Jean’s Pepper Sauce

The Story Behind Mama’s Hot Pepper Sauce

I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago with many guava trees in our gardens. My parents made and sold guava jams, jellies, cheeses, stews and nectars. My mother also made lots of jams, chutneys, lime pepper and pepper sauces. Her pepper sauce was by far the most popular. I never knew that my parents supplemented their weekly income with these items and paid for my school fees.

Mom started focusing on lime pepper and pepper sauce because they sold well and had a high profit margin. Plus, we moved out of the house with the guava trees.

Word spread and she began making pepper sauce every weekend to keep up with demand, but as her job got better and more demanding, she stopped making pepper sauce and spent more time fishing and playing outside of work, by which point she was part-owner of the company where she worked.

When I got married and moved to Jamaica, my husband’s family went to Trinidad for the wedding and brought pepper sauce, and when they ran out of what my mother gave them, they wanted more. I called my mother and asked her how to make it… It took me years to finally get the full recipe from her. She was not the kind of person to share it with me, even.

I started making it for friends and family, but when I had children, my mother-in-law made me stop making pepper sauce because she was afraid the fumes would burn my kids. So for 13 years, I didn’t make pepper sauce at home. When my kids became teenagers, I started making it again, but the demand became so great that I could no longer afford to give it away for free, so I started selling it. It quickly became popular. Serious pepper lovers order the sauce by the gallon.

Earlier this year, I was approached by The Pork Store to sell it, I created a label with a best before date study and nutritional analysis and Jean’s Pepper Sauce was officially launched, and Jamaica Food and Drink Kitchen is also waiting for me to supply them.