My first bottle of OB’s Irie Pepper Sauce was a personal record breaker. It took less than a week to down all of its contents, with no help! Chicken enchiladas, a cheese quesadilla, eggs, beans and rice, and various leftovers were all topped off with this glorious spicy sensation. This sauce is clearly one of my favorites, so when the interview with OB’s Irie owners Sean & Sara O’Brien was confirmed, I was thrilled! Below is an exclusive look into an admirable husband and wife team that has created a world class hot sauce. Enjoy, and thanks for reading! – Lane Williams
On each bottle of your sauce, the flag of Trinidad and Tobago is displayed. Can you tell me the significance of this, and how this country has influenced the flavors we taste in the sauce?
Yes, Sean is originally from the island of Trinidad & Tobago. Sean grew up eating a pepper sauce similar to the pepper sauce that we make. We just liked to have the flag to show where the recipe originated.
Tell me more about the name of your sauce. What does it mean?
OB is Sean’s nickname for years now since his last name is O’Brien, the word “Irie” means feel good or everything is good, pepper sauce is the more common word for hot sauce in the islands, and marinade is just to show the diversity of our product.
Now one of my favorite foods to add this sauce to is a cheese quesadilla. What is your favorite?
We truly use it on everything, in our eggs for breakfast, chicken curry, or as a marinade. We put it on bbq chicken and our taco meat, and soups. I can keep the list going, we really love having it on every meal.
In the near future, are there any new flavors, specials or promotions that your fan base can look forward to?
As of right now we are sticking to our one flavor. We do have some merchandise ideas planned for the future.
Was there a defining moment that inspired you to start bottling and selling your hot sauce?
Yes, we have always had a tremendous response with giving it to our friends and family. We began growing our own personal garden in our backyard, shortly after that we realized that we had plenty of space to try and grow all the peppers for our pepper sauce, and then we thought, lets create this into a small business. Sara took a course to be able to package and produce an acidified product, and here we are 3 years later!
Aside from work and hot sauce business, what are some activities the two of you enjoy?
We both love being outside and enjoying nature, we love to go canoeing, hiking, spending time at the beach & camping. Sara is a technically trained dancer and continues teaching dance. Sean’s second home is the ocean, he is a spear fisherman and a free diver. We feel very blessed to be able to explore this beautiful earth!
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