Butterfly Bakery of Vermont

Claire Georges started Butterfly Bakery of Vermont in 2003, selling cookies and granola at local farmers markets in Barre. The hot sauce came later — and by accident. At the end of each market, she'd trade unsold baked goods with nearby farmers for whatever they had extra. Usually peppers. She started making small batches of hot sauce in her kitchen, brought them to the next market, and sold out. Then sold out again the next week. The bakery gradually became a hot sauce company.

Two decades later, those farmers-market bottles have turned into a nationally distributed line sold in all 50 states and seven countries. Butterfly Bakery's sauces have appeared three times on Hot Ones — the YouTube show where celebrities eat progressively hotter wings — and won awards from the Scovies to the International Flavor Awards. For a one-woman operation that started with pepper trades, that trajectory is hard to argue with.

What sets Butterfly Bakery apart in the crowded hot sauce market is the Vermont angle. Many of the sauces feature maple syrup as a sweetener, and the peppers come from local farms when possible. The flavor profiles lean toward complexity rather than raw heat — though hotter options exist. The maple gives the sauces a depth that sugar-based hot sauces can't match.

In 2022, Georges acquired Fat Toad Farm, the beloved Vermont goat milk caramel brand originally founded in 2007 in Brookfield by Judith Irving, Steve Reid, and Calley Hastings. Under Butterfly Bakery, the caramel is still hand-stirred in small batches, now produced at the Barre facility alongside the hot sauces. The caramel line includes flavors like original, salted bourbon, vanilla bean, and espresso.

Everything is cooked, filled, and labeled by the Butterfly Bakery team in Barre. Georges runs the operation herself — no outside investors, no private equity, no corporate parent. Just a Vermont kitchen that takes peppers and goat milk and turns them into products people drive across the state to buy.

Products

• Maple-sweetened hot sauces (multiple heat levels and flavor profiles)
• Specialty and limited-edition hot sauce batches
• Fat Toad Farm goat milk caramel (original, salted bourbon, vanilla, espresso, and more)
• Caramel gift sets and bundles
• Seasonal and collaboration releases

Why We List Them

• Sole owner Claire Georges — no outside investors or corporate backing
• All products made in-house in Barre, Vermont
• Three-time Hot Ones feature and multiple international awards
• Locally sourced peppers and Vermont maple syrup in sauce recipes
• Preserved Fat Toad Farm's goat milk caramel legacy through 2022 acquisition