Did You Know? Thermopolis Gift Shop Has Largest Selection Of Hot Sauces In U.S.

THERMOPOLIS — Walking along Broadway through downtown, 1,000 or so tourists a year find themselves rushing into an unlikely shop.

The shop’s name is Discover Thermopolis, and at first glance from across the wide downtown streets of Thermopolis, it seems like it might be some sort of chamber of commerce or office of tourism. But it’s actually a print shop with some office and party supplies — one small town shopkeeper’s answer to the Shopko stores that used to be around but are now no more.

Keeping a print shop alive in a small town, though, is quite a challenge. Early on, owner Howie Samelson realized he needed an angle, something unique to make his store a destination.

That’s how Discover Thermopolis came to have more hot sauces than any other in the United States. So many, that Samelson estimates 1,000 tourists a year visit just for the hot sauces. Some were just passing by the window and were so amazed by the selection of hot sauces they couldn’t help but go inside for a closer look. Others are tourists who come back every year for a unique souvenir.

Hot sauce sales make up almost a quarter of his print shop business, which helps keep a vital store going in this town of about 2,700 people.

“The idea (for hot sauces) just kind of hit me like a lightning bolt one day,” Samelson told Cowboy State Daily. “Because Thermopolis has the largest mineral hot springs in the world. I don’t know why no one ever thought of hot sauces before.”

At the time, Samelson’s goal was modest. He wanted to have the most hot sauces in Wyoming, which he felt could draw people from other parts of the state.

He achieved that in 2020, with 700-some hot sauce brands.

But he didn’t stop there.

He kept adding more and more hot sauce brands, until one day he learned from a distributor that his selection was likely the largest in the nation.

“I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Samelson said. “But this distributor, who has a retail store in Lewes, Delaware, they claim to have the largest selection, but (their distributor) told me that no, we have it.”

He has read a post from a hot sauce blogger that says there’s only one store in the world with more hot sauces than his in Thermopolis. It’s a store in Belgium called Chilisaus.

Hot Sauces Galore

Samelson’s shop is listed on hot sauce blogs alongside shops from Texas to Scotland and Germany to Saudi Arabia as one of 32 best hot sauce shrines. He has 2,000 hot sauces in inventory so far, and growing.

This year, he returned from the Fiery Food Festival in Albuquerque, a hot sauce trade show held in February, with 250 new hot sauce brands to add to his inventory.

Samelson makes a habit of going to the show every now and then to see for himself what’s really hot in the industry. The show never disappoints. He always comes back with case after case of new hot sauces to plump up his store’s inventory and maintain and grow his lead over all others.

His store has lately become so well-known for hot sauces that he now gets calls from new manufacturers, asking him to carry their hot sauce.

“The answer to that is always yes,” Samelson said, with a mischievous grin.

That’s how he comes to have a complete selection of hot sauces from South Africa, whose proceeds support wildlife.

Tourists perusing the hot sauce shelves will find something for everyone.

There’s hot sauce from Hawaii, and Moonshine hot sauce from Kentucky, a brand that’s popular at the Kentucky Derby.

That, Samelson said, is more like a marinade than a hot sauce, but it is fairly popular even if it’s not very hot.

He’s also got a whole section devoted to Wyoming-made hot sauces, which is front and center in the store, along with other spicy hot Wyoming-made products like jams and candies. There are even socks that tout hot sauce for the true chili heads of the world.

“I don’t do other hot food products, though, unless they’re made in Wyoming,” he said. “Otherwise, we’d need a lot more space. But if it’s made in Wyoming, we’ll carry it.”

It’s Not Just About Heat

The most popular hot sauces at the store aren’t necessarily the hottest, nor are they the ones that taste best. They’re the ones with labels that poke fun or have sexual innuendos.

“They make funny gifts,” Samelson told Cowboy State Daily. “And some of them are quite suggestive.”

Because those are so popular, Samelson had actually run out of them when Cowboy State Daily visited — so no pictures.

“I’ll have to order some more of those,” Samelson said. “I have to keep a close eye on them to keep them in stock.”

Lots of people ask Samelson if he’s tasted all the hot sauces. His answer to that is laughter and “no way.”

“Just think about it for a minute,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “There’s more than 2,000 hot sauces out there. If I tried one every day, it would take five or six years to try them all.”

In fact, he doesn’t even try the hot sauces when he goes to the Fiery Food Festival trade show.

“I enjoy hot sauces,” he said. “And I have a few at home, but I’m not — there are people who are really chili heads. They are just after hot sauces, and they want hotter sauces, and they want different flavors. I’m not in that category. I just like what I can do with them here.”

He does, however, have a favorite hot sauce brand, Multiple Personalities, and it is a rather hot one. The company rates it on a scale of 1 to 10 as a 15.

“But it’s not the heat, it’s the flavor,” Samelson said. “You can always modify the quantity to deal with the heat.”

For those who do want to try the hottest hot sauce on the planet, Samelson has Smokin’ Ed’s lineup made with Pepper X, which registers 3,18 million on the Scoville Heat Scale. That’s been verified by Guinness World Records as the hottest pepper in the world.

By comparison, a ghost pepper registers between 800,000 to 1,041427 on the Scoville scale, and the lowly jalapeño registers a mere 2,000 to 8,000 Scoville units.

Samelson has no intention of slowing down his new hot sauce acquisitions. Today he’s the largest in the United States, but tomorrow?

Belgium’s Chilisaus had better watch out, because Thermopolis, with the largest mineral hot spring in the world, has someone who is vying for yet another hot world title.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.