Best Hot Sauce UK and Best Aged hot sauce UK

Setting the scene – the Caribbean heat

I guess you could say we really love our work and our sauces. My wife and I settled in Scotland from Trinidad in 2007 and not long after we missed the heat of the Caribbean. Not the sun but the hot sauce that everyone in the Caribbean uses every day. Its hard to explain. You drive to Pizza Hut and you get a pizza, it comes with sachets of mustard, ketchup and hot sauce. You drive to KFC or McDonalds and yes you guessed it hot sauce sachets abound.  My wife remembers school and in the break all the kids running to the gate to buy pholourie (street food using chick pea flour, or another street food Doubles (see our recipe for doubles at LINK). Both came with a plastic bag with sweet mango and hot sauce and all the kids dipping away and eating.   In the Caribbean  hot sauce is on everything and it really does taste better.

How we make our hot sauce

So how do we make the best hot sauce UK? We make our sauce with umami and umami comes from our aged pickled daikon. Ooft! is a small artisan food manufacturing company located in the Scottish Borders.  This is a hot smooth tasty pepper condiment with plenty of umami and is laid down like fine wine. and takes time to mature. Depending on batch, the colour and heat can vary due to the peppers themselves, but the taste is consistent. Ooft! is a vegan product. So what makes it special?

1. Umami – We use daikon a huge white Japanese radish which brings umami. We are the only hot condiment with daikon
2. Age – We age for 1-3 years in vats before bottling. Because of this unique aging process, we are the only UK hot condiment maker that ages to create a  smooth rich flavour
3. Pure – Unlike most other hot sauces that put guar gum or other additives we add nothing to Ooft! because the slow aging eliminates the need.

The man who started it all

Lancelot Paul (Rudy) DeCoteau – was a man who loved peppers. We dedicate the site to his memory. He grew peppers and he experimented over many years with pepper sauce. His daughters remember him, every day putting out his huge glass jars of sauce to warm in the tropical sun. He tried many recipes and eventually was happy and it is this recipe, handed down, that is the core of our products. Rudy passed away in 2008 but his memory, his recipe, and his love of peppers continue with his daughters.

Ooft! today

One of his daughters married an Englishman and they moved to Scotland. They decided to continue the proud tradition, and thus Ooft! hot pepper sauce was born. After all the finest pepper in the world (Scotch Bonnet) was named after the Tam O’Shanter a Scottish hat. We bring the clear waters of Scotland (the same used to make uisge beatha, the water of life, commonly known as Scotch) to the heat of the Caribbean pepper in a unique blend. This is our Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce. Best hot sauce uk

Buy our hot sauce by clicking below

Ooft! Scoville Units

Our sauce is hot and it is at the high end of the official scotch bonnet range which is 80,000 – 400,000. Ooft! is about 300,000 Scoville units. We do not make this to win awards as “hottest”. Our concentration is on flavour and smooth taste. We view Ooft! as a condiment that should be on every dining table along with pepper and salt. Aging slowly brings out the unique fruity taste of the scotch bonnets.