Hobbyist looking for help for ethical recreation of caribbean pepper sauce

[Stabler]

Hello all,
 
First off, I'm really glad I found this site- I've been going through the stickies and assorted posts here and I've already found better information than I've gathered from the rest of the web combined.  So, excellent site!  I've been making my own sauces for about a year now, but on a very amateur level- just cooking small batches for immediate consumption, with relatively simple recipes.
 
Anyhow, before I get into the details of my specific request, I wanted to make sure that my request wouldn't offend anyone, since it does involve trying to recreate something that's in the neighborhood of an existing sauce (and in looking at some existing posts, this seems to be a gray area).  
 
So, a little backstory- a few years ago, my wife and I went to a resort in the grenadine islands for our honeymoon.  Every morning, we started out with a bloody mary- and not just any bloody mary, but the best bloody mary I'd ever encountered.  After developing a solid rapport with our bartender, she showed us their secret- a local hot pepper sauce that was only available through a handful of shops on an adjacent island.  Needless to say, we started requesting it on everything we ate or drank.  We tried to buy some to bring back home, but the only shop near the resort that stocked it was fresh out.  Fortunately, on the last day of our trip, our bartender friend subtly hinted that she was leaving a new bottle on the bar while she turned her back to wash some glasses, and if that bottle happened to disappear... 
 
We've stretched that magnificent bottle of sauce for two years- but now the end is in sight and there's only a few tablespoons left.  I've tried everything humanly possible to find somewhere that sells it... but they don't export it.  I know this because I ended up calling the number on the bottle, and rather than getting a factory, I ended up speaking directly to the woman who makes it on her home line (which was pretty cool).  She's a very sweet, elderly, woman who told me that she used to ship small orders internationally when her husband was alive, but since he passed away, it was too difficult for her to get the orders to the post office so she had to move to local pickup, only.  
 
So- if there was any way for me to legitimately buy more, I would in a heartbeat.  But short of flying back down to those islands, it looks like I'm out of luck.  But this is one of those sauces that, once you have it, you can't live without it.  The bottle has the list of ingredients, and a picture on the front which (hopefully) shows the peppers involved.  I still have enough that I could get video that shows the consistency.  And I'd imagine that I could give a reasonable description of the bouquet and flavors.  
 
Again, after reading a lot of posts here, I know that recreating a sauce is hardly an exact science, especially when you have no physical access to it- but any information or advice that pushed me in the right direction would be a huge help.  So, if I'm not breaking any rules, I'd love to post any information (I can keep the brand name hidden) that I have and see if any of the experts here have any thoughts.  I'm not trying to make this for any sort of resale- I just want to see if I can get a reasonable facsimile of this on hand at all times, so I can go back to dousing my food with it 
 
Um... sorry for that whole novel.  But is this an acceptable request?
 
Thanks!
 

 

[JktaWhite]

Yeah Colemans is a mustard that will make your eyes water. Hopefully hits the spot in your next hot sauce.

 

[Stabler]

 
First batch- I wanted to see what happened when I let the flavors mingle for a bit so I filled a few canning jars with course chopped garlic, onions, peppers (bell, serrano, cayanne, red jalapeno, and orange habanero), and papaya, and added some salt and a tablespoon of Coleman's mustard, then filled with white vinegar and let them sit.  Blended the first one (on the left) after a week, and it had a really nice flavor to it- just had to add a little bit of salt and it was good to go.
 
It's not quite where I want it to be, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.  Also, Ian- the bottle of Martouk's salsa picante that I ordered is the closest thing that I've found so far.  It has the same consistency and the same depth of flavor, but it's a little more sour and "processed" tasting (which I'm guessing is because it has preservatives whereas the other one doesn't).  They also make a version with papaya in it, so it's time to order that, too!
 
My fridge is quickly running out of room...

 

[Redeemer]

Thanks for the welcomes!  
 
Just wanted to make sure I was clear to reference the actual product- I know people are protective of their recipes (for good reason!) so I certainly want to respect that.  It's a product called Bowman's Hot Pepper Sauce, out of St. Vincent's.  
 
Obvious clue #1: the ingredients are listed as: Selected hot peppers, paw paw, onion, mustard, garlic, vinegar, and salt.
 
(Paw paw seems to be seasonal and might be a tough find in the north east, but it looks like you can substitute papaya with a touch of banana)
 
 
Clue #2: The bottle has this picture on the front.  Hopefully that's not clip art, and it's a picture of the peppers.  While the recipe is obviously vague on the actual peppers, I think it's safe to assume that they're native to the Caribbean.
 

 
Clue #3: consistency- There are pulpy bits that stick to the sides of the bottle, but the sauce itself is pretty fluid (if you tilt the bottle, it pours back and forth easily.  When sitting it does tend to settle so there's a thinner layer of liquid on top.  Color is primarily orange with some seeds and plenty of tiny flecks of red.

 
Clue #4: Aroma: For comparison's sake, I bought a bottle of Baron West Indies Hot Sauce, which is made nearby in St. Lucia, hoping that I might get lucky and land in the right ballpark, or at least get a good frame of reference.  They couldn't be more different. Like most habanero sauces I've tried, Baron 's sauce has a fruity, floral, citrus laden bouquet.  Bowman's is quite the opposite- my wife and I did a "smell" test of all the hot sauces/condiments we have, and the closest to Bowman's in terms of aroma was actually yellow table mustard.  It's very tangy, and not the least bit fruity.
 
Clue #5: Flavor: Very direct flavor- salty, and much closer to a tasty sour than sweet.  My wife (who knows more about such things than I do) refers to it as an "umami" flavor. The flavor is deep, and doesn't need long to develop.  It has a pleasant amount of heat- hits you up front and then dissipates slowly, never overwhelms.  Even without a huge tolerance for spicy foods, someone could easily eat a few tablespoons of it without getting into trouble. 
 
I've tried a few variations already with habaneros (it's one of the only hot peppers I can find around this time of year) and nothing has come close to it.  I tried:
1) Processing a large number of chopped Habaneros (40-ish), with white vinegar, a few cloves of garlic, an onion, some tablespoons of yellow table mustard, with a little orange papaya and salt to taste.  It's not a bad sauce, but tastes nothing like Bowman's.  Way too sweet.
2) Boiling a handful of habaneros with malt vinegar, yellow table mustard, onions, and garlic, and then cooling it and blending it with golden papaya and salt.  Again, not a bad sauce, but not even close.
 
So that's where I stand right now.  In my uninformed opinion, I'm pretty sure I need to try some different peppers for the base (scotch bonnets, and whatever else is on the label?)... and I'm also wondering if brining the peppers might be a better approach.  Also, since "mustard" is pretty vague, I'm wondering if there's a different direction to take rather than table mustard... mustard powder?  Mustard seeds?  If anyone has any input, it would be greatly appreciated!  Also, apologies if any of my explanations are lacking- this is actually more difficult to describe than I anticipated!
 
Thanks!

I've been there. I've had it. It's as awesome as you say. More to the point, if you won't, or can't swing a trip back down there to get some, there is nothing unethical about duplicating the recipe; just don't take the name. I won't be heading back for a year or two so you might be best served by some experimentation. 

 

[rogerb]

So weird to find this -- I'm from St. Vincent and have been bringing Bowman's Hot Pepper Sauce back here in the US for almost 15 years!

It can be hard to find sometimes, so my family tries to stock up on it anytime they come across some in a store. There're a few other brands back home that are similar, but Bowman's is the best I've ever tried (anywhere!)

I'd love to get the recipe if you ever get around to reverse engineering it. If it helps, I'm fairly sure the peppers are scotch bonnet which unfortunately may be hard to find outside of the Caribbean. By the way "pawpaw" is synonymous with papaya in St. Vincent. You'll want green ones, which might be available in Asian markets (e.g. Thai). The vinegar would be plain white vinegar, and the mustard would probably be common yellow mustard (definitely not seeds and highly unlikely to be powder or some fancy mustard).

 

[The Hot Pepper]

 

[Stabler]

So weird to find this -- I'm from St. Vincent and have been bringing Bowman's Hot Pepper Sauce back here in the US for almost 15 years!

It can be hard to find sometimes, so my family tries to stock up on it anytime they come across some in a store. There're a few other brands back home that are similar, but Bowman's is the best I've ever tried (anywhere!)

I'd love to get the recipe if you ever get around to reverse engineering it. If it helps, I'm fairly sure the peppers are scotch bonnet which unfortunately may be hard to find outside of the Caribbean. By the way "pawpaw" is synonymous with papaya in St. Vincent. You'll want green ones, which might be available in Asian markets (e.g. Thai). The vinegar would be plain white vinegar, and the mustard would probably be common yellow mustard (definitely not seeds and highly unlikely to be powder or some fancy mustard).

 
This is some great info- thanks!  I was told that the peppers in the sauce could shift depending on what they had at the markets... which begs the question that only you can probably answer, since you've had it for so long... does the flavor change noticeably with each batch?  Just curious if it makes a huge difference...
 
One of my wife's friends is the head of a test kitchen for one of the big cooking magazines, so I tried to enlist her help the last time she was here.  I gave her some of the bottle I have left and let her try a few of the variants I've made, and her biggest piece of advice, just after sniffing the bottle, was "more garlic and onion".  
 
We also found a brand- "Hot Forte" that's the closest to Bowman's that we've encountered thus far.  It's still different, but you can order it online, so it's a reliable substitute.  I found it here: http://www.grenadamarket.com/Hot-Pepper-Sauce-Sauce-aux-Piments-De-La-Grenade-300-ml_p_43.html

 

[rogerb]

I've found the flavor to be pretty consistent so I can't imagine the ingredients vary too drastically between batches.
 
I've managed to track down both green papaya and scotch bonnet peppers (I shouldn't be surprised that they're actually imported here!), so I may take a stab at recreating it one  day. 
 
Thanks for the link, that at least looks a lot like Bowman's sauce!