Most people return from vacation with souvenirs, but Michael Kurtz came back from a trip to South America with a genius idea for a new condiment.


On his adventures, he had spotted an intriguing pepper-infused honey inside a Brazilian pizzeria and was determined to create his own version. The process would take him seven years. Meanwhile, Kurtz started a job bartending at Greenpoint pizzeria Paulie Gee’s. 

One thing led to another and soon Kurtz found himself bottling his eponymous honey and using Paulie Gee’s kitchen as a home base (FYI: You can order a bottle of hot honey from the bar!). Then, his creation appeared on the menu: the appropriately-named "Hellboy" features a mozzarella-sopressata pie topped with Mike’s Hot Honey. Suddenly, the small-batch honey was all over the (heat) map--from Saveur to Food Curated to Daily Candy…and now to With Love From Brooklyn.

Unlike anything you’d ever squeeze out of honey bear, Mike's Hot Honey incorporates a secret blend of fiery Brazilian peppers, lending a devilish red tint to the golden honey that he sources specially from a Pennsylvania apiary.

We recently wrote about Mike and some of his South Brooklyn haunts--give it a read!

Brooklyn, We Gram Hard

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