My name is Eli Perez. My love of hot sauce started in Puerto Rico, these five are made in Florida, and the brand is named after a line my mother used on me for years.
Every time I reached for a store-bought hot sauce, she told me it was a bad decision — because it wasn't made with fresh ingredients.
In short: the name comes from my mother. She called store-bought hot sauce a bad decision because it was not made with fresh ingredients, and the line stuck long enough to end up on a label. The five bottle names carry the same joke forward, escalating from First Mistake to Ignored The Warning as the heat climbs.
She could cook
She was Puerto Rican and the whole family ate at her table. Nobody ever had notes. So when she said the bottle in the fridge door wasn't worth reaching for, that carried weight.
The line stuck with me long enough to end up on a label.
It started with pique
When I was living in Puerto Rico I made pique — the vinegar-based hot condiment you'll find on tables all over the island. Small hot peppers and garlic steeped in white vinegar with oregano and peppercorns, and chunks of pineapple dropped in to ferment, so the bottle gets hotter the longer it sits.
That was the first thing I made that people asked me for again, and it's where all of this comes from. There's a longer piece on pique here if you have never had it.
One bottle turned into five
Took The Bet, the jalapeño, was the first sauce in this range. Then I kept experimenting, and it grew into five — mild through extreme, so there's one for everybody at the table.
The rule I kept from my mother's kitchen is the one that decided the whole lineup: the pepper has to taste like something before it burns. That is why these are five different peppers rather than one recipe at five temperatures.
Why the names escalate
The bottles are a sentence, in order. First Mistake, Took The Bet, No Turning Back, Crossed The Line, Ignored The Warning. Mild to Extreme, and the story gets worse for you the further along you go.
It is a joke, but it is also the label doing its job: you can tell roughly what you are in for from the name alone, and the scale on the back tells you the rest. Nobody should have to guess.
Where it is made now
Recipes are developed here in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, and the sauces are professionally manufactured and bottled in Jacksonville, Florida. All five are 5 FL OZ (148 ML) and all five are gluten free.
This is all new. Right now the only people who have tried them are friends and family.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it called Bad Decision Hot Sauce?
Because my mother called store-bought hot sauce a bad decision — it wasn't made with fresh ingredients. The line stuck, and it ended up on the label.
Who makes Bad Decision Hot Sauce?
Eli Perez. Recipes are developed in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, and the sauces are professionally manufactured and bottled in Jacksonville, Florida.
Which sauce came first?
Took The Bet, the jalapeño. The other four came out of experimenting after it.
Are the bottle names in a particular order?
Yes. First Mistake, Took The Bet, No Turning Back, Crossed The Line, Ignored The Warning — mildest to hottest, and the names escalate along with the heat.
Have a look
Have a look at the lineup if you want to be early, or read the rest of the story. If you are not sure which bottle is yours, start here.
