Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – A Presque Isle-based salsa company is garnering national attention after winning two industry awards.
Shipwreck Galley Salsa’s Black Bean & Beer Salsa was the first-place winner of the Kato Production 2009 Fiery Food & Sauce competition, while its Chipotle & Tequila Salsa was the 2008 first-place winner in the Hot Pepper Awards Chipotle category.
Both awards recognize outstanding salsas, seasonings and sauces in a variety of categories.
“Needless to say, we’re elated,” said Brian Lamont, who co-founded the company in 2005 with his brother, Gary, both originally from Bridgewater. “Being the recipient of two national awards can really open a lot of doors for a small, family-owned business such as ours. Sometimes it’s hard to get your name out there when you’re a small business, so this has really helped.”
The salsas are produced, packaged and distributed in southern Maine under the direction of Gary, while in Presque Isle, with the help of his wife, Debbie, Brian manages the company’s product development, sales and marketing.
“My brother owns a distributing business in southern Maine and he was distributing salsa from a different company which contacted him and told him they were going to be going in a different direction,” said Lamont, who resides in Mapleton. “He called me up and said he didn’t know what to do because that was his only salsa. I said, ‘Well, why don’t we make our own?’ We both thought about it and said, ‘Why not?’ That’s how we got started.”
Lamont said the first steps were finding a good name that was unique and “figuring out a way to make the product stand out above the rest.”
“We went through a gamut of names,” he said. “I had a list of probably 30-40 different names including some Mexican names [because salsa is originally from Mexico]. Since we’re in the state of Maine … a lot of coastal area … we decided to think along those lines. We wanted a broader name, not just Aroostook Salsa or Portland Salsa, for example.
“We also wanted something different that nobody else is even close to using,” said Lamont. “We came up with Shipwreck Galley because there’s always a lot of shipwrecks, plus my niece wrote up a piece about Pegleg that’s on the back of the jars, so the name pretty much tied everything together.”
Once the name was decided on, the Lamonts started looking at recipes.
“Black Bean & Beer was our first recipe. Gary cooked the first batches and shipped them up to me and my wife,” said Lamont. “We tested them and said what we liked and didn’t like. He’d then make another batch and that’s what the process was. Once we got it refined so it was somewhere close to what we wanted, we started taking it out to family and friends and let them taste it. We finally narrowed it down to where we could say, ‘OK, this is it!’ We started going from there.”
While the recipes are the Lamonts’, they no longer cook the salsas themselves.
“We’ve hired somebody to actually cook the product,” he said. “We have full control over the recipes; we just didn’t want to sit in the kitchen all day making salsas.”
In addition to the company’s two award-winning salsa flavors, Shipwreck Galley currently produces three others: Cherry & Brandy, Black Pepper & Ale, and Olives & Gin. New flavors are also in development.
“We have another salsa that should be out in the next several weeks,” said Lamont. “I can’t really say which is the more popular salsa; it’s like asking, ‘Which is the most popular soft drink?’ Everyone has a different opinion. We have gone to trade shows and fairs all over the place, and if we try to push the Chipotle one, people will flock to the Cherry one that’s off to the side. You never know, but they’re all doing well. We have no intention of dropping any flavor, so that’s a good sign.”
The 16-ounce jars can be purchased online at www.shipwreckgalley.com and at stores throughout Maine and New England. In Presque Isle, the salsa can be purchased at Graves Shop ‘N Save and Goin’ Postal.
Contributed photo
PRESQUE ISLE-based Shipwreck Galley Salsa is the first-place winner of two national awards – the Hot Pepper Awards and Kato Production Fiery Food & Sauce Competition. Co-founded by brothers Brian and Gary Lamont, originally from Bridgewater, the salsas are produced, packaged and distributed in southern Maine under the direction of Gary, while in Presque Isle, with the help of his wife, Debbie, Brian manages the company’s product development, sales and marketing. The 16-ounce jars, which come in five flavors, can be purchased online at www.shipwreckgalley.com and at stores throughout Maine and New England. In Presque Isle, the salsa can be purchased at Graves Shop ‘N Save and Goin’ Postal.
