Meet Belize’s “Queen of Habanero,” the matriarch behind the country’s coveted habanero hot sauce.
For many tourists , the Central American nation of Belize might be known for itsverdant rainforests , ultramarine sink , and gorgeous coastline . But anyone who visits will apace find out that to get to know the country is to get to know its penchant for sweat - induce culinary art .
In Belizean Kriol , thehabanero peppercorn , rated 100,000 to 350,000 on the Scoville scurf , is popularly described by the phrase , “ Ih bun , but ih skillful . ” ( transformation : It burns , but it ’s decent . ) Whether you ’re enjoying a traditional coco palm Pisces the Fishes lather or everyday Sir Tim Rice and beans , no repast is complete without a good ducking of a hot sauce load with the fruity yet ardent native pepper . And , you ’ll find that more often than not , that sauce locomote by the name ofMarie Sharp ’s .
Bottles ofMarie Sharp ’s Habanero Pepper Saucesit on restaurant tables across the nation , billet grocery store shelves , and pile up inside prohibit item bins at Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport . It ’s a symbol of superbia and joy for Belizeans everywhere , and the one relic foreigners go out of their path to take back ( ideally safely stowed in their checked luggage ) .
Image by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
refer after its 83 - year - old founder , Marie Sharp , the uniquely Daucus carota sativa - based condiment typify all that ’s beautiful about Belizean Department of Agriculture . The land ’s lush , tropic farm are burst with fragrant crops , from yellow globule anticipate craboo to giant pods of Theobroma cacao . And of course of action , clusters of ruby - red and tangerine - orangish Belizean habanero common pepper , which Sharp believe is far superior to those of any other country . “ I consider it has something to do with our soil and the time of the year that we plant , which is mostly the dry season , ” she enjoin . “ We get a concentrated oestrus . ”
While the original Habanero Pepper Sauce is the company ’s flagship , Sharp also offer a smorgasbord of sauces in vary degrees of heat , from “ Mild ” to “ Beware , ” as well as a comprehensive line of other specialties , from Caribbean barbecue sauce and achiote paste to unripened mango Indian relish and cactus moringa salsas . The flavour profiles are as diverse as the country itself , a ethnic thaw pot of Kriol , Garifuna , Mestizo , Spanish , Maya , English , Mennonite , Lebanese , Chinese , and easterly Indian ethnic groups .
Belizean chefSean Kuylen , a devoted Marie Sharp fan , spend puerility summertime chat his grandparents on a farm adjacent to Melinda Estate . “ The feeling of citrus blossoms , parrots in the tree , and now the universe famous Marie Sharp ’s mill contribute me Brobdingnagian nostalgia , ” he says . The connection transcends the kitchen , as Kulyen ’s 78 - year - old female parent even belong to the same church service and Camellia sinensis political party rotary as Sharp .
Habanero peppers are a staple of the Belizean diet.|Photo courtesy of Marie Sharp’s
When sourcing his ingredient , Kuylen espouse a no - barcode approach and champion local Belizean green groceries . Not only do Marie Sharp ’s sauce fit the banker’s bill , but they also equal their well - known similitude . When it comes to his braised porc , he believes the nopal cactus sauce beats any Mexican- or Colorado - carry green chile recipe , while the tamarind - based steak sauce makes A-1 pale in comparison .
“ Can you imagine a earth without salt ? This is the same for a Belize without Marie Sharp ’s Habanero Sauce , ” Kuylen say . “ When added to rice and bean , hudut , tacari , panades , cowfoot soup , escabeche , relleno negro , stewed pigtail , boil up , and other delicacies , it immediately raise the flavor . ”
From pepper surplus to national treasure
As inbuilt to Belizean cuisine and personal identity as it ’s become , the iconic condiment was in reality create by luck . Sharp ’s farming career start in 1967 , when she married her belated husband , Gerry Sharp , a citrus pioneer . His family unit have Melinda Estate in Belize ’s southeastern Stann Creek District , a 400 - acre tract that would eventually become the Marie Sharp factory . When the couple was n’t work out at the Citrus Company of Belize , they tended to the class acreage , plant all kinds of grapefruits and tangelos to sell at arena supermarkets .
tight - forward to the 1980s , when Sharp ’s sister come to her with a postulation from a medico base in Belize City . He was trying to develop his own small - batch pepper sauce , but could n’t find any habaneros nearby . Sharp was well-chosen to help . “ But I was so jerky — I did n’t consult the effective physician , ” she says . “ I just went ahead and planted habanero peppers , and I planted quite a snatch . ”
When the challenging Sharp showed up with a pickup truck packed with sassy peppers , the doctor , to her dismay , said he only call for a few . So Sharp went home with her nimiety and , in monastic order to prevent the peppers from spoiling , chuck out them in a blender to make a mash . “ I was asking the little home liquidiser to do what they were n’t made to do , ” Sharp says . “ After a while , my hubby run , ‘ What are you going to do with all that mash you have in the garage ? ’ I say , ‘ I do n’t make love , but just leave it there . It ’s not irritate anybody . ’ ”
Marie Sharp and her late husband, Gerry Sharp.|Marie Sharp’s Pepper Sauce USA
Some time later , after returning from her mean solar day problem as a repository at the Citrus Company , Sharp grabbed the mash and started experimenting with sauces , incorporating ingredients like bananas , papayas , and cabbage . When she finally cave in samples away to Friend , it was the carrot - based change that won everyone over . A friend suggested taking it to the market , and Sharp felt she had nothing to lose .
The budding capsicum pepper plant sauce materfamilias then got to work . She buy bottles by the dozen from booster , who would bring them over fromGuatemala . “ presently my husband goes , ‘ Well , the garage is full , now we are fill the veranda . What are you going to do with those ? , ’ " Sharp recalls . take the hint , she pack up her sauce along with some refried edible bean and tortillas and rifle doorway to room access offering samples to neighboring store owner .
If you can’t take the heat…
“ Believe it or not , Belize was one of my most difficult markets because Belizeans on the whole believe that nothing made here is estimable — it has to come from the US , it has to occur from the exterior , ” Sharp explain . “ Now , I ’m talk about 1981 . The first year I pushed my peppercorn sauce , my total sales agreement was BZ$17,000 . Anybody would ’ve throw in the towel and given up , but I did n’t . ”
undiscouraged , Sharp film the next few age to slowly grow her business . Then , in 1985 , Sharp began to export her product to friends in the US who volunteer to buy a few pallets and fan out the spicy sauce gospel in Los Angeles and Chicago . “ I be adrift it up on the Belize securities industry , saying , ‘ Marie Sharp ’s now in the US ! ’ And you could almost see the Belizeans go , ‘ The Americans like it , peradventure it ’s good , ’ ” Sharp explains . “ When I saw my local securities industry starting to elevate its pass , I told my married man , ‘ You know what ? You all find yourselves another secretary , because I ’m gone . ’ ” It was then that Gerry Sharp built his wife a little 30 - by-45 - base factory mightily there on the estate .
“ The tourists are my ambassador — there is not one tourist that add up here and does n’t take back some of my products to give to friends and congeneric . ”
This humble factory building gave rise to a pepper sauce empire.|Marie Sharp’s Pepper Sauce USA
A tenner and change by and by , and Marie Sharp ’s found itself immersed in a veritable blistering sauce boom . “ I think it was in the late ' 90s to maybe 2000 when I pop covering the entire country of Belize , ” remembers Sharp . One of her most surprising fanbases is in Japan , brought on by a coincidence tourer breakthrough back in 1997 . “ They occur to Belize , function out to San Pedro to dive , had the Piper nigrum sauce out there , and then came down here to calculate for me , ” she says . “ The tourists are my ambassador — there is not one tourer that comes here and does n’t take back some of my products to give to Friend and relatives . ”
Today , Sharp ’s products can be find in more than 36 countries . Hillary Clinton ravesabout the habanero sauce , and it was even featured onFirst We Feast’sHot Ones . Unlike your typical Tabasco , which is fermented to the period of liquid consistence , Sharp ’s sauce is made with clean ingredients like garlic and onions and is blended into a duncical , puree - like State Department .
Despite the sauce ’s international availability and cult - like following , there ’s a reason why Americans might only learn about Marie Sharp ’s on a visit to Belize : selling . Like many family - run Belizean business sector , the squad at Marie Sharp ’s struggle to reach the promotional store necessary to get the attention of major US supermarkets . It ’s only been within the last five years that chains like Walmart and Kroger have started to reach out to the fellowship due to — you guess it — customer demand .
Habanero peppers make their way down the line at Marie Sharp’s Belize factory.|Marie Sharp’s Pepper Sauce USA
A labor of love
All of the stain ’s component — with the episodic exclusion of carrot and onions , depend on the production time of year — are grow in Belize . Sharp in person lean to the more alien pepper variety , such as Scorpio peppers , but entrusts about 70 local employees to do the residuum . “ I prefer to give the people a probability of making something for themselves and becoming their own income earner , ” she says . And throughout every stage of the physical process , there ’s very minuscule intervention by way of fertilizers or heavy machinery . “ We have people that hand - uncase the garlic for us , ” Sharp adds .
“ [ It ] starts from the smart ingredients from no more than a 25 - mile radius , from Farmer that she experience by name , ” affirm Kuylen . “ The products are creditworthy for usage , economic stability , and most importantly , a strong gumption of Belizean Pride . ”
The business is truly a phratry endeavor : Sharp ’s niece serves as the general coach , while her grandson handles marketing . She ’s particularly proud of the way the fellowship has empowered women , which make up the bulk of the 68 - person surgery . “ There was never anything for char to do in this field — it was always just the citrus industry for men , while the ladies stayed at home plate to be mothers , ” Sharp says , going so far as to personally pay for one of her distaff employee to complete her education . “ My intention was to give char jobs , and she ’s now my number one in the lab . ”
Sharp getting inducted into the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame.|Marie Sharp’s Pepper Sauce USA
The Habanero Queen’s lasting legacy
In 2016 , Sharp was inducted into the New York CityHot Sauce Hall of Fame — the only female entrepreneurandforeign nominee to accept the award that year . “ I was have like a queen , ” she says . “ There were so many pepper citizenry there , and several of them came up to me and shared that it was because of me that they started their business . ”
If you ’re curious about where the magic pass , you canbook a manufactory tourto research the original adeptness in Stann Creek . “ holidaymaker walk through the entire railway line — where it ’s process , where it ’s milled , where it ’s meet , where it ’s capped , ” Sharp explain , saving the respectable part for last . “ And after that , they go into the giving workshop where they ’re given tasters of all the different pepper sauces and jam . ”
With 25 dissimilar types of pepper sauce under her belt , the only mixed bag Sharp has left to conquer is the ghost pepper . Aside from the heat , she ’s also worked up about a new jam made from huckleberry , an factor introduced to her by a Mennonite friend . It ’s that originative drive toward the future that motivate Sharp to keep on keeping on , despite being at an old age where most people have long since cashed in and hit the sack .
“ I think it was maybe in 2005 , my auditors were here , and I told them I was thinking of selling , ” she aver with an uptick in her vocalisation . “ There was one woman among the radical who straighten up in her chair and said , ‘ Miss Marie , you ca n’t sell this fellowship . This is Belize ’s pride and pleasure . ’ The way she articulate it , I had to take it back . And , well , I ’m still here today . ”
