Delaware Sauce Co. brings home top awards

Rick Ewing started the Delaware Sauce Company in his Seaford home's kitchen. That was more than 30 years ago. In the 1980s, he started making hot sauce for family and friends.

Eaglewingz sauce was the first he made in about 20 minutes in 1988 with a little of this and a little of that, he said. His first sauce is still his best seller. “People loved it and told me I should do something with that recipe,” Ewing said.

Today, he and his daughter, Cassie Lawson, work together with part-time employees to cook and bottle 15 types of hot sauces. Ewing has developed the business into not only retail and online sales, but also supplying more than 50 restaurants and restaurant chains, including SoDel Concepts, in the Cape Region with their private-label program. All the labels are made by Impact Graphics in Seaford.

The company will have sold more than 170,000 bottles this year.

Lots of awards

It's been a good year for Ewing’s company in competition, as his sauces continue to win national awards.

Their Eaglewingz Apple Bourbon Hot Sauce was not only named the top fruit-based sauce, but also Grand World Champion during the prestigious 2023 New York City Hot Sauce Expo. It was competing with sauce companies all over the country.

Ewing said the sauce, developed by experimenting with different flavors and peppers, includes Delaware apples, peppers, brown sugar and Kentucky whiskey to create a smoky flavor.

Judges included food experts and celebrity chefs from the Food Network, CBS and Fox; writers with the Huffington Post, and Bon Appetit magazine; several New York City food bloggers and newspaper food writers; and other industry professionals.

The same sauce won the International Flavor Awards competition in Madison, Wis. His 15 sauces have now won four international and national awards.

“And to think this sauce is made by a local, family-owned craft hot sauce company in Seaford,” said Cassie, who was recently married.

In 2017, the pineapple teriyaki sauce won the Screaming Mi Mi Award, and Sauce Shack Redemption finished third in the nation.

In 2016, Eaglewingz was named the Best of Delaware, and it brought home a third-place recognition from the World Hot Sauce Awards in Louisiana.

Ewing said four of the restaurants recently named as the Best of Seafood by the website onlyinyourstate.com are his clients, including Matt's Fish Camp in Lewes, Catch 54 in Fenwick Island, Off the Hook in Bethany Beach and Woody's in Dewey Beach.

Among his retail customers is Chip Hearn, owner of Peppers in Lewes.

In the beginning

Ewing has a passion for hot sauce, but there were few options 20 to 30 years ago. “Tabasco was the main sauce, and people wanted their hot wings the hotter the better,” he said.

In 2010, Ewing started cooking and bottling his sauces at home. Two years later, he moved to his shop in a building on Stein Highway in Seaford. Three years later, he purchased the building. In 2016, he added another 3,000 square feet.

It's there that the sauce is cooked, bottled, labeled and distributed. His son, Taylor, helps with shipping and distribution.

“I started when Cassie was 12 years old, and now she is critical to the operation of the business. I couldn't be happier about that,” Ewing said.

Almost to White House

In 2020, he was invited to the White House by the Trump staff in a showcase of small businesses in each state. “It was a real honor to be selected as the only business in Delaware,” he said.

Unfortunately, then-President Donald Trump was positive for COVID-19 at the time the event was planned, and it was canceled.

One of Ewing’s prize possessions in his shop, filled with collectibles he has gathered over the years, is a letter from the president honoring him for being selected.

All about the sauce

The basic ingredients in every sauce are cayenne and ghost peppers. He used to grow his own ghost peppers, but the operation became too large for him to grow enough. He now buys dehydrated peppers in powders.

Without revealing his trade secrets, Ewing said he experiments with mixtures of peppers, and the base product he is adding to make a sauce unique. Once he hits on the right recipe, he cooks the sauce to 180 degrees 15 gallons at a time.

Among sauces are Nor'Easter, Cayenne Cassie Hawaiian Heat, Bacon Me Crazy, Delaware Peach, Ghost of Frog Hollow and Pepe le Parm.

As if he has any more time, Ewing also owns a construction company that has been in business for 44 years.

If one has ever attended an event in Sussex County, they have probably seen Ewing at his Delaware Sauce Company both. “I do a lot of events because I enjoy talking to people about our sauces,” he said.

For more information, go to delawaresaucecompany.com or call 302-337-6399.