Ribbit Riot Wins Six Awards at the 2026 Orange County Fair

What happens when you enter four hot sauces into the Orange County Fair?

Apparently, you come home with six ribbons.

Ribbit Riot entered four handcrafted sauces into the 2026 Orange County Fair’s culinary competition. Each sauce was created in Yorba Linda, California, using real peppers, simple ingredients, and flavor combinations developed from scratch.

All four sauces earned an award, with Hop Sauce and Royal Ribbit winning two awards each.

Hop Sauce: First Place and Division Winner

Hop Sauce, our original habanero hot sauce, earned First Place in the single-pepper hot sauce category and was also selected as the Division Winner for best hot sauce at the 2026 OC Fair.

This sauce puts the natural flavor of the habanero front and center. Garlic, onion, carrot, bell pepper, lime, honey, and spices round out the flavor without covering up the pepper’s signature fruity heat.

It’s bold, bright, and habanero-forward.

Royal Ribbit: First Place and Judges’ Special Award

Royal Ribbit, our Earl Grey plum habanero hot sauce, earned First Place in the “Other” hot sauce category. It also received a Judges’ Special Award for uniqueness.

Royal Ribbit began as an experiment: could the citrusy, floral flavor of Earl Grey tea work in a hot sauce?

The finished sauce combines brewed Earl Grey tea, ripe plum, habanero peppers, orange zest, honey, and spices. The result is a sweet, aromatic sauce with a complex flavor that changes as you taste it, fruit first, tea and citrus next, followed by a warm habanero finish.

It’s certainly not a traditional hot sauce, and that is exactly the point.

Croakatoa: First Place

Croakatoa, our mango pineapple habanero hot sauce, earned First Place in the fruit-based hot sauce category.

Mango and pineapple give the sauce its tropical sweetness, while orange bell pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, lime, and habanero create a balance of fruit, acidity, and heat.

Croakatoa was designed to be more than a sweet fruit sauce. It still delivers genuine habanero flavor and enough heat to remind you of volcanoes.

Jalapeño Jefe: Second Place

Jalapeño Jefe, our jalapeño and habanero blend, earned Second Place in the pepper-blend hot sauce category.

This green sauce combines the fresh, grassy flavor of jalapeño peppers with the brighter and more intense heat of habaneros. Garlic, onion, lime, oregano, and spices give it a savory flavor that works especially well with tacos, eggs, grilled meats, and breakfast burritos.

It’s a familiar style of green hot sauce with a decidedly hotter Ribbit Riot twist.

Four Entries. Six Awards.

These awards mean a great deal because Ribbit Riot began as a small, independent project built around a love of growing peppers, experimenting with unique ingredients, and creating sauces that prioritize flavor as much as heat.

Our philosophy is simple:

Real ingredients. Big flavor.

Ribbit Riot sauces are made without artificial preservatives, dyes, or thickeners. Every recipe begins with the question: Does this make the pepper and the food you put it on taste better?

Winning awards for all four entries feels like an incredible first leap, but this is only the beginning.

Ribbit Riot is currently working through the licensing and production process required to make these sauces available for sale. Follow @RibbitRiotco on Instagram for behind-the-scenes updates, pepper-growing experiments, new sauce creations, and launch announcements.

Until then, stay spicy and keep hopping back to Froggy’s Pepper Patch for more.