Jamaican-made Scotch Boyz sauces will hit 250 Target stores this month

On April 23, Jamaican-made Scotch Boyz products will be launched in over 250 Target stores across the United States

The name of the game for Neil Hudson, cofounder and head of sales and marketing for the sauce and condiment, is expansion. The company's crowd-pleasing sauces are a frequent seller on the online marketplace Amazon, earning the banner “Amazon’s Choice” - a label reserved for products the retailer deems to be “high quality and well priced ”

According to Hudson, Scotch Boyz sauces are blazing new trails for Jamaican-made products, as the first Jamaican product, to his knowledge, that isn’t being regulated to an international foods section or an immigrant market “We’re putting Jamaican flavors and seasonings on the front page in a major way,” he noted Target is just one avenue Scotch Boyz is pursuing to get their sauces in people’s cabinets Hudson and his co-founders, Drew Gray, Matthew Wallace and Kemar Swaby, are pursuing partnerships with various establishments in the United States to stock Scotch Boyz

The Scotch Boyz brand started from humble beginnings

As the story goes Four friends in their mid-twenties entered a BBQ competition in Jamaica to see who would be crowned the grill master. For their key ingredient they decided to use Jamaican scotch bonnet peppers, and named their team Scotch Boyz Today, they have built that name into a global brand that manufactures up to 80,000 units of sauces per day at their own facility on the island

Not only is Scotch Boyz found across the US, but it’s also available in the UK, Germany, and Poland Perhaps, it’s this simplicity that makes their sauces so beloved Self-described as all “yaad boys” the founders keep their sauces simple and Jamaica close to their hearts, prioritizing Jamaican ingredients from Jamaican farmers - scallions, onions, and, of course, scotch bonnet peppers

All four founders grew up in the parish of

Westmoreland, Jamaica, a part of the island dedicated to tourism and agriculture They saw firsthand the plight of the workers providing their country with basic sustenance and how dependent they were on not only dema infrastructural support and favorable w patterns Of course, a healthy fa community means better crops which guarantees top-notch sauce

This is why Jamaica is always at the forefront of consideration for the Scotch Boyz Their charitable arm seeks out underfunded schools in their local community that would benefit from a financial injection Their motto: One Sauce Buys One Pencil It’s deeper than that of course, with a percentage of each sale going towards funding supplies and infrastructure for the schools that need it the most One of their latest projects is funding the construction of a sheltered walkway at St Paul’s Primary in Westmoreland, so students can escape the sun or rain showers on their way to the bathroom, which was constructed separately from the classrooms

For Scotch Boyz, peppers are the star of the show “There’s nothing like a scotch bonnet pepper,” Hudson explained, with the kind of wistfulness reserved for talking about a favorite dish “It’s a little sweet, and then the heat creeps in It’s just an amazing pepper ” For the uninitiated, the best comparison point is probably the habanero It’s a similar spice level but a lot more fruit-forward It’s what makes the pepper one of the cornerstones of Jamaican cuisine

It’s targeting that gap in the market that Hudson believes is one of the pillars of the rise of Scotch Boyz In 2022, Scotch Boyz was one of three winners of the SheaMoisture Next Black Millionaire impact program The initiative returned after a two-year hiatus and was done in collaboration with The New Voices Foundation providing the company with invaluable mentorship, a 100,000 dollar grant, distribution support, and a docuseries opportunity