Madrid cooks around hearty home dishes, the slow lentejas pulled together on Sunday afternoons and the tortilla de patata that every household in the city claims to make best, with the tía's kitchen as the keeper of the recipe. TIA FELISA, an independent hot sauce brand named after the family's own aunt and run by Ernesto out of Madrid, has taken Silver in Garlic Chili Sauce at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition, with La Clasica.
TIA FELISA plants and grows its own chilies, ferments for depth, then blends and bottles by hand in limited batches between Murcia and Madrid. The brand spine is the aunt the label is named after, carried forward as a vertically integrated family operation that runs its own farm-to-bottle chain rather than outsourcing any link.
Nathan Austin on TIA FELISA:
"Vertical integration is the part that stands out here. TIA FELISA isn't reformulating a bought-in mash, the same hands plant the chilies, run the ferment, blend the sauce and label the bottle. That's a rare amount of control for a family-run hot sauce label, and Garlic Chili Sauce is a category where that control shows in the finish." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
La Clasica (Silver, Garlic Chili Sauce): a fermented-for-depth garlic build, planted and grown by the family, blended and bottled by hand in limited batches between Murcia and Madrid. Built as the house classic of the range, made the way the kitchen the brand is named after would have made it.
"Honestly still speechless. We produce Tia Felisa in Madrid, by hand, in small batches, and taking a Silver from a blind European panel is hard to take in. Massive thanks. SIEMPRE CON TIA FELISA. Next year for the Gold standard." – Ernesto, TIA FELISA
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. Garlic Chili Sauce is a tight category where the panel rewards balance over heat, and a Silver Medal puts a family-run Madrid kitchen on a European podium against producers many times its size.
"A vertically integrated family kitchen taking Silver in Garlic is exactly the kind of result EHSA gets built to surface. Madrid should be proud to have a sauce maker like this in its midst." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
La Clasica is available through TIA FELISA at salsastiafelisa.com. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=tia-felisa.
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 video on YouTube, embeddable: - Garlic Chili Sauce: https://youtu.be/7ATiV-ZJHU0 Press kit (photos, logos, AI lifestyle composites credited Republic of Heat / European Hot Sauce Awards 2026): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yGEF_m6GAwqBnEk3UKv75ISUPE5loiDb?usp=drive_link
ABOUT TIA FELISA TIA FELISA is an independent Madrid hot sauce brand named after the family's own aunt and run by Ernesto. The operation plants and grows its own chilies, ferments for depth, then blends and bottles by hand in limited batches between Murcia and Madrid. The range, including La Clasica, is available at salsastiafelisa.com.
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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