Castile and León cooks around cochinillo asado from the Segovian wood ovens, judiones de La Granja and the resin honey worked out of the pine country north of the city. La Chipotlera, a small-batch kitchen run by Luis García Bartolomé in Navas de Oro, has placed Gold (3rd place) in Freestyle at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition, with Salsa Macha Picona, a sauce that crosses the Mexican Salsa Macha tradition with Canarian mojo picón.
La Chipotlera produces by hand in Navas de Oro, with a farm at the same village. The kitchen runs an oak wood-fired oven that the sauce passes through first: red jalapeños are slow-roasted in it, and that step sits at the centre of the recipe. Around the roasted jalapeño the build adds chopped roasted peanuts for crunch, sunflower oil and apple cider vinegar, both sourced in Spain. The brand name itself, La Chipotlera, plants a flag on the chipotle side of the chili family.
Nathan Austin on Salsa Macha Picona:
"Salsa Macha Picona is a cross of two condiment traditions that do not usually meet in the same bottle, Mexican Salsa Macha on one side and Canarian mojo picón on the other, with the name itself flagging both. Red jalapeños slow-roasted in an oak wood-fired oven, chopped peanuts and Spanish apple cider vinegar then build out from there. Freestyle is the category that exists for exactly this kind of cross-tradition entry." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
Salsa Macha Picona took Gold (3rd place) in Freestyle: a textured, oil-based condiment built around red jalapeños slow-roasted in an oak wood-fired oven, with chopped roasted peanuts for crunch, sunflower oil and apple cider vinegar from Spain. The name itself reads as the cross: Salsa Macha from the Mexican tradition, picona from the Canarian mojo picón, with picar flagging the spicier register of both forms.
"Our organically produced Salsa Macha is made entirely by hand in Navas de Oro, a small village in centre Spain, where our farm is based. The secret lies in the slow roasting of the red jalapeños in our oak wood-fired oven, which gives them an unrivalled flavour. Combined roasted red jalapeño with the crunch of chopped roasted peanuts, and mixed with sunflower oil and apple cider vinegar from Spain, the result is a sauce with a creamy, traditional and inimitable texture. Pure umami. Bringing together the best of Mexican salsa macha and Canarian mojo picón." – Luis García Bartolomé, La Chipotlera
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. Freestyle exists precisely for entries that do not fit the standard pourable-sauce template, and Salsa Macha Picona landed in the top tier of it.
"Freestyle is the home for category-defying entries, the sauces and condiments that do not sit cleanly in Mild or Extra Hot. A Salsa Macha placing Gold here, made in Castile by a producer crossing the Mexican tradition with Canarian mojo picón and running everything through an oak wood-fired oven, is exactly the kind of result EHSA exists to surface." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
Salsa Macha Picona is available through La Chipotlera at lachipotlera.es. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=la-chipotlera.
The European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 are announced ahead of the Berlin Chili Fest, 29–31 May 2026. Republic of Heat's EHSA 2026 Top 3 winner box is live at republicofheat.com/de-en/discovery-set/euhsa_top3, with further EHSA selection boxes at republicofheat.com/de-en/hot-sauce-sets.
PRESS RESOURCES Press kit (photos, logos, AI lifestyle composites credited Republic of Heat / European Hot Sauce Awards 2026): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15uBb0q3dBd55GGiNofuH5i1ApRJg5ySp?usp=drive_link
ABOUT LA CHIPOTLERA La Chipotlera is a small-batch hot sauce kitchen in Navas de Oro, in the province of Segovia, Castile and León, Spain, founded and run by Luis García Bartolomé. The kitchen produces by hand at the village farm, with red jalapeños slow-roasted in an oak wood-fired oven as the central step in the recipe, and chopped peanuts, sunflower oil and apple cider vinegar from Spain in the build. Salsa Macha Picona is available at lachipotlera.es.
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 29–31 May 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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