Gothenburg's food culture runs on räkmackor at the fish market, gravlax cured for the table, and lingonberry preserves carrying summer through winter. Såseriet, a craft hot sauce kitchen run by Patrik Howe in Gothenburg and working in the same cure-and-ferment register, has placed three times at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition: Silver in Hot Chili Sauce with Blackberry & Chipotle, Silver in Freestyle with Chimichurri hot sauce, and Bronze in Medium Chili Sauce with Raspberry & Lingonberry, with Blackberry & Chipotle also ranking #7 in Europe's Top 10 across all 16 categories.
Såseriet is a one-person kitchen, run by Patrik Howe in Gothenburg since May 2023 and styled in his own signature as Head Hot Saucerer. The work is fermentation-led: berries and chilies are fermented separately before being brought back together with controlled sweetness. The triple podium covers Freestyle with Chimichurri (a collaboration with Mariki, a Gothenburg cafe-bar where the sauce sits on the empanadas), Hot with Blackberry & Chipotle, and Medium with Raspberry & Lingonberry, which was one of Patrik's first two sauces under the Såseriet label. Three medals across three categories from a kitchen running for two years.
Nathan Austin on Blackberry & Chipotle:
"Patrik ferments his berries separately from the chilies before bringing them back together, and on Blackberry & Chipotle the result doesn't read fermented in the usual sour-funky direction. It reads ripe. Chipotle and ancho carry the smoke at the back, with the blackberry holding the body steady underneath." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
Blackberry & Chipotle (Silver, Hot Chili Sauce): blackberries and habanero each fermented, then backed up with chipotle and ancho chillis for sweetness and smokiness. Patrik describes it as a marriage between fermented fruit and smoke.
Chimichurri hot sauce (Silver, Freestyle): fermented yellow Spanish peppers, a touch of fermented yellow habanero, with fresh parsley, oil, garlic and a dash of mint. Built as a collaboration with Mariki, a Gothenburg cafe-bar where the team serves empanadas with homemade chimichurri. The original idea was to add the heat that the cafe's chimichurri didn't carry. 1600 bottles in.
Raspberry & Lingonberry (Bronze, Medium Chili Sauce): habanero and Spanish peppers fermented alongside the berries, then sweetened back up for balance. One of Patrik's first two sauces as Såseriet, originating in May 2023 from a fermentation that smelled of red berries and read as a match.
"Very glad that we won awards at the European hot sauce awards again. It's a great motivator. We make our hot sauces in our small production facility in Gothenburg and take great pride in what we do. Taking two Silvers and a Bronze from a blind European panel is also hard to take in. Massive thanks to everyone who's been with us on this." – Patrik Howe, Head Hot Saucerer, Såseriet
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. Fermentation-led sauces sit in a narrow window: too short and the chili reads raw, too long and the sweetness collapses. Three medals across Hot, Medium and Freestyle says the timing is held consistently across categories.
"Three medals across three categories from one kitchen, all on fermentation work, with Blackberry & Chipotle landing at number seven across the whole Top 10 in Europe. Gothenburg's hot sauce scene doesn't get a lot of cross-European attention, and Såseriet has just changed the picture. EHSA exists to surface exactly that kind of result." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
Blackberry & Chipotle, Chimichurri and Raspberry & Lingonberry are available through Såseriet at saserietgbg.se. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=saseriet.
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 Reveal videos on YouTube, embeddable: - Hot Chili Sauce: https://youtu.be/wJSbcurxAlk - Medium Chili Sauce: https://youtu.be/t6_GvbkBCM8 Press kit (photos, logos, AI lifestyle composites credited Republic of Heat / European Hot Sauce Awards 2026): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u6_RdGJ6rqYKZS8Q6-nltYcEExwG7d_q?usp=drive_link
ABOUT SÅSERIET Såseriet is a craft hot sauce kitchen in Gothenburg, on the Swedish west coast, founded May 2023 and run by Patrik Howe as the sole operator. The kitchen works fermentation-first across a range that spans Hot and Medium chili sauces, fruit-and-chili builds, and the Mariki-collaboration Chimichurri. Range and details at saserietgbg.se.
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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