So let me ask you something, Internet: Do you love the sweet and spicy tang of hot sauce? Follow-up question: Do you love when an awesome, home-made business donates to charity? Then do we have a website for you!
Introducing Sweet Heat Gourmet, a small business owned by Michelle Mierwald who creates her own BBQ and hot sauces from fresh produce from local farmers’ markets.
Photo Courtesy of Sweet Heat Gourmet
Sweet Heat came to fruition a few years ago after Michelle graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Technology in 2011. Since then, Michelle’s sauces have been sold in two local farmers’ markets, fourteen retail locations, four online stores and on the menu at Whiskers in our very own Nittany Lion Inn.
Over the last three years, Michelle and Sweet Heat have made numerous donations to charity, such as donating sauces to local charity auctions for Housing Transitions and the Park Forest Daycare.
Michelle’s business is very invested in supporting local farms, so she makes her sauces with as many locally grown ingredients as possible and she makes sure to list all the local farms she works with on the label of each of her bottles of sauce.
Photo Courtesy of Sweet Heat Gourmet
So this is all fantastic and I’m sure you’re already loving it, so you’re wondering: Is there any way for me to try some of these awesome sauces, like right now? You’re in luck, friends, because very, very soon, there will be an event with Sweet Heats right in State College.
On Tuesday, November 17th, Michelle will be working with us to have a tasting of Michelle’s newest sauce, Peachy Sweet & Raspberry Heat Hot Sauce, at Herwig’s Austrian Bistro from 6 to 8 pm.
What’s even cooler about this sauce is that Michelle is partnering with State High teacher and Future Farmers of America Advisor, Paul Heasley, to make it.
On November 14th, Sweet Heat will donate its kitchen time, labels, and ingredients (including raspberries from Paul’s farm and peaches from Way Fruit Farm) to Paul and the State College Little Lions FFA so that they and Michelle can make the sauce together. The whole project is bring run by Michelle’s daughter, Claire Mierwald, the secretary of the State College Little Lions FFA.
The sauce is going to cost $6.75 a bottle. And the best part? 100% of the profits of this sauce are going to local charities!
Photo Courtesy of Sweet Heat Gourmet
I’m sure there are people who are hot sauce connoisseurs and are dying for this hot sauce but can’t make it to our event at Herwig’s… Not to worry, my spicy compadres.
As of November 17th, the Peachy Sweet & Raspberry Heat Hot Sauce will be sold locally at Callao Cafe, Gift Adventures, Way Fruit Farm, Fasta in Pleasant Gap and the UPS Store on Collonade Way. The sauce will be sold locally for two weeks and then, starting on December 2nd, you’ll be able to purchase this sauce online.
So if you have a friend or family member who just can’t get enough spice, make sure you pick them up a bottle of Peachy Sweet & Raspberry Heat, or any one of Michelle’s awesome and unique hot sauces, just in time for the holidays. Or if you just wanna make Friendsgiving more interesting.
Here’s our event page, make sure to attend!