Pineapple Pizza Hot Sauce

A Hawaiian slice in a bottle.

A mild hot sauce built on fresh pineapple, house-made tepache fermented with pepperoni spices, fermented orange habanero, and a whipped honey-olive-oil emulsion. Awarded Silver at the Scovie Awards 2026, Fruit Hot Sauce category.

Pineapple on pizza is the most polarized food debate in America. We took a side. This sauce is the result.

The move is the tepache. Traditional Mexican tepache ferments pineapple with piloncillo and warming spices like cinnamon and clove, drunk lightly tart and effervescent. We took the same fermentation idea and ran it with pepperoni spices: fennel, oregano, paprika, garlic, black pepper, anise, the works. Four days in a fermenter and you have a pineapple base that, somehow, tastes distinctly like pizza.

From there the sauce comes together quickly. Fresh pineapple goes in alongside the tepache, lacto-fermented orange habanero, and a whipped honey-olive-oil emulsion that gives the pour a silky, pillowy texture meant to evoke pizza crust. The result is bright orange, glossy, and weirdly accurate. Your brain registers pepperoni even though there's no meat. The fresh pineapple is right there. The texture reads as crust. Eat a spoonful and your tongue is telling you Hawaiian pizza.

The heat builds like a crescendo, falls into a quiet middle, and rises again on the finish. 2 out of 10. The fun sauce in the lineup.

How to use it

Drizzle it on a slice. Pepperoni pizza with this sauce on top is one of the best hot sauce applications we've ever made.

Past pizza, the move is glazed Spam for Spam musubi. Brush the sauce on Spam as it caramelizes in the pan, then build the musubi: rice, seaweed, glazed Spam, optionally a folded omelet. Hawaiian-Japanese cooking tradition meets a sauce that's already on the same wavelength.

Pairs naturally with:

• Pepperoni pizza
• Spam musubi
• Grilled chicken (especially teriyaki or Hawaiian-style)
• Burgers, in place of ketchup
• Hot dogs, especially with grilled pineapple
• Fish tacos
• Grilled cheese, on the inside before the cheese
• Pulled pork sandwiches
• Cream cheese on a bagel
• Piña coladas and tiki cocktails

What makes it different

• Tepache fermented with pepperoni spices. Traditional tepache uses Mexican warming spices. Ours uses fennel, oregano, paprika, garlic, black pepper, and anise.
• Tastes one-to-one like a Hawaiian slice. The tepache plus fresh pineapple plus the whipped texture pulls the trick off.
• Whipped honey-olive-oil emulsion. Light, airy, silky. Built to evoke the mouthfeel of a Neapolitan pizza crust.
• Real fermentation. Four-day tepache, two-week habanero.

Heat, savory, acid

• Heat: 2 / 10. Gentle, with a crescendo finish.
• Savory: 5 / 10. Mid-range, carried by the pepperoni spice blend.
• Acid: 7 / 11. Bright pineapple-fruit acid, not vinegar acid.

Ingredients

Pineapple (Pineapple, Pineapple Juice), Pineapple Tepache (Water, Pineapple, Piloncillo, Spices), Habanero Pepper Mash (Habanero Peppers, Salt), Honey, Olive Oil, Ascorbic Acid, Salt, Xanthan Gum.

Specs

• 5 fl oz (148 ml) glass woozy bottle
• Vegetarian (contains honey, not vegan)
• Gluten-free
• Shelf life: 2 years unopened. Refrigerate after opening, use within 6 months for peak flavor.
• Made by hand in San Diego, California

FAQ

Does this sauce really taste like Hawaiian pizza?
Yes. The pepperoni-spice tepache makes your brain register pepperoni even though there's no meat. Combined with fresh pineapple and a whipped honey-olive-oil emulsion that mimics pizza crust, the sauce tastes one-to-one like a slice.

Does it have pepperoni in it?
No. The pepperoni flavor comes from a spice blend (fennel, oregano, paprika, garlic, black pepper, anise) fermented into the tepache. The sauce is vegetarian.

What's tepache?
A traditional Mexican fermented pineapple drink, made by fermenting pineapple with piloncillo (raw cane sugar) and warming spices for a few days. Ours uses pepperoni spices instead of warming spices.

Is it spicy?
Mild. 2 out of 10. The heat builds in a crescendo, falls into a quiet middle, and rises again on the finish.

Is Pineapple Pizza Hot Sauce vegan?
No. It contains honey, which means it's vegetarian but not vegan.

Is it gluten-free?
Yes. None of the ingredients contain wheat.

Is it sugar-free?
No. The sauce contains natural sugars from pineapple, piloncillo, and honey. No refined sugar or corn syrup.

Has it won any awards?
Yes. Silver, Fruit Hot Sauce category, at the Scovie Awards 2026.

What do you put it on?
Pepperoni pizza, Spam musubi, grilled chicken, burgers, hot dogs, fish tacos, grilled cheese, tropical cocktails. Anywhere a sweet-savory-bright sauce belongs.

Where is it made?
San Diego, California.