Padraic makes small-batch artisan sauces from a kitchen in Robertson, and on Christmas Eve he found out one of his sauces was rated second best in the world. 

“I was shocked,” he said. “I felt good about it but I certainly didn’t think it would do that well.”

Padraic entered two bottles of his Hand Smoked Chipotle sauce into the World Hot Sauces competition and scored a silver medal.

“I scored five nines [out of 10] which I was very pleased with,” he said. 

Padraic is the owner and sauce maker of new small business Kieltys Irish, which has been running for just over 12 months now. 

What started as a hobby quickly grew due to the public’s demand for spicy sauces. 

“The first sauce I made was a brown sauce and then a PK sauce,” Padraic said. 

“Everyone has them on their tables in English and Irish homes and Australia has nothing like it so I started with them."

Next he made a Hot Sweet Chilli sauce, which won a gold medal at the 2017 Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, as did the chipotle sauce. 

The sauces are made in batches of fifty bottles at a time and Padraic said making smaller quantities ensured each bottle was the same. 

“When sauces are made in big factories corners are cut and the sauces often taste different,” he said. 

Kielty’s Irish sauces are made with a lot of Highlands ingredients, including the staple items- chilli and garlic. 

“I grow some of my own chillis in Robertson and others I get from Moonacre Farm, I also get my garlic from [Highlands] farm as well,” Padraic said. 

“I also smoke all my own garlic, chilis and onion in an American-style smoker at Robertson.” 

Nothing goes better with a meat pie than a good sauce and in 2018 Padraic will launch a special ‘pie sauce’ to tie in with the Pie Time Festival. Padraic said the sauce would be the perfect “fruity, tomatoey sauce with a bit of spice.” 

There are big things in the works for the new sauce brand this year, and Padraic said the hottest is yet to come. 

“I’m going to make a sauce with the Carolina Reaper [the hottest chili in the world] and enter it in the world scoville competition.”

The sauce is avilable in locations across the Highlands.