you hear people collect
dolls or they collect magnets but hot
sauce that's that's pretty unique.
So are we going ohh easiest
to no. Well I just went to the
that's the hottest but it's not
like that's the perfect amount.
What Lauren just did is the perfect amount.
Just creating a color palette on my.
It has so many.
It's this one, it's, it's not that hot,
but I like the taste of the first one that
we had. So I will tell you also,
he said don't drink water if
you try really hot things.
He said the oils inside hot
sauce is what makes it hot.
And if you do water,
water and oil separate,
you're just chasing it around
your mouth like it's not leaving.
You need something
soft like a milk, right?
Like a crack, yeah,
cracker or milk, he said.
Interesting cracker, right?
I wouldn't have expected a cracker.
So this made me, this one, made
me cough today, and I don't know.
Alright, so we still have how much
of 40 more minutes of news? Not bad.
OK, if we're talking in between reeds,
I might have put a little too much.
Ohh. Yeah, that's kind of that's a whole
mouthful right there. Well you gotta.
But I like spice. I do too.
That one actually tastes really good,
so that might be my favorite.
Check out my story on wfmynews2.com
with him and we'll show you how
you can get in touch with him.
What do you think? That's not bad.
I like that last one last.
I like the first one.
That middle one was like the taste was OK.
This one we're gonna go to break.
This is my jam. Crackers, crackers,
we'll be right back.