The Toad & The Butterfly, a Blog

Hopefully this handy-dandy manual will convince you that caramel is not just an ice cream topping! It's a baking ingredient, a coffee sweetener, a cheese companion, a snack maker and, yes, a perfectly acceptable spoonful of joy.

Whether you're team Midwest Spicy, team Sweet & Punchy or team Verde, we've got you covered.

If you’re one of those people who still puts regular sugar in your coffee? Well, I can’t fix everything.

My love of black coffee means that I just CAN'T with scorched coffee. There was no way I was going to make a coffee hot sauce that risked scorching those delicate, delicious coffee oils.

When you’re saying the same words over and over and over at an event, it’s glorious to watch people revel in the caramel.

Pawpaw is North America’s largest native fruit, but cut one open and it tastes like it came from somewhere with more brightly colored birds and less snow. Soft yellow flesh, big dark seeds and flavors of mango, banana and grapefruit.

I almost forgot to send out the weekly email! I’m at the Big E now. It’s the 4th largest fair in the US and we’re vending for all 17 12-hour days.

I’m not quite ready to call summer over, but I am ready for the part where it gets dark early enough to light a fire in the pit without staying up past bedtime.

This is shaping up to be a spectacular season, which is great, but it also means that the peppers come early and fast.

This is the third time that we have been called out in Food & Wine - more than any other craft hot sauce maker in the world. I’m incredibly proud. But the coolest part of getting national attention like this is knowing the folks who helped us get here.

When we bottled up the Pride Pack 🌈 Sauces we had a little bit leftover of 4 of the hot sauces. I didn't tell anyone about it because I wanted to give the Pride Pack 🌈 it's time to shine.

When we want a weeknight dessert, but don’t have time to make a weeknight dessert, caramel comes in clutch.

Growing up, I always associated corn with the East Coast. I grew up in California, which has an abundance of great produce, but you can’t get corn picked just hours ago when you live in the "big city."

Today, goat's milk caramel is still made by only a handful of companies in the US. And we're by far the largest. Which is crazy to say because, um, have you noticed how not-large we are?