Six years ago, Nathan Litz might have agreed with Kermit the Frog’s mantra – it’s not easy being green.
Around 2010, the corporate IT guy by day, cook, and entrepreneur by night, set out to perfect a recipe for a green sriracha sauce.
“I’d make it and store it in mason jars and bring it out during barbecues,” the St. Louis native says of his product’s beginnings. “And people told me I should sell it.”
He took that message to heart. Instead of buying a couple of pounds of jalapeños from the grocery store, he bought hundreds of pounds from a restaurant supply store and gave his kitchen the Breaking Bad treatment.
“I’d have to turn the box fan on and grab a mask and gloves,” he laughs. “But I’d spend my Friday and Saturday nights cooking and filling bottles.”
The result of his experiment: a sriracha more smokey and less sweet than its more widely recognized red cousin. The kick from the green jalapeños is less blatant than the vine-ripened red, but more than enough to amp up the flavor of anything from a burger to a bowl of ramen.
On Sundays, Litz would travel storefronts toting an Igloo cooler full of product. The owner of Vernon’s BBQ in University City bought in bulk and started using the sauce as a key ingredient in his green chicken chili. Other small business would also buy. But larger grocers advised him to find a process more suited to the FDA’s standards and come back later.
So, for the last 18 months, he’s gone back and forth with a local manufacturer, navigating large scale recipe replication, label design, and bottling standards – all funded by savings, his daytime IT habit and a little help here and there from mom and dad.
In September, the first run of Sriracha Granada dropped from the production line, bearing Litz’s Sunrise Foods brand.
“I can’t tell you how awesome it felt to see 5,000 of my babies come off the production line and go through the funnels and the labeler,” he says, the note of giddiness in his voice still detectable. “It was the coolest experience.”
Perhaps even cooler is seeing Sriracha Granada on the store shelves of grocers like Lucky’s in Rock Hill and Ellisville, bottles on the counter at Vernon's, and one on every table at one of his favorite restaurants, Mai Lee, where owner Qui Tran has been more than impressed. "The Granada is fresher and not quite as sweet as red sriracha," he says."It's different, it's local, and our customers have responded. We've gone through four cases already."
Litz contributes that “Sriracha Granada is the only green, Thai-style sriracha sauce. "Why no one does a green one, I can’t tell you. I’m more than happy to fill the demand!”
He’s hoping not only to fill the market with a different option, but a healthier one. His sauce is formed by the same foundational ingredients of any sriracha: peppers, garlic, vinegar, salt, and sugar, but he leaves out chemical preservatives, artificial colorings and additives – largely in the service of his ultimate goal: earning a spot on the shelves at Whole Foods.
He’s been in talks with local affiliates of the national retailer for the last six months.
“The product is Whole Foods certified,” he says of its ingredients and production standards. “It’s a matter of time and getting it approved. They have a big company and a big process, but I’m more than willing to take every one of those steps and the time to make that happen.”
In the meantime, Litz is working on his next big thing – a Sriracha Granada barbecue sauce and Sriracha Granada Extreme Edition, as in a smaller bottle of a sauce so hot it might just require a warning label.
He’s also continuing to partner with other St. Louis upstarts. Last Saturday, Vincent Van Doughnut in Clayton sold out of a collaborative breakfast sandwich (a jalapeño cheddar biscuit with Sriracha Granada date goat cheese, Sriracha Granada glazed ham, and a poached egg, topped with – you guessed it – more Sriracha Granada). "We'll do it again in Clayton," Litz says of the creation, and likely in the Grove when VVD's new location opens there next month. St. Louis Kolache, home to five kolache collaborations, is also interested in the product. And Chris Sommers' 'ZZA (opening in early February), will feature the sauce on one of its pies (pictured at right).
Ask Litz now, and he’ll tell you...being green, it's not so bad.
UPDATE: As of 12/23/16, Sriracha Granada is now available at the following locations:
Retail:
- Lucky's Market (Both Rock Hill and Ellisville locations)
- Larder & Cupboard
- The Wine and Cheese Place (Ballas Rd. and Forsyth locations)
- Parker's Table
Restaurants:
- Mai Lee
- VISTA Ramen
- Edibles & Essentials
- Midtown Sushi & Ramen
- Vernon's BBQ (serving and selling bottles)
- Flaco's Cocina (serving and selling bottles)
- Sushi Station in Webster (serving and selling bottles)
For more information, click on the Sriracha Granada website, here.
