Hot News

Ndumi, as she is affectionately known by the Black Mamba team,  joined us back in 2016. Claudia (CEO) confesses, “I don’t remember the interview in detail, only that she had an outstanding personality that grabbed my attention and I knew she was the right choice.”  Ndumi remembers it a little differently! When she arrived that day, there were two other candidates -  beautifully made-up, elegantly dressed women, quite the contrast to Ndumi’s very casual dress. After the interview process was complete she recalls that Claudia mentioned that her casual outfit won her over. Being ready to go and comfortable is...

Welcome back to Hot Sauce History! We hope you’re ready for a whirlwind trip through, give or take, 7000 years of chilli history and the countries and cultures that shaped it. We begin many, many years ago in an Aztec village far away… The BCs 7000 BC Aztec cities are the stuff of fantasy, and everything we learn about their lives and habits seems to make them even more mysterious. We do know they cultivated chillies and we know they made the first ever hot sauce: ground-up chillies mixed with water and herbs. Chillies were definitely a lifestyle for the...

Our Black Mamba Pineapple Chilli Sauce won at the Great Taste awards in the UK! The Great Taste Awards, kind of like the Oscars of food, celebrates the very best in food and drink in the UK. Out of more than 12.000 products, our Pineapple Chilli Sauce won a coveted star. Judges praised our pineapple chilli sauce as "packed with fresh pineapple flavour with just the right level of heat” and wonderful ripe pineapple notes and the promised tropical flavours.” This is of course what you get when you work with real, fresh, organically grown produce and no added nonsense. The fact...

If you know our story, then you already know how important it is for Black Mamba to support the communities and people that sustain us. If this is your introduction to us, that’s okay too! We love to talk about the incredible organisations that work to assist small-scale producers in their industries.  We recently completed the SERRV Better World Partner Audit and received our verified partner certification. SERRV International is one of the first fair trade organisations in the world, established in 1949. To better understand what they do, we need to talk about what fair trade actually is.  It’s more than...

Sometimes the right people are in the right place at the right time. It doesn’t happen often, but in the case of Nontobeko Nhleko, that is exactly what occurred.  Black Mamba was starting to expand and production had reached a point where they needed more hands on deck to cope. Claudia (CEO) asked their then-cook, Zanele, to bring someone along to help. And so began the career of Black Mamba’s Floor Supervisor!  Initially, Nontobeko was hired as a cook, but over the years her eagerness and potential grew her position. “Nontobeko is a great team member”, Claudia says. “She’s always...

Hot sauce is wildly popular. There is an entire pop culture phenomenon around this spicy condiment: well-known shows like Hot Ones, viral challenges on platforms like TikTok and Twitch, festivals, and even hit songs from famous musicians. While its popularity is at an all-time high, it’s been around for a long, long, long time. Like 7000BC kind of a long time! We’ll get to all of that and explore the timeline, but first, we’ll introduce our players in this spicy game.