Aruba’s own hot sauce
Pica di Papaya
Ripe Caribbean papaya, Madame Jeanette pepper, and a pot that has been on the stove in Oranjestad since 2008. This is the papaya hot sauce Aruba puts on everything, and how to get a bottle wherever you live.
What pica di papaya is
Ask for hot sauce anywhere on Aruba and you will be asked which pica. “Pica” is the Papiamento word for hot sauce, and pica di papaya is the one the island grew up on: ripe papaya cooked down with Madame Jeanette pepper until the fruit and the heat agree with each other. It is sweet first. The burn comes a beat later, and it is the kind that makes you reach for the bottle again rather than the water.
It is a fruit sauce, not a vinegar sauce. That is why it sits beside ketchup on an Aruban table rather than replacing it, and why it goes on fried fish, pastechi, eggs, rice, chicken, and anything that came off a grill.
How ours is made
Aruba Heat’s Papaya Hot Sauce starts with sun-ripened papaya, not pulp from a tin. It is cooked in small batches in our kitchen on Amandelstraat in Oranjestad, bottled by hand, and labelled the same day. The pepper is Madame Jeanette, the yellow Caribbean pepper that gives pica di papaya its citrus edge and its heat; a cousin of the habanero, grown for flavour as much as fire.
It is our bestseller for a reason. Around 275 shops, hotels and restaurants on the island keep it on the shelf or the table, and it is the bottle people come back for after the holiday.
Taking it home
On Aruba you will find Aruba Heat in supermarkets, souvenir shops and at the airport, and you can taste the whole range at the factory. Everywhere else, the shop ships it to your door: packs of 3, 4, 6 or 12 big bottles, with postage and import duty already inside the price. Nothing is added at checkout and nothing is owed on arrival. Choose your country on the packs page and the price you see is the price you pay.
Buying for a shop, a hotel or a restaurant? Wholesale and case pricing is quoted by hand, on Aruba and abroad.
Questions people ask
- What is pica di papaya?
- Pica di papaya is Aruba's papaya hot sauce. "Pica" is Papiamento for hot sauce; "di papaya" says what it is made from. It is ripe papaya cooked down with Madame Jeanette pepper, vinegar and spices: sweet and fruity first, with the heat arriving after. It is on the table in most Aruban homes and restaurants.
- How hot is pica di papaya?
- Milder than it sounds. The papaya carries the sauce, so Aruba Heat's Papaya Hot Sauce sits at 2.5 out of 5 on our scale: a warm, pleasant heat that most people put on everything. The Madame Jeanette pepper behind it is as hot as a habanero, but there is far more fruit than pepper in the bottle.
- What do you eat pica di papaya with?
- On Aruba it goes on everything: fried fish, pastechi, keshi yena, grilled chicken, eggs at breakfast, rice and beans. It is a fruit sauce with heat rather than a vinegar sauce, so it works where ketchup or a chutney would.
- Can I buy pica di papaya outside Aruba?
- Yes. Aruba Heat ships its papaya hot sauce worldwide in packs of 3, 4, 6 or 12 big 16.5 oz bottles, priced to your door with postage and import duty included. Nothing is added at checkout and nothing is owed when the parcel arrives.
- Is Aruba Heat's papaya sauce the same as the one in Aruban supermarkets?
- Aruba Heat's Papaya Hot Sauce is our own recipe, cooked by hand in Oranjestad since 2008 and stocked by around 275 shops, hotels and restaurants on the island. It is made the Aruban way, papaya and Madame Jeanette, and it is the sauce we are known for.
- What is a Madame Jeanette pepper?
- A yellow Caribbean pepper, a close relative of the habanero and the Scotch bonnet, with a fruity, citrus-like flavour and serious heat. It is the pepper Aruba and Suriname cook with, and the one that gives pica di papaya its character.