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Chili pepper water has been a household staple in Hawaii for generations, way before hot sauces became "cool" across the mainland.
Families have their own recipes and methods of making it, but as for Da Secret Sauce, its first iteration was served in the Moribe family household on Kauai.
"When I was 18, in 1998, I didn’t realize what a crucial part of my life chili pepper water was," said Rex Moribe, owner of Da Secret Sauce LLC. Back then he had left home for college. "I was broke. I ate ramen three times a day (and realized), ‘I need to make this ramen taste good,’" he said.
He called home.
"Mom, you gotta tell me how you make chili water," he pleaded.
Being a loving mother, she did.
After graduation he would go to barbecues and potlucks, and because he didn’t cook, he would take his family-recipe chili pepper water.
That resulted in tons of requests from friends who wanted to have his sauce at home, and people strongly encouraged him to go into business with his concoction.
He started making it for family and friends around 2007 or 2008, in addition to his day job.
The prospect of creating a business around the sauce consumed his off-time.
"If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it the right way," he said, and delved into research so he could do everything "by the book," citing research with the Department of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and others about "getting everything approved, down to the labeling," he said.
The chili pepper water Moribe makes now, during his off-hours as an IT exchange administrator, is tweaked from his mom’s recipe, "and the irony is … my hot sauce has no water. I put zero drops of water in my chili water," he said.
Da Secret Sauce contains distilled vinegar, garlic, Hawaiian salt and Hawaiian chili peppers, or Capsicum frutescens, to be exact.
It is the same variety of hot pepper used to make Tabasco, but just as with wine, being grown in Hawaii gives the Hawaii variety its own "terroir," Moribe said.
Being grown in Hawaii also gives the product a panache and desirability similar to coffees that are grown and produced in the islands, he said.
"I live and die by the Hawaiian chili pepper,"Moribe said. His current struggle is finding a steady and large enough supply of quality Hawaiian chilies, he said.
He went "full bore" in 2011 with support from his longtime business partner Jason Koji, who has gotten the sauce into retail locations but also into restaurants.
The timing could not have been better.
About 54 percent of consumers now prefer very spicy foods and sauces, compared with 48 percent in 2011 and 46 percent in 2009, according to Technomic Inc., a research and consulting firm for the food and beverage industry.
Spicy flavors also are adding to the growing trend of savory, as opposed to sweet, alcoholic beverages, Technomic reported in April.
Days ago the industry-focused firm cited spicy, chili-peppery flavors as the No. 1 trend that has emerged during the first half of this year that will lead the food and beverage scene into the second half of the year.
Da Secret Sauce is produced in a commercial kitchen in Waipio, and because of the fumes chili peppers emit, he "bought the entire staff their own … industrial biohazard gas masks," he said.
By 2012 he was ready for the Made in Hawaii Festival. By the second day of the three-day event, Moribe and his team sold out of more than 600 bottles.
"Nine out of 10 people who sampled the chili pepper water said, ‘This is amazing,’" Moribe said, while about 10 percent said either that it was not spicy enough or that it was too spicy.
He did other fairs and festivals and shows as a vendor but has since scaled back to just the Made in Hawaii Festival, where he will be Aug. 15 through 17.
In addition to retailers on Oahu, Hawaii island, Kauai and Maui and in California and Japan, Da Secret Sauce is served at various restaurants in Hilo including Cafe Pesto, Koji’s Bento Korner, Hawaiian Style Cafe and Puka Puka Kitchen.
WHERE TO BUY
dasecretsauce.com
DaSecretSauce@gmail.com
Oahu
>> Aoki’s North Shore Trading Co., 66-082 Kamehameha Highway, Haleiwa
>> Diamond Head Cove, 3045 Monsarrat Ave., Diamond Head area
>> Hawaiian Fire, Ko Olina Center, 92-1047 Olani St., Kapolei
>> Kailua General Store, 171-D Hamakua Drive, Kailua
>> Tamura’s Market Kalaeloa, 91-1051 Enterprise Ave., Kapolei
>> Waialua Fresh, 67-071 Nauahi St., Waialua
Hawaii island
>> Parker Ranch, Kamuela
>> Eighty Two Creations, Hilo
>> Abundant Life Natural Foods, Hilo
>> Low Store, Pepeekeo
Kauai
>> Aloha Spice Co., Hanapepe
>> Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas Market, Princeville
Maui
>> Ulupalakua Ranch, Kula
California
>> Motu Hawaii, San Diego
Japan
>> 8011 General Store, Tokyo
“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
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COURTESY DA SECRET SAUCE
COURTESY CODY STEWART
COURTESY DA SECRET SAUCE
COURTESY JOSIAH PATTERSON
COURTESY JOSIAH PATTERSON
COURTESY DA SECRET SAUCE