Vienna's food culture has long sat between the Kaffeehaus and the Naschmarkt, where fermented and pickled goods anchor the stalls and small Bauernmarkt producers supply the city's restaurants. BRIZZ, a craft Bio hot sauce range made in Wien with recipes developed by Haubenkoch Johannes Schartner, has taken a Silver Medal in Asian Style Chili Sauce at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition.
BRIZZ positions itself as the first naturally fermented organic hot sauce out of Austria, with each bottle in the range fermenting for weeks before it goes out. The range is built end-to-end by Schartner, a Gault & Millau toque-decorated chef known in Vienna for his fermentation laboratory at Café & Bar Kraus, and runs from a Marille, Habanero and Miso build, through a Cheesy Green with jalapeño and koji-grain, to the Kimchi that took the Silver. Sourcing leans on the same Vienna-area organic producers Schartner uses in the restaurant.
Nathan Austin on the Kimchi:
"What's striking about the BRIZZ Kimchi is how un-Korean its ingredient list reads. Plum sits where you'd expect cabbage to dominate, seaweed carries the umami, and the habanero is dosed so light it barely registers as the heat source. It's a chef's reading of a kimchi ferment, not a copy of one." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
BRIZZ Kimchi took a Silver Medal in Asian Style Chili Sauce: plum, carrot, garlic, ginger, seaweed, and a trace of habanero, naturally fermented for weeks. The ferment carries the preservation in place of additives, in line with the rest of the BRIZZ range.
"BRIZZ is the first naturally fermented Bio hot sauce out of Austria, built in Wien with our own recipes. Silver in Asian Style from a blind European panel is the result we wanted, and credit to Johannes for the work in the ferment." – Max Byloff, BRIZZ [Editor-drafted pending maker signoff; see MAKER_FEEDBACK.md]
The European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 ran over 200 sauces from across the continent through blind tasting this year, scored on five criteria by a deliberately mixed panel of chefs, sommeliers, critics and chilli specialists. Asian Style Chili Sauce drew 12 entries from across the EU in 2026, and BRIZZ Kimchi placed 4th on the leaderboard, taking a Silver.
"A Silver in Asian Style from a chef-developed Bio range out of Vienna is exactly the kind of result EHSA was set up to surface. Most of the field came at the category as sauce-makers riffing on kimchi; BRIZZ came at it as a Haubenkoch with a fermentation lab. We're watching closely for what BRIZZ brings next year." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
BRIZZ Kimchi and the rest of the BRIZZ range are available through brizz.shop. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=brizz.
PRESS RESOURCES Press kit (photos, logos, AI lifestyle composites credited Republic of Heat / European Hot Sauce Awards 2026): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1l98AOl1Ta8iis0VYcA3Xwm6UWV3CFOOa?usp=drive_link
ABOUT BRIZZ BRIZZ is a craft Bio hot sauce range produced in Wien, with recipes developed by Haubenkoch Johannes Schartner. The range is naturally fermented over weeks, certified organic, and built without artificial additives. Current sauces include the Silver-medal Kimchi (plum, carrot, garlic, ginger, seaweed, habanero), Marille / Habanero / Miso, a yellow-chili-and-pear build, Cheesy Green with jalapeño and koji-grain, and an umami sauce from layered ferments. Available at brizz.shop.
ABOUT THE EUROPEAN HOT SAUCE AWARDS The European Hot Sauce Awards (EHSA) is the professional competition for commercially produced hot sauces in Europe, run annually since 2024 from heatawards.eu. EHSA was born out of the Berlin Chili Festival, which has run since 2019 and returns 4–6 September 2026, and became an independent competition in 2024. Over 200 sauces from producers across the continent were entered in 2026. Entries are judged blind across five criteria: aroma, heat profile, flavour, creativity and finish. The 2026 edition covers 16 categories, with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals awarded across multiple positions in each. Each category also names a Best in Category, the top Gold. EHSA is run independently of any single producer or retailer.
ABOUT REPUBLIC OF HEAT Republic of Heat is a European hot sauce subscription designed to show off the flavours coming out of Europe and help solve the distribution problem independent makers face. Founded June 2025 in Berlin by Nathan "Naga" Austin and Simon "Scoville" Gardner. The Discovery subscription delivers three handpicked craft sauces plus a spicy extra to subscribers across the EU each month. Press partner of the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026. republicofheat.com.
PRESS CONTACT Press: Republic of Heat, on behalf of European Hot Sauce Awards contact@republicofheat.com +49 176 41601284
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