Kaitaia fire

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Kaitaia Fire^[1] is a hot pepper sauce produced using certified organic chili peppers grown near the town of Kaitaia, New Zealand. It is similar in character to tabasco sauce but its flavour is more in the style of Mexican chili sauce. Kaitaia Fire appears to be the only Mexican style chili fermented sauce produced in New Zealand.

1 Inclusion as a New Zealand food ingredient
2 Commercial and Export Interest
3 Production
4 Ownership
5 References

[edit] Inclusion as a New Zealand food ingredient

Kaitaia Fire has captured the attention of independent food companies and food writers as a component of New Zealand based recipes ^[2] ^[3] ^[4]

[edit] Commercial and Export Interest

Kaitaia Fire has been referenced and supported by New Zealand trade authorities for export attention ^[5] ^[6] . It is part of the COMET Accelerator Project ^[7] conducted by the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development that helps small to medium (SME) sized New Zealand companies become "skilled users of e-commerce tools, business supports and broadband to access global markets".

The product is readily available in supermarkets throughout New Zealand and is also marketed internationally through the Web site www.kaitaiafire.com.

[edit] Production

The nature of the chilies used in Kaitaia Fire is not revealed but is likely to consist of chilies from amongst: serrano, ancho, habanero, scotch bonnets, cayenne and Thai since these are marketed separately as dried chilies.

Kaitaia Fire is produced by fermenting the chillies and the resulting sauce consists of 55% chili. Other ingredients include vinegar, salt, cider while vegetable gum is used as a thickener.

Kaitaia Fire is produced by a commercial company that was established in 1989 on a five acre organic farm, while chilies are also now grown by other certified organic growers under contract.