What is Marie Sharp's secret process for smoking habanero peppers?
by Ginel McLarty February 27, 2021
Marie takes her world famous, juicy red habanero peppers and lovingly smokes them on her Melinda Estate farm, using four different types of fruit-wood: Craboo wood, Grapefruit Wood, Guava wood and Orange wood.
The result is an exquisite and deeply intense, exotic smoke aroma that is unique and will permeate any dish with rich flavor.
Marie crafts an amazing, deeply intense sauce from these exquisitely smoked peppers.
40 pound sacks of fresh peppers are loaded onto custom-made grates which are loaded into rows and then the doors are closed for 4 hours while smoke from behind the unit is drawn inside.
Watch the process here in this YouTube video.
Smoked Sauce Recipe
Fruitwood smoked fresh red Belizean habanero pepper, hand chopped carrots, natural vinegar, hand chopped white onions, natural sea salt, freshly squeezed key lime juice, and fresh roasted garlic - Mindfully made in Belize, Central America.
Soon after in 1991, Touby resigned and parted ways with his partners and went on to work in other industries. Subsequently, Touby testified on behalf of Marie in 1994 when a dispute arose between Touby's ex-partners and Marie, and despite best efforts, Marie gave up the rights to use the name "Melinda's", to avoid protracted legal costs and move on with her business.
With Marie Sharp’s Habanero Pepper sauce being Belize’s most famous hot sauce, sold worldwide, it is not unusual that fans of the hot sauce wonder where all the magic happens. For those purposes, Marie Sharp offers a full tour of the facility where visitors can see where and how the manufacturing of the pepper sauces takes place.
From the fresh seafood pulled out from the Caribbean Sea to the abundant farmland of the Cayo District, Belize is a country with a rich culinary culture, but there are few brands as ubiquitous as Marie Sharp’s. First established in 1980, the line has now grown to include 10 different spice levels — and you can find at least one bottle on practically any dinner table in the country.