At Black-Eyed Susan Spice Co., a lot of ideas start the same way: around food, conversation, and the question of how to make something taste unlike anything we’ve made before.
Chickpotle was no different.
We sat down with co-founder Tim Sheets to talk about where the sauce came from, why chickpeas somehow made perfect sense, and how a joke eventually became one of the company’s most anticipated releases to date.
Q: Where did the original idea for Chickpotle come from?
Tim:
A lot of it came from traveling and the kinds of food experiences that stick with you long after the trip is over. Street food was always part of that. Quick meals while sightseeing or exploring a city, but the flavors were unforgettable.
Germany was a big one for us. The three founders all had experiences with döner sandwiches there — smoky meat, tangy sauces, citrus, salt, spice. Everything balanced perfectly. Back in Baltimore, working around Johns Hopkins, there was also a halal food cart we hit pretty regularly. Their gyros had this really well-balanced spice profile, and they paired it with a homemade hot sauce that amplified everything without overpowering it.
That combination of tangy, savory, smoky, bright flavor stuck with us for years.
Eventually, we started asking ourselves: what would a Black-Eyed Susan version of that experience taste like?
Q: Why build a sauce around Chipotle in the first place?
Tim:
Chipotle peppers are great because they bring smoke and depth, but they’re usually used in very predictable ways. Early on, we kept running into ideas that just felt uninspired.
There are already plenty of Chipotle sauces out there. We didn’t want to make another version of something ten other companies already had on shelves.
We wanted something that felt completely different.
Q: So where did the chickpeas come in?
Tim:
One night, we were joking around about collaborating with a local hummus company using one of our dry rubs. Right after that, I said, “What if we made a sauce with chickpeas and chipotles and called it Chickpotle?”
Partially because I’m great at naming sauces. But mostly because one of our founders, Ron, loves pun-heavy names, and I wanted to get the Chipotle conversations moving again.
But then the idea wouldn’t leave.
The more we talked about it, the more it actually made sense. Chickpeas could create this smooth, rich base that carries smoke and spice differently than a traditional vinegar-heavy hot sauce.
At that point, we had to see if it would actually work.
Q: When did you realize you were onto something?
Tim:
The first test batch.
I made it with chickpeas as the base, chipotle for smoke, and sumac for that tangy citrus edge you find throughout Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking.
It was honestly supposed to just be a trial run.
But it turned out so good, I ended up eating the entire batch before the other guys even got to try it. I had to make another one.
That second round was the moment when everybody agreed: this was a real sauce.
Q: Sumac isn’t something you see often in hot sauce. Why use it?
Tim:
Because it does something completely different.
Most hot sauces focus entirely on heat or acidity. Sumac brings brightness without tasting like straight vinegar or citrus juice. It has this sharp, almost electric quality that cuts through the smoke and richness.
That balance became the whole identity of the sauce.
Without the sumac, Chickpotle would’ve been heavy. With it, everything opened up.
Q: At what point did ghost pepper enter the picture?
Tim:
Later in development.
Chipotle peppers bring incredible flavor, but they’re fairly mild. We wanted the sauce to linger more and leave a stronger impression, especially alongside all the smoke.
Ghost pepper ended up being the perfect fit because it plays really well with smoky flavors. It doesn’t fight the Chipotle backbone — it extends it.
The goal was never to make the hottest sauce possible. We wanted a heat that builds and hangs around just long enough to keep things interesting.
Following Black-Eyed Susan Spice Co.’s appearance on Season 24 of Hot Ones, the team stayed in touch with Heatonist and later attended the 2025 NYC Expo pre-party, where Chickpotle was sampled by members of the Heatonist team.
After months of refining and finalizing the recipe, Chickpotle officially landed on Season 30 of Hot Ones — becoming one of the company’s most anticipated releases to date.
Some sauces start with heat.
Chickpotle started with a flavor profile.
Smoke. Citrus. Earth. Depth. A smooth chickpea base carrying chipotle peppers, bright sumac, and lingering ghost pepper heat into something that doesn’t really fit neatly into any one category.
Which is exactly why it works.
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