Barbaro Mojo began at a Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) pig roast in 2015. Mario Cruz’s son Kevin wanted more heat on the lechón, so they built a hot sauce on the family mojo criollo. It was gone before the meal ended, and it vanished the same way 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. Mojo is the sour orange and garlic marinade at the center of Cuban cooking, and it is the base of every sauce.
The sauces are hand-bottled in small batches in Miami. Heat comes from real peppers, never extracts, on the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale of 1 to 10: Jalabáo™ 3, Piñazo™ 6, Best Day Ever™ 8, El Havanero™ 9, Matanza™ 10. All five are gluten-free and vegan, with no high-fructose corn syrup and no MSG. Read the full story on barbaromojo.com.
Seventeen honors across seven competitions, all judged blind, including the Grand Prize for Product Packaging at the 2025 Scovie Awards (Piñazo), 1st Place Best Latin Hot Sauce at the International Flavor Awards (El Havanero), two Golden Chile wins for Jalabáo at the 2024 Fiery Food Challenge, 2nd Place at the 2025 Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival (Matanza), and People’s Choice at Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire 2026 (Piñazo). The full award record.