Episode 43: Mummies and Hot Sauce?!

Il-wey! Although Halloween is still almost three months away, it is never too soon to add a little (or a lot) of spice to one’s scares this holiday. 

Victor “The Undertaker” Ives has been making tantalizing hot sauces but with macabre twist: hot sauce bottles can be ordered nestled in a handmade cedar coffin and stuffed “liberally with ‘mausoleum moss’ and novelty maggots” according to the website (see HERE).  Each bottle is topped with a piece of burial cloth and secured with a toe-tag smeared with blood.  Ives has a line of sauces with Victorian-esque labels as well as his Mani-Yack monsters, based on the 1964 Kaumagraph Toy Division’s iron-on t-shirt transfers, which gave homage to six famous movie monsters that include Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Creature (from the Black Lagoon), The Phantom of the Opera, and of course, The Mummy.  

My partner and I picked up Wolf Man and of course, The Mummy.  And, yes, I went for the coffin, made by Ives himself. The former has a heat level of “hot” and billed as wild and flavorful.  The latter’s heat level is considered “medium” and described as having earth spice (cayenne pepper sauce) “fit for an Egyptian prince!”  My partner, an avid spice lord, ranked The Mummy as mild but with an excellent taste. I am not a spice lord and I thought the sauce was HOT but definitely yummy.  While my partner can load on the sauce, I can only take a few drops. Hence, for the sake of seeing all the spicy goodness, I have included a picture of my partner’s plate of breakfast egg burritos, rather than the three drops on my fried eggs. The Wolf Man bottle has not been opened yet, so the verdict is still out on the hotness and flavor.  

Each flavor come in 5 oz. bottles and are $7.95 on their own.  Or, $17.95 with a handmade coffin.  The cost for the hot sauce is not unreasonable and packaging is of quality material.  The coffin is proficiently made and durable to several openings/closings. From the old-time coffin advertisement, the toe-tag, plastic bugs and spiders, gummi worms, moss and maggots, the label on the back of the coffin, and the personalize note, Ives hits all the right mummy tropes, makes this a fun mummy curio for any collector. 

Below, are several pictures of all the goodies that came with the order.  

If you like monsters and hot sauce, definitely check out Halloween Hot Sauce, so you can add some spice with your favorite monster! 

Senebti! 

All images by author.