For centuries one of the world’s most amazing and least known hot-sauces — Shito, has been enjoyed in the West African country of Ghana where it is undisputed as the country’s favorite and not without reason. It is rare that anyone tries Shito for the first time and is not subsequently blown away by how good it tastes. Dried shrimps, herring, onions and chilli peppers cooked in oil for a prolonged period deliver a taste that sets it apart from perhaps 90% of what the rest of the world has come to expect from hot sauce.
In bringing Shito to an American consumer base, we were aware of the challenges we would face. Shito has a shorter shelf-life than most hot-sauces, it doesn’t come in the traditional red color that most people expect for hot sauce, and it’s dark and rough texture courts ridicule with a name that seems prefixed with a descriptive profanity — Sh*t! We had countless debates about whether or not to change the name of the product before bringing it to the market, a debate that most of our competitors clearly had. Most of them chose to massage the names of their products in one way or another to avoid a potential backlash stemming from mainstream perceptions of the product’s traditional name. We went a different route. There would be no compromises here — not with the name, the taste or how spicy the product is. We did however come up with a way to make it easier to consume Shito.
It is ironic that in a country where most traditional dishes are eaten with bare hands, such that holding a spoon or fork once a meal is underway becomes a mess, Shito has always come in jars with twist caps that need to be held (usually with both hands), opened, and scooped with a spoon. The debacles don’t end there. Shito’s shelf-life is dramatically reduced when it comes into close contact with wet spoons. We came up with the plastic squeeze-containers with flip caps to solve these problems, but it was not by coincidence. This product is made for Shito lovers (hot sauce lovers?) by Shito lovers. For our first product, we thought it fitting to come up with a product which we would happily consume all by ourselves if it didn’t catch on.
If you already know and love shito as much as we do, try this one out, you’ll never look back. If you are new to shito, then you’re in for a treat.