So in 2017, my wife Jessica and I decided to use some of my old hot sauce recipes to try and help make ends meet. These were recipes I'd created years before, on my days off from working at the aluminium smelter. We made our first batch and sold them at a local market and were so stoked to sell 15 bottles. That small success gave us the impetus to push forward.

Starting from scratch, together, we created a range of new sauces and built our brand around them.

We blend our peppers in a vat of distilled vinegar to age and mellow for 18 months, giving our range of small-batch hot sauces their unique, rich flavour profiles.

We now have 5 sauces - ranging from a mild Chipotle BBQ Sauce - which even the children can eat - all the way up to some scorching sauces. My favourite sauce is the Jekyll & Hyde, that's our Freakishly Hot - Moruga Scorpion and Chipotle Sauce.

In the last two and a half years we have won 15 food industry awards, including 11 of Australia's biggest hot sauce awards including the Mr Chilli Awards.

In the last 18 months, our flagship sauce Jekyll & Hyde has won four of the most coveted hot sauce awards in the USA including World Champion in Louisiana at the World Hot Sauce Awards, 1st Place at the Scovie Awards, 1st Place at the Spicy Flave Awards in Wisconsin.

And just three months ago we were awarded the silver medal in Texas, at the Texas Fiery Food Challenge. We're still a very small family business with big dreams, so the continued support we receive from our loyal customers, like Rod at ChilliBOM is as important as ever.