Some artists can spend two years making an album. Orange County's the Offspring went five years between releases, as last summer's "Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace" was the act's first full-length of new material since 2003's "Splinter."

But if you can't rush pop-punk, you can't, apparently, hurry hot sauce either. The Times' Geoff Boucher writes that Offspring frontman Dexter Holland spent two years experimenting, searching for "the right taste, texture and all-important zing," with his recently released hot sauce Gringo Bandito.

Writes Boucher in this story for The Times' food section:

Bandito is now being bottled at the brisk pace of 300 gallons a month and is even being sold through Albertsons supermarkets in Southern California and Las Vegas, a triumph for a venture that faced a dizzying array of competitors and started as a spicy lark.

"Growing up here I was always into Mexican food and culture, Day of the Dead, all of it, and one day I looked at a hot sauce bottle and wondered if I could do better," the 43-year-old Holland says as he munches on tacos at Lona's Wardlow Station, a Long Beach landmark when it comes to cantina cuisine and cervezas.

But whereas Offspring songs are pumped out on corporate radio, Holland is taking a more grass-roots, do-it-yourself approach with his sauce. ""We took it to fire stations and electrical unions and gave it away," he said. "I leave it at beach bars in Huntington and Redondo. The best way is to get one person to taste it and then tell their friends. Ads don't sell hot sauce. Friends do."

Read the rest here.

--Todd Martens

Photo credit: Gringo Bandito