Bellingham hot sauce company strikes gold with domestic, international awards
Bellingham-based Funky’s Hot Sauce recently claimed five international awards and three national awards for its popular sauces.
Funky’s Hot Sauce was launched in 2019 by owner Matthew Mini. The company has won many awards and was featured throughout the 23rd season of “Hot Ones,” a talk show hosted by Sean Evans, who interviews celebrities while they attempt to eat chicken wings with a variety of hot sauces.
Now the popular hot sauce company has won four gold and one silver European Hot Sauce Awards during the last weekend of May at the Berlin Chili Festival.
“This is the first time that we have entered sauces into this event in Berlin, Germany,” Mini wrote in an email to The Herald. “We received gold medals for Nirvana, Superfuzz, Chili Librae and Stellar Fuzz (which was featured on season 23 of “Hot Ones” last year) plus a silver medal for Seeing Stars. Seeing Stars was the 2022 Grand World Champion at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo in 2022
The company also won three “Fiery Food Challenge Awards” at The Fiery Food Festival in Fort Worth, Texas in May.
“We received a ‘Golden Chili’ for our Chipotle Marionberry BBQ sauce, a third-place medal for our Nirvana hot sauce in the xtra hot exotic category and a third-place medal for our Superfuzz hot sauce in the spicy/sweet xtra hot category,” Mini wrote.
Mini has now created 21 varieties of hot sauces, which are all organic, non-GMO, use locally sourced ingredients and are made without preservatives, extracts or “anything unnatural,” according to Mini.
“Mini loves connecting with local business owners and has enjoyed great success growing a network of Pacific Northwest contributors to his sauces,” a news release from the company states. “Among his list of suppliers are Jimmy Kintzele of Southern Exposure Family Farm in Burlington, Washington, who grew the tasty Carolina Reapers used in this year’s award-winning Seeing Stars sauce; Marie’s Bees honey, which you’ll find in a hot/sweet sauce called ‘Liquid Sunshine Delirium;’ and Bellingham-based graphic designer Tony Walters of Fat Lizard Designs, who creates all of Funky’s label art. Farm Cooperative and Puget Sound Food Hub help distribute Funky’s Hot Sauce Factory sauces throughout Washington.”
Funky’s Hot Sauce can be purchased online, at some local grocery stores or at the Bellingham Farmers Market, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at 1100 Railroad Ave.
This story was originally published June 15, 2025 at 11:23 AM.
