An up and coming small company based in Leelanau County launched their first products just this past month: Quince hot sauce and quince ketchup.
The star ingredient of both the hot sauce and ketchup is of course the quince fruit, which is described as a hybrid between pears and apples. While the fruit itself is known as tasting mildly tart, it takes on a more fragrant and sweet taste when cooked.
Northport resident and Oleans owner Daniel Caudill said he first got the idea to create the unique condiments in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. From the middle of 2020 until the end of 2022, Caudill said he experimented with ingredients, had the hot sauce bottled, and gave some to friends to try. The people who tried the product loved it and asked for more, and that’s when he knew they wanted to develop it further.
