“I love habanero hot sauce” was a proclamation entirely out of character for me before my trip to Belize in May 2006.

My family wasn’t much for hot sauce when I was growing up. We were a typical ketchup-loving American family (think The Wonder Years). Actually, most of the food we ate on a daily basis was devoid of hot chilies and spiciness. I use to gasp at my Asian friend’s ability to put hot sauce on everything back then. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I first tried Thai food, and began to appreciate the heat of chilies and various peppers.

Habaneros grow well in Belize, and Marie Sharp’s hot sauce is a proud product of the region, as evidenced by it’s ubiquity in all restaurants, convenience stores, and gift shops. After a few days of seeing the same bottles, I finally broke down and tried it with some tortilla chips. It was HOT! It was two steps above the spiciness I had grown to tolerate in the States, and ironically, for the first time, I found myself reaching for hot sauce as a regular condiment at meals. There was something wonderfully masochistic about feeling the burn on my tongue and lips. The more I consumed it, the more the heat grew on me. Eventually, French fries or chips tasted bland without it.

I brought a bottle home with me as a souvenir. I enjoyed it on waffles and organic tortilla chips. I began to try other hot sauces. I received a sample of Dave’s Gourmet hot sauces for this past Christmas. It included “Insanity” sauce. I figured I was a habanero pro, and put a test drop of the stuff on a chip. I put that chip in my mouth and suddenly realized there’s a BIG difference between my beloved Marie Sharp’s Belizean habanero sauce and Dave’s insanity sauce. I went straight for the fridge to pour a glass of milk as my throat caught fire. Before I could do so, it happened. I sneezed. The sauce diverted from my throat, and up my nasal passage instead! I was beside myself (leave a comment if you know an effective way to wash hot sauce out of your nose). The sample bottle went straight to the garbage – EVIL!

As I was saying, I love habanero hot sauce!

Who out there is with me!?