Hot sauce biz no sweat for teen entrepreneur

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This article was published 27/02/2021 (1571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An entrepreneur from St Pierre has successfully formulated, manufactured, and marketed a line of high-quality hot sauces—all before her 20th birthday and amid a global pandemic.

Bree Gosselin is the proprietor of BG’s Preserves, which has been lighting up tongues and warming bellies across the Southeast in recent months.

Gosselin, 19, was raised in St Malo and, later, St Pierre, where she graduated from high school.

“Growing up, we had a big garden,” she said. “It was a whole-family affair.”

Her father tilled, her mother weeded, and her grandmother taught Gosselin how to make preserves.

“I don’t think I had store-bought pickles until I was 10 years old,” she said.

As the years went by, Gosselin lost interest in pickles and jams and the pastime fell by the wayside.

In April 2019, she was hired to cook and serve at J’em Bistro, located on the first floor of the St Pierre Museum.

The job reignited Gosselin’s love of preserving. One day last September, she and bistro owner Josée Curé whipped up some hot sauce.

Gosselin, inspired, promptly bought $200 worth of vegetables from the nearby Schriemer produce stand.

“I’m so impulsive—when I want to do something, it happens,” she said.

Then it was off to Steinbach for canning supplies. She arrived to find bare shelves: the pandemic had sparked widespread interest in canning. Luckily, Gosselin had some jars at home and only had to track down lids.

“I literally went to every store,” she said.

Her first batch of hot sauce, improvised without a recipe, exceeded her expectations and earned rave reviews from her boyfriend, family, and friends.

On a whim, she priced out the batch and began researching how to start a business.

By November, BG’s Preserves was up and running. She credited Curé, who helped her navigate food regulations and gave her access to the bistro’s commercial kitchen.

Fromagerie Bothwell in Winnipeg, where Gosselin’s boyfriend works, was the first store to place an order.

Inking the deal gave her the confidence to approach Fields Market in Kleefeld, A Baker’s Story in Grunthal, and a trio of stores in Steinbach—Prairie Oils and Vinegars, Country Meats Deli, and Pay-Me Foods—all of which now carry her flagship Bree’s x6 hot sauce, so named for its blend of six pepper varieties.

Gosselin also created a mild Poblano hot sauce, a fiery orange Habanero hot sauce, a spicy Red Thai Chili sauce (“the prettiest one”), and a chunky Cumin Poblano chutney.

She accepts direct orders for curbside pickup or delivery within 20 kilometres of St Pierre.

“I want to meet my customers,” she said.

In addition to avoiding preservatives, Gosselin strives to use local ingredients—a challenge at this time of year—and opts for fresh peppers and garlic.

“I really pride myself on doing it this way,” she said.

Her focus on fresh, local ingredients raises the cost—a 355-millilitre bottle retails for $15 to $17.50—but Gosselin said customers can taste the difference between her products and mass-produced brands like Sriracha.

COVID-19 has challenged many businesses, but Gosselin said her career goals crystallized over the past year.

Since high school, she had worked multiple jobs that left her with little time to spare. When the pandemic arrived, she lost a full-time position but found the change afforded her the mental space needed to focus her energy.

Gosselin said the hardest part of starting her own business has been overcoming self-doubt and having the confidence to set prices, approach shopkeepers, and commit to orders. Her boyfriend has helped her track sales and stay on top of accounting.

Her favourite part is rolling up her sleeves and making the hot sauce, which she does every two months in a whirlwind production day filled with chopping and blending. Sixty pounds of peppers yields 130 to 150 bottles, which she fills and labels by hand.

She said she likes the sense of accomplishment that doing every step herself, from chopping to bottling to delivery, brings.

Gosselin hopes to make a splash on the farmer’s market circuit this summer and has plans to approach more stores, “the ones who carry local and care about that.”

She said she’d love to make BG’s Preserves her full-time job and see her products reach store shelves in other provinces. After a foray into jam-making, she may also expand her product line to include pickled foods like carrots.