
Our Roots
Lil Pepper Pants is founded by a Florida native, crafted in Florida, using Fresh from Florida Peppers. This Saint Pete hot sauce company was originally started Costa Rica, but the owner is back to his roots! Crafting hot sauce in the Saint Petersburg and greater Pinellas area. A true “Florida Hot Sauce” that is crafted locally, using local ingredients, and distributed locally, but is enjoyed globally.
Florida to Costa Rica, Back to Florida

As a Florida Native, I like heat, both in food and climate. Born in Sarasota, I, Ryan, grew up on Siesta Key and graduated from FSU, I grew up in paradise, but as the town grew, I also outgrew the town of Sarasota. I found I was spending most of my free time in Saint Pete either for fishing or music, other than the beach days spent Siesta Key. But, I needed to turn the page to the next chapter looking for the next adventure. In 2009 after much deliberation and planning, I hopped on a plane with a few suitcases, a vision, and no idea of my future…starting a new life in Costa Rica. As many others, I was looking for a pure life (Pura Vida), which Costa Rica is famous for. Costa Rica felt like the Florida of days past. It called to me in a familiar way. Nice people, relaxed attitude, a bit lawless, warm weather, abundant nature, ocean activities and adventure, and, like I said, a bit of a Wild West way of life overall. It was fantastic. With all of these amazing things to offer, it lacked one thing…interesting food. Don’t get me wrong, the ingredients were fresh and locally grown, but they lacked creativity and flavor. Seasoning consisted of salt, pepper, and maybe lime. Condiments available were ketchup, mayonnaise, or the combination of the two, affectionately called “salsa rosada” or “pink sauce. I still laugh today hearing chefs talk about “their special salsa rosada,” as if it was some culinary treasure. But, there was hope. Hot sauce! Thanks to the help of my wife, Katelyn, who I met while I a was a boat captain of large catamarans doing tourist tours and charters, we brainstormed our new idea to work for ourselves. We decided to start slinging gourmet American favorites from a tuk tuk, which I converted into a “Food Tuk.” We sold our stuff as “Fair Fare, at a Fair Fare.” We were focused on events such as late-night eats for weddings, house parties, business events, a few farmer’s markets, and such. We even did a movie premier with the tuk, as it was so cute and photogenic that it was a great conversation starter. But, our food needed more sauce options than the “red”, “white” or “salsa rosada” options.

I got to work. Formulating homemade traditional condiments but adding heat. The original 3 sauces were a Jalapeño Pickle Relish, a Mango Habanero Honey Mustard, and a Smokey Bacon Honey Sriracha Ketchup. They were a hit and were selling. So, I kept experimenting and creating flavors. We needed some more traditional hot sauces so I hit the kitchen. I am not a fan of boring, single-note hot sauce. Sure, the traditional plain type of hot sauce sells, being the top-known brands are exactly that – thin, uninteresting liquid heat, that certainly changes the flavor of your food, but not necessarily for the better. I wanted a complex flavor profile, with several notes and different peppers in my sauce. As I mentioned, fresh ingredients were abundant in Costa Rica, including fresh peppers for our hot sauces. This was a great start. But, as the business grew, we struggled with procuring the peppers I wanted, and the quantities necessary, and on top of that, I couldn’t get consistent prices. Especially during Covid-19. During the pandemic our business soared, People were at home, scouring the internet, ordering packaged goods, including hot sauce. Business was booming, but peppers were scarce. The only solution to this was to grow our own peppers. Learning to “commercially garden” as we went, the farm grew, ending up with over 300 varieties grown over the years from super hots to fun hobby peppers to haba-nadas (habaneros with zero heat). I think the best prank pepper in the world is a haba-nada. You can really raise an eyebrow from onlookers if you mow down a bunch and not flinch lol. The whole project was a blast. We sponsored Pepper Eating contest, became a consistent guest on podcasts, and hosted a weekly radio show. Lil Pepper Pants became a hot commodity! Over the years, we had evolved into the “Pepper People” and everyone we knew was calling us for advice on sauces, peppers, and farming tips. We had created a monster, that we loved. Lil Pepper Pants is King, All hail Lil Pepper Pants, haha

Ok, so about the name: Where in the heck did we come up with “Lil Pepper Pants for the name?” Answer: Too many beers one night and a jestful mockery of the human ego, are the simple answer. We had noticed that there is an ego that seems to accompany so many people when discussing or eating hot sauce, and or hot peppers. We consistently met people who thought they were the exception to the rule when it came to our pepper’s humbling power. Look, we were hosting pepper-eating contests with our peppers, always promoting our hottest stuff around the country, and consistently talking about peppers…so people constantly put themselves in front of the fire, so to speak. We kept running into inflated egos who wanted to try their hand at eating our stuff. So, we found it hilarious (and still do), to say “Oh, why don’t you put on some Lil Pepper Pants tough guy, haha!” Ironically, the majority of our sauces are not particularly spicy, rather they are more focused on flavor than heat. However, our Skull’ding Hot still brings some to their knees, in tears…and I can’t help but smirk. Long live the “emasculating” Lil Pepper Pants!

Why transition back to Florida, Saint Pete specifically, after nearly 14 years in Costa Rica? Answer: My mom lives in Sarasota and it was time to return “home.” None of us are getting any younger, so we decided the time had come to pull the chute and head back. Before moving to Costa Rica, I had spent a lot of time in the downtown area of Saint Pete, for music, events, nightlife and even skateboarding back in the day. I knew I was not interested in moving to Sarasota, so Saint Petersburg was the obvious choice. Not that Saint Pete needed hot sauce, but that Lil Pepper Pants hot sauce needed Saint Pete! We have traveled the world in depth, and Saint Pete honestly wins every time against any city we have visited. Medellin, Colombia is a close 2nd, but still, St. Petersburg made more sense for life and for our local boutique hot sauce business. We love the Burg! Moving here not only allowed us to be closer than Costa Rica to my mom (about 3,000 miles closer by car) but also to reintegrate into a modern civilization and potentially grow Lil Pepper Pants as a Saint Pete hot sauce company in a variety of different ways. Only 4 months after making the decision, we had sold or donated everything we owned and were on a plane heading to TPA, and to our new home in the Burg. The only thing we didn’t let go of besides the EIGHT, yes only 8 suitcases of belongings that came with us, was our beloved Lil Pepper Pants! So, now, Lil Pepper Pants hot sauce lives on, as a Costa Rica-founded, Florida made by a Florida Native, local hot sauce, which is now a company based out of Saint Petersburg creating a locally crafted sauce using locally sourced FRESH FROM FLORDA peppers. We hope you enjoy putting on your Lil Pepper Pants for years to come. Stay Hot America!