Five small-batch Cuban hot sauces from a Miami family company
If you searched for Miami hot sauce, this is the one made here. Barbaro Mojo was founded in Miami in November 2020 and every bottle is still hand-bottled in small batches in the city. The sauces start with mojo criollo, the garlic and sour orange marinade of Cuban cooking, then add real peppers, from a mild 3 to a 10 on the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale. Buy online, or pick up a bottle at Bodega Ortega in Coconut Grove.
Shop the SaucesAll five share the mojo criollo base. Heat numbers are the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale (1 to 10, not Scoville); the heat guide explains it.
Heat 3 of 10, the mildest. Jalapeño and green bell pepper on the mojo base. Bright, garlicky, and our most awarded sauce. Say it jah-lah-BAH-oh.
Heat 9 of 10. Habanero with tomato, red bell pepper, and sweet onion. The hottest of the everyday line; the bottle that goes on steak and lechón.
Heat 6 of 10. Pineapple and Carolina Reaper on a pineapple-juice mojo base. Sweet first, then the punch. Scovie Awards Grand Prize for packaging.
Heat 8 of 10. Mango and habanero with a little Carolina Reaper underneath. Fruity, then hot. Wings, chicken, rice bowls.
Heat 10 of 10, the only extreme sauce we make. Habanero and Carolina Reaper on the mojo base, in limited runs. 2nd Place at the 2025 Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival.
Founded in Miami in November 2020 by Mario Cruz, with his son Kevin and his wife Ali. The sauces are hand-bottled in small batches here, not licensed out to a factory in another state.
Every sauce starts from mojo criollo, the sour orange and garlic marinade that goes on lechón and yuca. That is why they taste like Cuban food instead of vinegar. Mojo vs hot sauce, explained.
Jalapeño, habanero, and Carolina Reaper, never extracts. Gluten-free and vegan, no high-fructose corn syrup, no MSG. The full ingredient list is printed on every bottle and on each product page.
Mario Cruz hosts a Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) pig roast for family and friends every year. On Noche Buena 2015 his son Kevin wanted more heat on the lechón, so they built a hot sauce on the family mojo. It was gone before the meal ended, and it kept vanishing every Christmas after that.
During the 2020 lockdown Mario planted a pepper garden and, with his wife Ali, turned the Christmas sauce into a company. Barbaro Mojo LLC was founded in Miami in November 2020. The name comes from the Cuban exclamation ¡Qué bárbaro! (amazing, tremendous) and from Mario’s December 4 birthday, the feast of Santa Bárbara.
Since then the sauces have taken honors at the Scovie Awards, the Fiery Food Challenge, the International Flavor Awards, the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, and Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire, all judged blind. Read the full story or see every award.
In person: Bodega Ortega, 2859 Bird Ave Ste 1L, Coconut Grove, stocks the lineup. Chug’s Diner in Coconut Grove keeps it on the table. The current list of stockists, in Miami and beyond, is on the retailers page.
Online: every sauce, the 4-pack, and the gift sets ship from Miami to anywhere in the United States from barbaromojo.com.
In person, at events: next in Miami is Sabor Fest for Hispanic Heritage Month, Saturday October 10, 2026, Main Street, Miami Lakes. The full calendar is on the events page.
Restaurants and retailers: wholesale is available for Miami restaurants, markets, and gift shops. Contact us for the line sheet.
Real recipes from the Barbaro Mojo kitchen, each paired with the sauce we actually use on it.
The Cuban roast pork, marinated overnight in mojo criollo, with El Havanero at the table. The recipe that started the company.
Thin palomilla steak, onions, and potato sticks on Cuban bread, the ventanita classic, with a few dashes of El Havanero.
From dried beans, no soak, with Jalabáo stirred in at the end for a green, garlicky lift.
Shrimp marinated 30 minutes in El Havanero, lime, garlic, and olive oil, then grilled two minutes a side.
There is no single Miami style; the hot sauces made in Miami mostly reflect the city’s Cuban cooking. Barbaro Mojo is the Cuban one: a mojo criollo base of sour orange and garlic with jalapeño, habanero, or Carolina Reaper for heat, made in the city since 2020. What Cuban hot sauce is.
Bodega Ortega in Coconut Grove (2859 Bird Ave Ste 1L) stocks it, Chug’s Diner serves it, and the full stockist list is on the retailers page. Everything also ships from Miami through barbaromojo.com. See the stockists.
On the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale, 1 to 10: Jalabáo 3, Piñazo 6, Best Day Ever 8, El Havanero 9, Matanza 10. Lab-tested Scoville numbers for all five are on the site. Lab Scoville results.
Cuban. Mojo came to Cuba from the Canary Islands and became the citrus-garlic marinade at the center of Cuban cooking; the sauces are built on that marinade, which is what separates them from Caribbean fruit-and-vinegar sauces. Mojo vs hot sauce.
Jalabáo if you want flavor with a mild kick, El Havanero if you like habanero heat, Piñazo if you like sweet and hot. The 4-pack has all four everyday sauces. See the 4-pack.
Yes. Orders ship from Miami to every US state. Restaurants and retailers can ask for the wholesale line sheet through the contact page. Contact Barbaro Mojo.
Order online and it ships from Miami to anywhere in the United States, or pick up a bottle at Bodega Ortega in Coconut Grove.
Shop the Sauces