How did two UC Davis alumni build San Diego’s Hot Sauce?
There is a unique kind of magic that happens when passion, education, and a touch of serendipity collide. For my wife, Jacklyn, and me, that collision recently took center stage on social media. When the Cal Aggie Alumni Association featured our growing craft hot sauce business, San Diego Pepper Company, in a recent Instagram Reel, it wasn’t just a moment of brand visibility for us. It was a deeply personal celebration of a journey that began on the bicycle-filled streets of Davis, California, traveled through a life-changing honeymoon, and brought us right back to our university roots.
To fully appreciate the story behind the sauce, I have to take you back to 2019. That was the year Jacklyn and I both graduated from the University of California, Davis. Like many Aggies, we left the campus with a deep appreciation for community, hard work, and the world of agriculture. UC Davis is world-renowned for its agricultural and environmental sciences, and even if you aren’t a food science major, it is impossible to walk away from that campus without a profound respect for where food comes from, the farmers who grow it, and the science of how it is made.
After graduation, we transitioned into the next chapter of our lives, eventually settling in the vibrant, sun-drenched coastal region of San Diego. The city’s thriving culinary and food scene provided an exciting backdrop for us as young alumni looking to carve out our place in the world. But it wasn’t until two years later, in 2021, that the seeds for our future business were truly planted.
Aggie Love and the Perfect Sauce
Jacklyn and I tied the knot in 2021. We were thrilled to start our lives together, celebrating our union with a honeymoon that would change the trajectory of our professional lives. While enjoying our post-wedding getaway, we stumbled upon a local hot sauce that absolutely captivated our palates. I still remember the exact moment we tasted it. A Scotch Bonnet and white vinegar base, blended with mustard and papaya – it was an odd but exciting flavor. It was a culinary revelation for both of us
We were so inspired by this single sauce on our honeymoon. I grabbed 3 large bottles of sauces at the airport in Charlotte Amalie and we headed home. Each time I opened the bottle, I felt nostalgic of our trip. It sparked this incredible, undeniable curiosity to try and create a similar feeling for our beautiful city.
What started as a fun, messy kitchen experiment quickly evolved into a passionate obsession. I began growing different varieties of peppers, playing with different processes, adjusting vinegar ratios, and inviting brave friends and family to be our unofficial taste testers. We realized pretty quickly that we weren’t just making a condiment; we were trying to capture a memory in a bottle.
The craft hot sauce market has exploded over the last decade, with consumers increasingly favoring small-batch, artisanal products over mass-produced supermarket brands. We recognized this shift and knew that if we were going to enter the market, we had to do it right. We needed a product that stood out not just for clever branding or extreme, tongue-numbing heat, but for undeniable quality and a robust, versatile flavor profile. With that mission in mind, San Diego Pepper Company was officially born.
The Science of Sauce and a Full-Circle Moment
Creating a delicious hot sauce in your home kitchen is one thing; scaling it up to sell to the public is an entirely different beast. The food industry is strictly regulated, and rightfully so. To ensure public safety, particularly with bottled and shelf-stable products, stringent testing must be conducted before a single bottle can be sold legally.
When you bottle a sauce, factors like pH levels and long-term stability are critical. If the pH is too high, the environment inside the bottle becomes a breeding ground for harmful bacteria, including the kind that causes botulism. To legally sell our product, Jacklyn and I had to navigate the bureaucratic and scientific hurdles of food safety regulations. This meant submitting our carefully crafted first test batches to the state for rigorous laboratory analysis.
We packaged up our samples and submitted them to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), crossing our fingers and hoping that our meticulous kitchen practices and pH monitoring would pass the state’s stringent requirements.
When we finally received the paperwork back regarding the testing protocol, we experienced one of the most surreal, poetic moments of our entire entrepreneurial journey. The California Department of Public Health doesn’t always do this testing in-house; they partner with premier food science institutions across the state to handle the complex analytics. As I scanned the documentation, my jaw dropped. The partnered lab that received, analyzed, and ultimately approved our very first San Diego Pepper Company sauces for pH and stability was none other than the UC Davis food labs.
We felt that things truly went full circle right then and there. Finding out that the UC Davis food labs were the partnered lab testing our sauces—it was just incredible. Our alma mater was essentially the institution giving us the green light to launch our dream. I highlighted our journey of building the business here!
It was a validation unlike any other. The university that had shaped our early adult lives, where Jacklyn and I had met and grown together, was now intimately involved in the genesis of our business. The very halls of UC Davis’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences—a global leader in food science—were where the safety and stability of San Diego Pepper Company’s products were confirmed.
Aggie Pride and Community Support
Since that monumental stamp of approval, Jacklyn and I haven’t looked back. We have poured our hearts and souls into expanding the San Diego Pepper Company, bringing our bold flavors to local farmers’ markets, boutique retailers, and online customers across the country. Building a business from the ground up requires immense resilience. There are late nights, supply chain headaches, marketing challenges, and the constant pressure to innovate. But through it all, we have leaned heavily on the work ethic and community-minded spirit we cultivated during our time in Davis.
That profound sense of community is exactly why the recent feature by the Cal Aggie Alumni Association on Instagram means so much to us. The reel beautifully highlights our story, showcasing our products and introducing our brand to a massive network of fellow alumni.
Jacklyn and I continue to have so much pride as UC Davis Alumni, and we absolutely love what we have been able to build.
The reaction to the Instagram reel has been a beautiful testament to the strength of the UC Davis alumni network. Aggies really do support Aggies. Seeing a couple graduate, get married, and build a flourishing brand rooted in California’s agricultural bounty is exactly the kind of success story the university community loves to champion. Reading the comment section of the reel has been amazing—it serves as a digital cheering section, filled with current students, fellow alumni, and hot sauce enthusiasts eager to support a homegrown business.
Looking to the Future
Today, San Diego Pepper Company is more than just a memory of a honeymoon sauce; it is our thriving reality. Jacklyn and I are constantly looking at ways to build a community-first business. We are actively involved in the San Diego area, bringing a little bit of that Davis agricultural magic down to the coastal south.
If there’s one thing our journey has taught us—and a piece of advice I’d offer to any aspiring entrepreneur—it’s to pay close attention to what inspires you. Whether it’s a sauce you taste on a vacation, a gap you see in a local market, or a hobby that you simply can’t put down, there is immense value in following your curiosity.
Furthermore, our story emphasizes the enduring value of higher education and the hidden networks that support our endeavors long after we turn our tassels. Jacklyn and I could never have predicted in 2019 that the same university where we studied for exams and rode our bikes to class in the rain would one day be the scientific authority approving our life’s work.
As we look toward the future, we remain deeply grounded in our roots. We continue to blend, bottle, and distribute our sauces with the exact same passion that sparked our initial idea. And every time a new customer tries our sauce and their eyes light up at that perfect balance of heat and flavor, Jacklyn and I know we are right where we are supposed to be.
If you haven’t yet seen the feature, be sure to head over to Instagram to watch the full reel and see San Diego Pepper Company in action. And if you’re a fellow Aggie, a hot sauce aficionado, or just someone who loves a good full-circle success story, grab a bottle, add a little heat to your next meal, and taste the dedication for yourself. Go Ags!
San Diego Pepper Company was founded in 2022 by UC Davis Alumni Kieran Parhar and Jacklyn Little. The husband and wife duo are University of California, Davis alumni and are active members in the UC Davis Alumni Network and community.