The Oso Pepper Company<\/a> story starts out at the turn of the century, when a bad garlic harvest left engineer Vincent Verret and his wife Myra no choice but to start planting peppers. The untold bounty of every kind from serano to bell that season became a strain on the couple and their loved ones.<\/p>\n\u201cPeople kept saying, \u2018stop giving us peppers,\u2019\u201d Verret said. After his mother-in-law suggested Verret start bottling, he was off to the kitchen.<\/p>\n
That was around 2002. Growing peppers then grinding them into his popular hot sauce became a tradition. Even though Verret is a well-practiced engineer, there was hardly any math involved in the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just grinding them up, I knew what the mix was but never wrote down a recipe,\u201d Verret said. \u201cI would serve some to my wife and ask, \u2018does it taste like last year?\u2019 After you do it once or twice, you basically have it figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming up with a name for his sauce came easy. Verret, proud Californian that he is took the name \u201cOso,\u201d which is Spanish for Bear, the animal on the California Republic flag. However, considering the world is increasingly smaller by the day, Verret discovered \u201coso\u201d has another meaning in at least one other language, a discovery he made at the San Juan Batista Rib Cook Off.<\/p>\n
![\"osopepper2\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/osopepper2.jpg\")
\u201cThe health inspector was laughing at us and said, \u2018you speak my language,\u2019\u201d Verret said. \u201cI responded, \u2018I don\u2019t know what language you speak.\u2019\u201d Apparently, \u201cOso\u201d means \u201cspicy\u201d in a regional Southern Nigerian language.<\/p>\n
Catchy name and fiery flavor are a couple of reasons Oso Pepper Sauce is on the rise. After being in bottles since 2012, 2015 saw Verret\u2019s business increase six-fold. Soon, baseball fans watching the San Jose Giants at the Municipal Stadium will be able to enjoy Oso Pepper Sauces on their ballpark favorites.<\/p>\n
Turkey Mikes Barbecue Pit, who provides game grub to many California League teams, will be slathering Oso\u2019s Siracha on their \u201cHeater,\u201d a Louisiana hot-link sandwich. Oso\u2019s barbecue sauce beat out Sweet Baby Ray\u2019s and Kansas City Masterpiece, earning the title and privilage of dressing Turkey Mike\u2019s tri tip, chicken and ribs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe beat out a national brand, which is pretty awesome,\u201d Verret said.<\/p>\n
For Verret, his sauces and baseball are a natural fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still remember back when they were the San Jose Bees,\u201d Verret said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great organization, that\u2019s generated some great players. I love baseball, always have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oso Pepper Company\u2019s popular Cry Out! Chili Sauce. The Oso Pepper Company story starts out at the turn of the century, when a bad garlic harvest left engineer Vincent Verret and his wife Myra no choice but to start planting peppers. The untold bounty of every kind from serano to bell that season became a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147,145,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artisan-purveyors-2","category-featured-product-artisan","category-the-daily-tout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7725,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/7725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodiedaily.alipsmith.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"osopepper1\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/osopepper1.jpg\")
Oso Pepper Company\u2019s popular Cry Out! Chili Sauce.<\/p>\n