Hot Sauce War: Marie Sharp vs. Melinda's

[paulraphael]

This as part rave, part rant. I'm hoping people will stores for Marie Sharp's hot sauce, which is the best I've ever had. I realize everyone has an opinion about hot sauce ... how else could there be so many on the shelves? But for now I want to talk about two: Marie Sharp's and Melinda's.

 

Once upon a time, I tried Melinda's habanero pepper sauce, and was hooked. It was then the best I'd ever had. It was hard to find, and when I saw it at a specialty shop, I stocked up. Then some time after moving to NYC, I started seeing it everywhere. It seemed that for once, something good had found an in with the public. And then I stumbled onto this article in Belize Magazine.

 

In short: Melinda's was owned by a Belize farmer named Marie Sharp. She created the recipe so she could sell the habanero's her farm produced. Sadly, she wasn't wise to international trademark law, and her American distributor screwed her out of the product name and labelling. They basically stole her product, and started making a quasi-clones sauce with Costa Rican chiles.

 

Marie had to start from scratch. And so the Marie Sharp's brand was born.

 

I get angry every time I see Melinda's now, which is often. Whole foods, lots of specialty stores, my local food coop: Melinda's. I think some of the places would switch to the authentic brand if they knew, or at least if their customers made some noise.

 

Has anyone tried Marie's? The classic version that I linked to is great, but my favorite may be the green habanero and prickly pear cactus. Incredible.

Edited March 12, 2014 by paulraphael (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Years ago my younger son brought me back a bottle from Belize.  It was very good.

[Shel_B]

This as part rave, part rant. I'm hoping people will stores for Marie Sharp's hot sauce, which is the best I've ever had. I realize everyone has an opinion about hot sauce ... how else could there be so many on the shelves? But for now I want to talk about two: Marie Sharp's and Melinda's.

 

Once upon a time, I tried Melinda's habanero pepper sauce, and was hooked. It was then the best I'd ever had. It was hard to find, and when I saw it at a specialty shop, I stocked up. Then some time after moving to NYC, I started seeing it everywhere. It seemed that for once, something good had found an in with the public. And then I stumbled onto this article in Belize Magazine.

 

In short: Melinda's was owned by a Belize farmer named Marie Sharp. She created the recipe so she could sell the habanero's her farm produced. Sadly, she wasn't wise to international trademark law, and her American distributor screwed her out of the product name and labelling. They basically stole her product, and started making a quasi-clones sauce with Costa Rican chiles.

 

Marie had to start from scratch. And so the Marie Sharp's brand was born.

 

I get angry every time I see Melinda's now, which is often. Whole foods, lots of specialty stores, my local food coop: Melinda's. I think some of the places would switch to the authentic brand if they knew, or at least if their customers made some noise.

 

Has anyone tried Marie's? The classic version that I linked to is great, but my favorite may be the green habanero and prickly pear cactus. Incredible.

 

Essentially, your story is accurate, although "edited for space."  I've been using Marie Sharp's sauce since it was Melinda's, and, like you, was pretty angry about the turn of events and the misappropriation of the trademark.

 

Marie Sharp still makes her sauce the "old fashioned way," and in my opinion, it's every bit as good as it was originally.  I'm pleased to see that she's expanded her product offerings, but I still like, and prefer, the original versions.

[Jaymes]

Didn't know the story, but often grabbed Melinda's sauce because the label looked so similar to Marie Sharp's.  Wondered why.

 

However, I've traveled extensively throughout Belize, and always brought back a nice selection of Marie Sharp's.  There are a great many dishes that I serve that can use a few dashes of hot sauce to enhance the flavor (like Mexican-style shrimp cocktails).  Because I entertain folks with varying degrees of heat tolerance, I pass around a cute little basket holding several different hot sauces.  I love all of Marie Sharp's, but particularly appreciate her milder sauces.  They've got such great flavor, but not too much heat. Which makes them perfect when I'm entertaining little kids.  Or Yankees.

[patrickamory]

I like both of the commonly available Marie Sharpe's quite a lot (hot habanero and mild habanero). For those who haven't had it, it's a versatile hot sauce based on carrots.

 

One of its great advantages is that it lasts forever in the fridge and doesn't get stale, unlike a lot of the competition (preservatives or not).

[paulraphael]

The green habanero / prickly pear version is amazing. Maybe not as versatile, but it's the tastiest hot sauce I've ever had.

[Alex]

Thanks to Paul for starting this thread. I had no idea.

 

To honor (and support) Marie, I ordered three bottles.