Orisirisi Pepper Sauce Adds the Spice of Life to Every Meal and Snack
Add a dash to everything from marinades, stews, chili and tacos to dips and cocktails for a burst of flavor.
Ramon, Francy and Frances Hinds run Orisirisi pepper sauce company.
It’s not hot sauce. It’s pepper sauce.
“The culture we come from, pepper sauce is like a religion,” says Orisirisi pepper sauce company co-owner Ramon Hinds, who owns the family-run company with his wife, Frances Hinds. “I am from Trinidad, and when someone comes to your home for dinner, the first thing they always ask you is, ‘Do you have any pepper sauce?’”
Ramon says families in Trinidad have their own pepper sauce recipes, but they always compare flavors. He says his pepper sauce does not last in any of his friends’ refrigerators, and it certainly doesn’t last in my own.
Ramon and Frances teamed up to create their own food business with support from their daughter, Francy, through the help of Hope & Main food incubator kitchen in Warren. The married couple works together to create many different varieties of the pepper sauce in the commercial kitchen space, including pineapple, mango, Dominican habanero and a Rainbow blend, with a peach version coming soon. They also recently won the Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream competition at Hope & Main and earned $10,000 to use toward business development. The couple plans to use the funds to create pre-packaged vegan and vegetarian meals using their sauces, that will be distributed in different markets on refrigerated shelves.
Orisirisi means “variety” in Hinds native Yoruba language, so he coined the product’s tagline to be “Spice of life.” Variety is “the spice of life,” and just a dash of pepper sauce can brighten up snacks and meals, including everything from a simple cream cheese dip for chips, or added to chili, stew or tacos.
Ramon says he created the business after moving to the United States from Trinidad and being uninspired by the hot sauces that sat on grocery store shelves. He wanted to make his own sauce like he did back home. “When most Caribbean people migrate to the US and they go into the store, we see hot sauce, and we get confused because we are used to pepper sauce,” Ramon says. “There was a lack of choices in pepper sauces and they weren’t meeting our expectations. I found that it was an injustice to the pepper sauce industry where people were trying to make the sauces so hot that you couldn’t enjoy your food.”
Ramon chose to focus more on flavor rather than scorching heat. The sauces can be used in marinades for meat or enjoyed straight from the bottle with tortilla chips. “It’s versatile, there’s a great texture and a balance of heat and flavor,” says Ramon’s wife, Frances. “A lot of companies try to make it as hot as possible, and if you burn people’s palates, they can’t really enjoy their food. It’s about enhancing the flavor of your food, versus burning your palate.”
Ramon learned the art of making pepper sauce back in his homeland of Trinidad and Tabago where an abundance of tropical fruits grow. He would harvest mangoes, pineapple and peppers, and use them to make “chow,” which is a type of pickle created by brining green fruits with hot peppers, garlic, onions, lime juice, salt and herbs. He adds this special brine to his pepper sauces to give them their signature flavor.
Ramon first tested his sauces out on his friends, and his friends said the sauces never made it to their refrigerators, while other pepper sauces lasted for months.
“We fill the sink with all the empty bottles,” Frances says. “You know it’s good when you are eating your own product every single day.”
They also choose to give back a portion of proceeds from the sauces to help the homeless. The couple is always reaching out and helping others in need. Ramon’s grandmother was a very special person in their lives and she taught this lesson to her son.
To the Hinds family, life is not about getting rich or having material goods. “I see my success by how much I give back or give out, and how many people I help out along the way,” Ramon says. “My grandmother played a major role in my life because she introduced me to God and she taught me how important it is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Ramon and Frances are on the same page when it comes to giving back. Frances was born in Puerto Rico, so they often combine their two cultures into their business. Frances even lived in Trinidad for a time before she and Ramon started dating. The couple met in Boston when Frances was thirteen, and they stayed in touch. They each lived there and worked in the same mall in downtown Boston, became friends, and kept bumping into each other over the years. They later began dating when Frances was nineteen. They now have two children, Francy and Raymond, who they named after each other.
Ramon believes they were destined to find each other. “Here I am all the way in Trinidad growing up, never knowing my future wife will be in Boston where I had never been in my whole life,” he says. “I always tell her, ‘You know I knew you before right? The life before this life, we were together right?’ I always tell her no matter what happens, even if 100 lifetimes go by, I am always going to find you and we’re going to be together.”
Orisirisi plans to host a “Trini-cue” this spring or summer in Rhode Island and in Boston. Stayed tuned to their social media for details. orisirisispiceoflife.com
