Hot sauce has been a kitchen table staple for Latinos for thousands of years. The Aztecs pretty much invented it. We put it on eggs, on snacks, on meat….you probably have that person in your life who would put it on their finest cardboard and eat it up, the stuff is so popular. Anything that brings vegans and carnivores together at the dinner table deserves to be celebrated. Enjoy this roundup of hot sauces from all over Latin America to try out with your next meal.

1. Mexico: Cholula

Made in Chapala, Jalisco, the sauce is made with a blend of piquín and arbol chiles. It’s often put up against Tapatio on American restaurant tables in a Coke vs. Pepsi level battle of the condiments. But we know there’s room for both. However, if you’re really dedicated, you might be able to join the Order of Cholula for exclusive offers.

2. Belize: Marie Sharp

Made in Stann Creek, Belize, Marie Sharp started her line of hot sauces in her kitchen where she experimented with blends of Habanero peppers and jams and jellies made from fruits and vegetables picked from her farm. The brand has long outgrown the kitchen and went international. We stan an entrepeneurial queen.

3. Costa Rica: Banquete Chilero

This thicker sauce from Costa Rica gets its flavor from habanero peppers and carrots. Some might compare it to an asian sweet and sour sauce.

4. Guatemala: Picama’s Salsa Brava

This mild, green sauce has a ketchup-like consistency and is made with serrano peppers. The color is straight up neon, but some people swear by it, stocking up on bottles when they visit Guatemala. Also, don’t you love when an abuela comes through like this?

5. Honduras: D’Olanchano

This hot sauce uses Tabasco peppers grown in the Olancho valley and later aged in wooden barrels to acquire its taste.

6. Nicaragua: Chilango

Chilango Chile sources their ingredients from all over the world to create unique flavors in their line of hot sauces. The Cabro Consteño is made with the Nicaraguan yellow “goat” pepper grown on the Atlantic coast. The Habanero Chocolate gets its name from the dark, brown pepper it uses for flavor. It doesn’t actually have chocolate in it – whether that relieves or distresses you.

7. Panama: D’Elidas

This yellow is made with Habanero peppers, mustard, and vinegar. Hot sauce lovers report getting a lot of that mustard taste in the sauce, so adjust expectations accordingly. People are known to fill up their suitcases with bottles before leaving Panama.

8. Brazil: Mendez Hot Sauce

Mendez Hot Sauce is a brand out of Central Brazil where creator, Rafael Mendez strives for sustainable business practices that help his community. The sauce uses the locally sourced Malagueta pepper which creates work for local farming families, lifting many of them out of poverty.

9. Chile: Diaguitas

Diaguitas is the most popular hot sauce in Chile, coming in a few flavors. It’s light on ingredients, letting the peppers speak for themselves. It’s salty, so handle with care to balance that taste out on your food.

10. Colombia: Amazon Pepper Sauce

This brand uses a variety of Amazon peppers that grow at the edge of the rainforest in the Andes Cauca Valley. They blend the chilis with other tropical ingredients. They have a mild flavor that stands out made with guava. 

11. Ecuador: Ole

Ole carries a few different flavors, but it always goes back to the ingredients to make a hot sauce unique to the region it comes from. Ole uses the tena pepper which only grows in Ecuador. They have it on its own where you get the fruit taste with a lash of heat. They also put it in their Tamarillo sauce which couples the tena with the fruit from the pepper tomato tree.

12. Peru: Salsa de Aji Amarillo

What’s actually the most popular thing to do in Peru is to just make your own hot sauces. However, sometimes you can find bottled sauces that will satisfy the craving. The Peru Chef makes one with the aji amarillo pepper which has a subtle sweetness to it and is a cornerstone of Peruvian cuisine.

Of course, there are many hot sauces from all over Latin America that you’ll simply have to travel for if you want the best like Llajwa sauce from Bolivia. You could also probably stay home and get some bomb green sauce from King Taco.

One thing that no one can ever take away from us Latinos is that we know how to hustle. When we see an opportunity we take it, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Whether we were taught to sell crap at the swap meet, babysit the neighbor’s annoying kids, sell liquados from our backyard, or make cakes out of our kitchen, we know how to make a buck. That is why this next story of homemade salsas is no surprise. What is kind of shocking is that we didn’t think about selling this idea ourselves sooner, and that’s what makes this item even that more genius.

An independent Mexican grocer noticed that all the sauces he sold at his store had a ton of preservatives.

Credit: elpatohotsauce / Instagram

Juan García, the owner of Super Carnicería La 18 in the border town of Matamoros in Mexico, said the lack of authentic Mexican sauces —without preservatives — made him wonder why he couldn’t create real sauces himself. 

“Our specialty is roast meat, we have 35 years of experience in that, but we began to see that the sauces that were sold had many [preservatives],” García said in an interview with El Pais. He added that because they sell their on-demand meat on the weekends, they also prepare their own recipes to accompany the foods. He said in order to make their signature recipe, they had to buy machines to start producing their homemade sauces. 

As you know, the sauce is everything. Without an excellent sauce to put on carne asada, or tacos, or flautas, or beans, or anything, you might as well not eat at all. 

García knew his signature sauce would be delicious, but he needed a way to market the sauces in order to be unique and ensure sales.

Credit: SuperCarniceriaLa18 / Facebook

“I had to get attention,” García told the publication. Yet, the question was what could he name the sauces that would attract people? The label indicated the name of the store, La 18, and that’s not particularly special. Neither is the type of salsa. Most salsas are red, green, mild, hot, etc. 

Then, just like a stroke of lightning, at least we’d like to picture it that way, García knew exactly how he’d sell the sauces. García used his own family’s story to create the branding of the sauces. 

García knew that he wanted to make it something funny and empowering so he drew inspiration from his father’s lack of English and how he was mocked for that lack of knowledge.

Credit: Super Carniceria La 18 / Facebook

“These are words that my father said,” García told el País. “He worked some time in Brownsville, but he didn’t know any English. People laughed at him.”

García adds that the only way his father could fight back against those mocking him was to curse at them. The problem was since his English wasn’t so good, his curse words were really tough to understand, but not to Latinos! We know how to understand broken English, especially that is spoken by elder Latinos. So, without further ado, let us present each salsa in all its glory.

The salsa verde salsa is called “madafaker,” which means mother f*cker.

Credit: Super Carniceria La 18 / Facebook

Incredible, right? We’ve all heard one of our abuelos or tíos say this out loud when things just weren’t going their way.

The red sauce is called “sanababish” — in other words, son of a b*tch.

Credit: Super Carniceria La 18 / Facebook

The Spanglish spelling is utter perfection. Admit it. When you read it, you read it like an angry abuelo yelling at someone in their thick accent.

Then there’s the habanero chili sauce that is straight-up Spanish, sort of.

Credit: Super Carniceria La 18 / Facebook

That reads exactly how it’s spelled: “asupichimaye” or a su pinche madre. 

“It’s what people say when they try our habanero chili sauce, because it’s very spicy,” Garcia said. Of course, it makes perfect sense.

So if you’re wondering whether or not his unique sauce naming strategy was a success or not, just check out these comments.

Credit: Super Carniceria La 18 / Facebook

You don’t have travel all the way down to Mexico to purchase these stellar sauces, they can ship them to you! The sauces have been such a success that they produce about 500 bags of each type of sauce every week. The store itself is doing so well that García plans to open a new store in Monterrey, Mexico.

Now, the question remains, which one would you try first? We’re kind of lightweights so we’d definitely try the asupichimaye green creamy sauce. What about you? Let us know in the comment section below!

READ: This Entrepreneur Worked For Years To Sell Her Authentic Mexican Sauces To The World And It Paid Off