The Rise of Hot Sauce Brand Heatonist
Noah Chaimberg, founder of Heatonist, turned a hot sauce pushcart side hustle into the #1 hot sauce brand on Amazon and the official partner of the viral show *Hot Ones*. A new podcast reveals his journey, which started after a family hot sauce shopping spree revealed an untapped market. Chaimberg credits his success to a "hospitality-first ethos" that repositioned hot sauce as a premium lifestyle product rather than a gimmick.
Heatonist's journey began in 2013 when founder Noah Chaimberg started selling a curated collection of hot sauces from a pushcart at various markets in Brooklyn. Before launching the business, Chaimberg had a background in digital marketing and had even run a healthy breakfast counter in an MMA training facility. This early experience in food and marketing laid the groundwork for his unique approach to selling hot sauce. The first brick-and-mortar Heatonist tasting room opened on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on April 20, 2015. This provided a physical space where customers could sample sauces before buying, a key part of Chaimberg's vision to move beyond the gimmick of extreme heat and focus on flavor. The store stocked small-batch, all-natural hot sauces from a variety of makers. The pivotal partnership with the YouTube show *Hot Ones* started in 2015, the same year the first shop opened. The show's team reached out to Heatonist to help curate the hot sauces for the celebrity wing challenge. This collaboration has since evolved, with Heatonist now co-creating many of the show's official sauces, including The Last Dab, which features Pepper X, and the best-selling Los Calientes. The success of the *Hot Ones* collaboration has been a major driver of Heatonist's growth, leading to partnerships with figures like UFC fighter Dustin Poirier and rock band Korn for exclusive sauces. As of April 2024, Heatonist's products, particularly the *Hot Ones* line, are available in over 8,000 retail stores across the United States, including major chains like Kroger, Publix, and Whole Foods. Beyond its flagship Brooklyn store, Heatonist has expanded its physical presence with an outpost in Manhattan's Chelsea Market. The company's growth reflects a larger trend in the U.S. hot sauce market, which was predicted to reach $1.67 billion by 2030, according to a Fortune Business Insights report. Heatonist and *Hot Ones* have created over 20 unique hot sauce flavors together since their first collaboration in 2016. The partnership has been so intertwined that in December 2024, an investment group that included *Hot Ones* host Sean Evans and creator Chris Schonberger purchased First We Feast, the media company behind the show.
