The Olchili story

I have been very interested in plants and animals since I was a child. Thus, crop production was already employed. In addition, I was a strong eater throughout my youth and found it unthinkable to eat food without chili.

I was only 14 when one of my dear acquaintances brought me Jalapeno and Habanero chili seeds from Mexico, and that’s when I really fell in love with the “spicy”. I planted these the following year, and I had a couple of chili seedlings — I note with no great success — whose fruit I felt terribly spicy at the time after the domestic hot peppers. Because I liked this new spicy feeling, and I was wondering – what a chili that could be even stronger might be like – so in 2015 I bought different seeds from abroad. There were both chilies and special tomatoes. From these seeds, in 2016, 10 types of chili and 8 types of tomatoes were grown in my garden. By 2017, my kitchen garden has expanded with more chili varieties. Year after year, I gained more and more experience in the technology of growing various peppers and tomatoes, so at the age of 17 I already had 100 chili seedlings with lots of fruit. I can’t eat so many peppers, which is why I started experimenting and my experiments were successful among my acquaintances. That’s when I thought about what it would be like if I were a chili producer too, so in the fall of 2017 I started my own business with 7 products. The Olchili brand name was created by merging my own name (Oliver) and the word chili. By 2018, I already had 24 varieties of chili peppers, from the weakest to the strongest in the world. As a result, my range also started to expand, by the end of the year I had reached my 20+ permanent product. In 2019, I started the year with 1,500 chili pepper seedlings and 200 tomato seedlings.

In the fall of 2019, my name and the brand I represent became known to chili experts. I went to competitions with my products, my Beeping Chipotle Blueberry BBQ sauce won 3rd place in the BBQ-Chipotle category at the International Flavor Awards in the home of BBQ in America! Not long after, my Carolina Reaper Ultra Hot Sauce won the Gold Medal in the extra hot category at the HunHot national chili competition in Solymár, ie it won the most spicy sauce award in Hungary in 2019, and I took 2nd place in the category with my Chili Mustard. I started my studies in the autumn of 2019, at the Faculty of Horticultural Engineering of Szent István University (Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences), my goal is to develop my knowledge, which I would like to use in the cultivation of chili and tomatoes.

In 2020, both the chili and tomato stocks in my gardens expanded to include 2,000 chili peppers and 300 tomatoes. In the fall of 2020, I won more awards, West Side-Hamburger Sauce, and Strong Oli Extra Fermented Chili Cream won 2nd place at the International Flavor Awards, making it a World Championship Silver Medal in America! My Beef Strong BBQ Sauce got a Bronze Rating in the 1st Hungarian Flavors Competition!

In 2021, I have a similar number of chili and tomato seedlings in the plantations as last year. At the beginning of June, the II. The results of the Hungarian Flavors Competition, based on which Carolina Reaper Ultra Hot Sauce Bronze, Melon Man Silver, Nacho Nico Bronze, Forest Delicacy Bronze, Sugar-Free Strawberry Jam Silver, Sugar-Free Cherry Jam Silver and Sugar-Free Raspberry Jam were also Silver. Two days later after the announcement of the Hungarian competition, the results of the 2021st Zest Fest-Fiery Food Challenge of 2021 from Texas, USA, arrived, the most famous and largest American competition. It is interesting that the products are tasted and evaluated by a committee of 80-100 people. Looking through the results, I was in for a huge surprise when I saw that the Chili Mustard had won the World Championship Gold Medal. For the first time in this competition, in 2021, the Hungarian product won a gold medal.

At the end of June, the results of another great American race, the International Flavor Awards, came from Wisconsin, making the Carolina Reaper Ultra Hot Sauce another success, finishing 3rd in the X-Hot category (Bronze medal)!

Autumn also got off to an exciting start, with Chili Mustard winning 2 stars at the 2021 Great Taste Awards in London in mid-September, which is considered a gastronomic gala around the world.

At the end of October, the results of another competition arrived, straight from Wisconsin in the United States, more specifically from the 2021 International Spicy Flavor Awards. Based on which my Nacho Nico Salsa sauce won the Silver Medal in the Salsa-Mild category. And Melon Man’s fruity chili sauce in the Fruit-Salsas category also finished second on the podium.

In 2022, the stock of chilies and tomatoes in the gardens was further expanded, 2,400 bushes of chilies and 400 plants of tomatoes have now been raised, and the location of processing has also improved, moving closer to a professional level processor. The amount of chili crops also increased many times compared to previous years. In the academic year 2022/23, as a graduate horticultural engineering student, I will write my thesis on the examination of the capsaicin content of chili peppers, from which I will invest the conclusions drawn in the further development of the business.

On October 1, 2022, the results of the 2022 26th Zest Fest-Fiery Food Challenge from Texas, United States of America, which is the most famous and largest competition in America, were announced. It is interesting that the products are tasted and evaluated by a committee of 80-100 people. Searching through the results, just like last year, I got a huge surprise this year when I saw that FlaMangó won the World Championship Gold Medal (Hot Sauce: Fruit Based – Mild/Medium category). This made me the only Hungarian to win a gold medal at the 2022 competition.

In November 2022, the results of the Internetional Flavor Awards arrived from Wisconsin, the United States of America, according to which my Mr. Bacon – Deer BBQ sauce won the World Championship Silver Medal in the Alcohol-Infused category and my Top 3 Mix – Smoked Hot Sauce in the X-Hot Salsa category He became a World Championship Bronze Medalist.

My goal is to keep my current products and to develop and expand my business in the future.

It is not quantity but quality that matters for me!