At Berlin Chili Fest this September, one maker will show how far a single sauce can travel from its roots. Harissa & Co, founded by Berlin-based Tunisian engineer Amal Nasri, makes just one product: a smoky harissa built from heirloom Baklouti chillies smoked over olive wood for more than twelve hours in Cap-Bon, Tunisia.
The sauce is single-origin and single-product by design. Nasri kept the range to one clean-label harissa, built on flavour rather than heat and sitting at a moderate 3 out of 10. The Baklouti chillies are smoked slowly over olive wood in Cap-Bon, the slow smoke doing its work long before any heat arrives.
The recipe is her grandmother's, carried from her family's summer harissa-making tradition into a Berlin food business. The "& Co" is the community behind it: the women who passed the recipe down, and the farmers in Cap-Bon who still smoke the Baklouti the old way.
"The best sauces carry a place and a family in them, not just a number on a heat scale," said Neil Numb, founder of Berlin Chili Fest. "A harissa smoked for half a day over olive wood is exactly the kind of maker we want people to discover here."
Harissa & Co is one of more than 50 artisan hot sauce producers from across Europe appearing at the Harvest Event 2026. Together they will bring hundreds of sauces to taste and buy, ranging from virtually no heat to the deliberately dangerous. More than 13,000 visitors are expected across the weekend.
Berlin Chili Fest runs Friday 4 September from 6pm to 10pm and Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September from noon to 10pm at the Berliner Berg Brauerei in Neukölln. Day tickets cost 7 euros and a weekend pass costs 12 euros, available from chilifest.eu.
Accredited press can claim a free weekend pass and a complimentary maker tasting set, sent on request, at europeanheatcouncil.eu/chilifest#request.
ABOUT BERLIN CHILI FEST
Established in 2020, Berlin Chili Fest has grown into one of Europe's premier hot sauce celebrations. The festival combines professional competitions with grassroots community spirit, proving that you don't need corporate backing to build something meaningful. It attracts thousands of attendees, partners with industry leaders like Clifton Chili Club, and maintains its commitment to supporting independent, artisan hot sauce makers.
CONTACT
European Heat Council, Press Office Simon Gardner simon@republicofheat.com +49 176 41601284 Berlin Chili Fest press hub: europeanheatcouncil.eu/chilifest Harissa & Co profile: europeanheatcouncil.eu/chilifest/makers/harissa-co Press accreditation: chilifest.eu/press-accreditation Secondary: Neil Numb, Founder & Organizer, info@chilifest.eu
Press images available on request. Credit line: "Berlin Chili Fest," free for editorial use with credit.
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