Just past St. Croix’s Fort Christiansted, toward what the fishermen call Lobster Row, sits a brightly painted reincarnated service station. It’s an odd combination of the El Cohiba Restaurant and Cantina and the Y-Bee Dirty car wash. Everything you need rolled into one.

On our way there recently, just as it came into view a blast of strongly scented air assaulted us, reminiscent of the bold picante sauce served in Panamanian eateries. “Whew! What is that?” Bruce asked, sniffing the air, trying to make sense of the biting aroma closing in on us.

“It feels like a fire, but I don’t see smoke,” I choked back.

Thirsty from a day-long island expedition, we climbed onto wooden stools at El Cohiba and ordered cold drinks. A young Dominican woman served and entertained us as she held her own bantering with the West Indian customers. An American fellow appeared, ordered a Coke “to walk with” and retreated across the street to a disco-looking pink and white building.

Finally, catching a break in the conversation that didn’t include us, Bruce asked the young lady, “What’s that smell?”

“Dat Miss Anna’s,” she replied.

“Miss Anna’s?” I asked. “As in Miss Anna’s Hot Sauce?’

“Yes. Dat mon jus ere? He from Miss Anna’s,” she explained.

Miss Anna’s Hot Sauce first came onto our radar screen in Anguilla last spring when we met two Americans from St. Croix who were partners in the business. We’d only heard glimpses of the story and I wanted to know it all. So camera in hand, I headed across the street to the pink place.

Inside I introduced myself, met Clint Simon, Production Manager, and Tony Gatti, General Manager, and explained my curiosity. They obligingly answered my many questions before taking me into the kitchen, where the heat was on. Clint, dressed in a chef’s jacket, turned to me with a serious face and cautioned, “Be careful. You can’t stay in here long.”

I thought he was worried I’d get their secret recipe, until the impact of a boiling cauldron of habanera peppers in vinegar hit me full-on. Tears leapt from my eyes and my breathing suspended. “Whoa!” I choked, as they led me toward the stove. Carefully, I peered into the beginnings of 30 cases of Miss Anna’s fiery condiment … and the story behind it that goes back a century in time.


Miss Anna’s great-grandfather, a St. Lucian fisherman, developed the recipe to liven up his daily meal of fish and breadfruit. He made enough of it to share, barter or sell and for 60 years his sauce had a small but loyal following on the island of the Pitons. Forty years ago his son moved to St. Croix, bringing with him his family and the well-kept secret recipe for his father’s sauce.

The son’s granddaughter, Anna Denis, became the fourth generation to carry on the spicy combination of ingredients. Following in her great-grandfather’s footsteps, Anna made the hot sauce over an open fire, and demand for it grew. In fact, it became the most popular hot sauce on St. Croix and is always on the shelves of local shops. With hard work, Miss Anna had built the family recipe into a substantial business.

Unfortunately, though, as Anna approached retirement age no one in her family was interested in keeping the business going, so she set out to find the perfect buyer. Some time passed. She prayed about it. And then along came four American men who saw the potential and imagined the possibilities. They passed her inspection by spending a substantial amount of time learning every nuance of the sauce through several production cycles. Anna was not about to relinquish control of the product simply because money changed hands.

Now 71 years old, Miss Anna still visits the new owners every two weeks. She tastes and tests the product and is never shy about speaking her mind. Blessed with a green thumb, her mid-island home boasts a variety of fruit trees and an enormous garden, and she grows everything organically. Many of the ingredients in Miss Anna’s Hot Sauce still come from Miss Anna’s backyard! “Every time I go by to see her she gives me something,” Tony says, “and tells me about the medicinal properties of the herbs and plants she has. I always learn something new.”

To increase sales and export the sauce beyond the Virgin Islands, Miss Anna’s new team has taken on the Herculean task of dealing with stateside protocol. The Virgin Islands aren’t part of NAFTA nor the American tax code, which allows its products to be duty free in the states … but they must meet stringent FDA standards. The extra hoops they have to jump through have raised costs in a market already saturated with flashy hot sauce brands. “What we have that sets us apart, though, is a 100-year-old recipe that’s been validated,” Tony explained. “It’s made in the Virgin Islands, in the heart of the Caribbean, with the freshest Caribbean products. It might cost a little more, but it’s an authentic product that has traveled far.”

It’s also award-winning. Miss Anna’s Hot Sauce received a 2008 Scovie Award, with a first-place finish in the Authentic Caribbean category. “A scovie is a measuring unit of heat, sort of like the Richter scale for fiery foods,” said Tony. “The contest, held each year in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the Academy Awards of Heat. With over 800 competitors, earning the award confirmed the authenticity we’ve worked so hard to maintain.”

Inside each bottle of Miss Anna’s Hot Sauce, labeled with an artistic depiction of the old St. Lucien fisherman’s house, is an all-natural product. The traditional mix is hot pepper curry sauce, but for non-curry lovers they developed a new mix of peppers and garlic. Their lime-green Rainforest Season is a marinade that pairs well with anything you can think of. Tony suggested I even try it on pizza. Caribbean Shake, their latest brainchild, is a dry rub that mimics the original pepper sauce. Currently in the testing phase is a milder sauce.

Talking with Tony, I clearly sensed the commitment to Miss Anna’s family legacy. “We’re working hard to create a quiet storm,” he said. “We’ve inherited and created a special product and we’re dedicated to honoring Miss Anna’s work and the love she put into it. If we mess up or lower our standards, we’ll hear about it immediately from everyone right here in St. Croix.”

Jan