" I need to know where they burn you, I need to know whether they make you salivate."

For Max Wolters, the key to making the best salsa and hot sauce is being open to anything and everything.

He’s traveled all over the world, absorbing as many cuisines as possible. He’s tried tons of foods — including pink tiger peppers, which he now knows he hates. He grows 13 different kinds of peppers himself and, one time, he and business partner Julia Simms videotaped themselves trying all of them.

It’s that willingness to try new things at least once and absorb new information from as many sources as possible that has brought Wolters’ business — Chilihead Salsa Co. — where it is today. The company has been around for 12 years, and today sells salsas, hot sauces and other products at farmers markets and to restaurants in Sarasota and Manatee counties. 

Read more at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.