SIAL 2022: Tasty Heat’s Nov 1, 2022
A bit of Sri Lankan flavors in your meal with Tasty Heat’s products!
Tasty Heat’s Hot Sauces are the world’s first Sri Lankan-Inspired hot pepper sauce manufactured in Canada. They produce different unique hot sauces to meet the different hotness levels and flavors and unique condiments. Tasty heat’s products are now becoming more and more popular in the “ethnic food” segment of the food industry.
Currently, their product line includes Hot Sauces, Chili Paste, and the Award-winning “10 Min Meat Curry Mix” (Scoville Award 2022, Albuquerque New Mexico) which is a real quick meal maker for many people in a small pocket.
Amila Gadara is the founder of this 6th-year-old company. He was born in Sri Lanka and came here to Canada 13 years ago. He began to cook at home with the seasoning and ingredients from the local grocery, trying to bring a little of his home country into his dishes. “My sister-in-law told me that my food was so tasteful that I should share my recipes with more people.” So, Amila began to do some research about flavors and tried to mix some spices to make his own sauces and seasoning inspired by his Sri Lankan culinary culture. “I tried to match the Canadian taste, so I had to adjust the level of spiciness in my products. My unique ingredients reflect a little bit of my culture adapted to Canadian consumers.” His condiments are made with local ingredients from Canada and other, more specific ones, from Sri Lanka. All his products are made naturally with almost no chemicals or additives in his recipes. His products including sauces, curry mixes, and spices are now a huge success not only in the Prairies, where he lives but across Canada and also in the USA.
We met him at the SIAL show in Montreal, where he attended for the first time this year with the WTC delegation, looking for distributors and some leads to expand his brand, Tasty Heat’s, to Eastern provinces. We took this opportunity to ask him some questions about his presence at the show.
Interview with Amila Gadara
WTC: What benefits did you expect from attending the SIAL show in Montreal?
AMILA GADARA: Looking for better exposure in the East, distributors, retail stores, restaurants, food chains and individual customers.
WTC: How did it go? Are you satisfied with how it went? Did you reach your targets?
AG: It went very well for us. Yes, I am satisfied with how it went. We received a lot of attention in the East, and we believe that they all or most will be our future active customers.
WTC: Did you get some good/new leads?
AG: Yes some good leads! We made some initial talks with some distributors we met in SIAL.
WTC: What would you like visitors to take away from your participation in the SIAL tradeshow?
AG: We want visitors to talk about us, and about our products and we need visitors to miss our products when we leave the SIAL. We also need them to search for us and for our products in the stores in the East.
WTC: How successful do you think your business/products will be over the next 5 years? And did your presence at the SIAL show help you to prove you right in your “niche” products?
AG: During the next five years we will cover the whole of Canada with our name “Tasty Heat’s”. Yes, I believe that people in the East now know about us. We were able to let many people in Montreal who participate in the SIAL, taste our products. Now they are talking about us. The comments we received by e-mail and the number of orders can relate.
WTC: How was your experience working with the WTC for this activity? Do you want to come back again for another SIAL Show?
AG: Now I know WTC is a great organization to get help to boost the small business. Very Helpful! WTC is always sending us much important information such as government and other private fundings and information about the big tradeshow Etc. Very pleased with this organization! Looking forward to visiting next SIAL too.
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