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"I fell into a burning ring of fire, I went down, down, down as the flames went higher. And it burns, burns, burns. The ring of fire, the ring of fire." - Johnny Cash

The legendary Johnny Cash knew a lot about fire and its blazing burn, but if he had the chance to attend this year's High River Sauces' Third Annual New York City Hot Sauce Expo in Brooklyn, he'd most likely pen a new tune for the array of burning flavors that are worthy of a hit song.

Newly inducted New York City Hot Sauce Expo Hall of Famer, Chip Hearn, owner of Peppers.com, who hails from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, knows a thing or two -- or a million -- about how to turn up the heat.

The Screaming Mimi Award winner, who has the "world's largest collection of hot sauces" (including over 1,000 different hot sauces, over 250 different BBQ sauces, dry rubs and seasonings and over 1,750 other zesty sauces), spoke to Latin Post in an exclusive interview about the Latin origins of his sauces as well as importing/exporting hot sauces throughout Ecuador, Chile and Costa Rica.

Surrounded by hundreds of his hot sauces and insanely hot sauce trailblazers who have literally blazed through the hot sauce industry, Hearn is among those who have turned up the heat to obscene, even ungodly levels, especially in the past 15 years.

You might not know it by seeing Hearn's friendly, rosy-cheeked face, but the hot sauce connoisseur can bring your taste buds to hell and back with just a pepper-based hot sauce alone, sans additives.

Peppers.com also offers intimidating hot sauces such as the Black Mamba Six Get Bitten Hot Sauce, Blair's Mega Death Sauce With Liquid Fury, and Blair's Ultra Death Sauce With Jersey Fury, to name a few. Sounds scary doesn't it?

He's the real deal, yet he also recognizes the importance of flavor so much so that he also makes signature hot sauces with a private label for numerous restaurant chains throughout the U.S. Since 1970, Hearn has been making hot sauces, and his first official hot sauce came out in 1978.

Needless to say, the hot sauce landscape has evolved since Hearn started igniting his palate back in the '70s.

"We all grew up with a basic cayenne, vinegar, salt and water," he explained. "Then we started experimenting with peppers and playing with different concepts. Chefs are doing extraordinary things with hot sauce and ingredients that nobody has ever seen before. It's about the pepper and it's about the mixing of foods."

The U.S. is now home to the Carolina Reaper (the Guinness Book of World Records' hottest pepper), which is a pepper grown in South Carolina, as well as the Scorpion, although their real origin is Trinidad. Now, the U.S. is getting more into Ghost peppers. He also points out that peppers have a lot of Latin bases as well.

"A lot of the sauces are coming from Costa Rica and Belize right now," he pointed out. "Most people when they go to Costa Rica, they are on one coast or the other and they don't really see the industrial side of it," he explained.

He added that the Costa Rican concept is all about the freshness and the use of peppers and pineapples, etc. Oftentimes in the U.S., we get accustomed to a powder, "but in Costa Rica, you're using the real thing."

Hearn is furthering his relationship with the beautiful Central American country, which now has headquarters in New York. He is also expanding to other countries in South America, such as companies in Ecuador and Chile.

These are locations "where you see markets growing because of CARICOM," he explained, where "islands and Central American countries have come together and formed a trade alliance. What they are doing is trying to get their products into the States."

The goal of CARICOM has been to create "a single market and economy in which factors move freely as a basis for internationally competitive production of goods."

While the costs are very high to get these island and Central American-based sauces to the U.S., Hearn predicts that it's just a matter of time that "they will get here" and Americans will be savoring more hot sauces from these flavorful regions.

With decades of experience under his belt, Hearn is now relishing in helping other hot sauce companies and fellow hot sauce connoisseurs shine.

"I am having fun through other companies," he said of being a large distributor. "Basically, I am having fun putting their stuff on the market."