By B.C. Manion
Michele Northrup stands in her kitchen, dicing jalapeno peppers and cloves of garlic, and mixing them into a sauce that is simmering in a pan on her stove.
She’s experimenting on a new recipe for her gourmet hot sauce business called Intensity Academy.
The company’s name pays homage to the fact that Northrup was inspired to begin her business while in the garden at Learning Gate Community School, where she works in Lutz.
The vegetable of the week that week was carrots and everyone was encouraged to come up with a new way to serve carrots, Northrup said. She concocted a gourmet hot sauce, combining the sweetness of carrots and the heat of peppers.
The sauce was such a hit, Northrup decided to try her hand at creating a gourmet sauce company.
Since then, her sauce line has evolved into tea-infused marinades, ketchups, dipping sauces and hot sauces. She uses organic teas as additives in her sauces.
Besides concocting the sauces, she designs the labels on her bottles and does all of her marketing. The sauces are made and bottled at a bottling plant in Clearwater.
Northrup’s company has not gone unnoticed.
She has won a slew of national and local awards. Her Chai Thai Teriyaki sauce received the Golden Chili award at the 2010 Chili Pepper Magazine competition in Fort Worth and her Chai Chipotle Chup was voted the No. 1 ketchup in the nation in the 2010 Scovie Awards Fire Foods magazine competition.
Most recently, she won the manufacturing category in the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2010 Business Woman of the Year competition. Winners in various categories were announced at a black-tie gala on Aug. 20.
She was delighted and surprised.
“I didn’t really think I was going to win. Some of these companies that I was up against were really big,” said Northrup, whose work force consists mostly of her three sons, her husband and her father-in-law.
Northrup’s sauces are sold at about 90 stores across the nation, including all of the Whole Foods stores in Florida, some Walgreens locations in Hillsborough and Pasco counties and numerous independent shops.
She also sells her sauces online, promotes them vigorously through Facebook and Twitter, and markets them at the Zephyrhills Celtic Festival, San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival, the Kumquat Festival in Dade City, and at festivals and street markets in Lutz, Land O’Lakes, Tampa and St. Petersburg.
The sauces do have a following, said husband Tom Was.
“We have people who live in Ft. Myers, who have a cabin in Georgia,” Was said. “So, every time when they’re going to Georgia or coming back, they’ll call and say, “Hey, can you meet us at Bearss (Avenue) and (Interstate) 275? We’ll meet them at the Perkins.”
Northrup also makes deliveries. She’ll put out the word that she’ll be out on the road and people will send her requests.
One customer will say: “Oh, if you’re going to be near the Old Lutz Schoolhouse, can you meet me there?” Northrup said, or, she’ll meet people at Land O’ Lakes High School, or other community spots.
Northrup is widely known in Lutz, as the former Guv’na, who still holds the record for raising the most money by a candidate seeking the honorary post.
The annual Guv’na race is a friendly competition pitting candidates in a contest to raise money, while promoting community fun. The winner of the competition is based entirely on who raises the most cash, and over the years, thousands of dollars have been raised to support a wide range of community groups and causes.
For more information about the sauce company, go to www.intensityacademy.com
Reach B.C. Manion at .
