Captain Mowatt’s makes 33 different hot sauces, barbecue sauces and other spicy condiments.
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A fiery two-person family team has been slicing, dicing and bottling heat into small batches of hot sauce magic on Portland’s Eastern Promenade.
Captain Mowatt was officially founded in 1997, but the story starts in the late 1970s on a crew boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Dan Stevens, a Maine native, was working offshore when a Louisiana-born chef introduced him to the world of Southern hot sauces. Stevens brought that knowledge back to Maine.
He began making his own hot sauces, eventually catching the attention of Becky’s Diner in Portland, which started placing them on its tables. After finding out customers were stealing the bottles of hot sauce to take home, Stevens recruited his kids and turned the family kitchen into a full-blown bottling line, filling jars by hand and labeling them at the dining room table.
The name Captain Mowatt’s comes from Captain Henry Mowat (with one ‘T’), the British naval officer who burned Portland, then called Falmouth Neck, in 1775. The company’s original sauces, Canceaux, Spitfire and Halifax Jerk, were named after the ships he commanded.
Nate Stevens, the son of Dan Stevens and vice president of operations for Captain Mowatt’s, says every sauce is made in small batches and bottled by hand.
Including prep, cooking and bottling, a single batch takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the recipe and ingredients.
The sauces feature a range of ingredients like red jalapeños, habaneros, serranos, ghost peppers, Carolina reaper chili peppers, carrots, honey, citrus, vinegar, peaches and Maine blueberries. Steven says they also use Maine seaweed, which helps with the consistency and adds a subtle hint of brine.
To source the ingredients, Captain Mowatt’s works with several Maine businesses, including Wyman’s of Maine, Passamaquoddy Wild Blueberry Co. and buys Carolina reapers when in season from Skillins Greenhouses in Falmouth.
“Every sauce is made in small batches and bottled by hand,” says Nate Stevens. “We keep the process tight and traditional to preserve the quality, flavor and consistency our customers expect. Our old school process keeps things efficient while making sure every bottle meets our standards for quality and consistency.”
Captain Mowatt’s makes 33 different hot sauces, barbecue sauces and other spicy condiments. The lineup ranges from mild to wild, says Stevens.
The hot sauces can be found in stores throughout Maine, including Bow Street Market in Freeport, LeRoux Kitchen, Whole Foods Market, Casco Variety, SoPo Seafood and some Hannaford locations in southern Maine.
The company has also partnered with many local restaurants, including the recently reopened Dry Dock in Portland, for whom it created a custom-labeled bottle exclusively for customers. The company also partners with Bayou Kitchen, Bob’s Seafood, El Rayo Taqueria, Cheese Louise and Becky’s Diner.
“We buy locally whenever we can,” says Stevens. “Keeping things close to home matters to us.”
