Cuban hot sauce runs from mild to hot, not to extreme: Barbaro Mojo’s five Miami-made sauces lab-test from 1,992 to 6,500 Scoville heat units and sit at 3, 6, 8, 9, and 10 on the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale. Cuban Heat is the Barbaro Mojo guide to those numbers, what they feel like on a plate, and the mojo criollo base that makes the sauces taste Cuban.
Shop Barbaro MojoEvery Barbaro Mojo sauce was sent to an independent lab. Results: Jalabáo 1,992 SHU, Piñazo 2,370, Best Day Ever 4,470, El Havanero 5,170, Matanza 6,500. That is a habanero-and-Reaper sauce you can actually eat with dinner, because the heat comes from real peppers, never extracts. See the lab results.
All five sauces start with traditional Cuban mojo criollo: sour orange, garlic, oregano, and cumin. Try El Havanero™ (9 of 10) for garlicky tomato-habanero heat or Piñazo™ (6) for pineapple and Carolina Reaper. Gluten-free and vegan, no high-fructose corn syrup, no MSG, hand-bottled in small batches in Miami.
Seventeen honors across seven blind-judged competitions, including the Grand Prize for Product Packaging at the 2025 Scovie Awards (Piñazo™), 1st Place Best Latin Hot Sauce at the International Flavor Awards (El Havanero™), and a top-20 ranking among small-batch hot sauce companies worldwide at Old Boney Mountain’s Hot Summer Night. Use code CUBANHEAT10 for 10% off. Every award.
Number first, then the lab result. The full heat guide explains how the scale works.
Jalapeño and green bell pepper on the mojo base. Mild, green, garlicky. The most awarded sauce in the line.
Shop Jalabáo →Pineapple and Carolina Reaper on a pineapple-juice mojo base. Sweet first, then the punch.
Shop Piñazo →Mango and habanero with a little Carolina Reaper underneath. Fruity, then hot.
Shop Best Day Ever →Habanero, tomato, red bell pepper, sweet onion. The hottest of the everyday line.
Shop El Havanero →Habanero and Carolina Reaper, limited runs. The only extreme sauce Barbaro Mojo makes.
Shop Matanza →What the lab Scoville numbers mean, how the 1-10 scale maps to them, and which sauce goes on which dish.
Read More →The Cuban marinade behind every Barbaro Mojo sauce: what is in it, where it came from, and a quick recipe.
Read More →Pollo asado, Piñazo shrimp and pineapple skewers, and Matanza wings, plus the full Cuban recipe library on barbaromojo.com.
Read More →Cuban hot sauce is usually milder than the extract-driven American brands. Barbaro Mojo, the Cuban hot sauce company in Miami, lab-tests from 1,992 Scoville heat units (Jalabáo) to 6,500 (Matanza): warmer than Tabasco on the top end, far below anything made with extracts. On the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale, 1 to 10, the five sauces sit at 3, 6, 8, 9, and 10.
A 1 to 10 scale printed on each sauce so you can pick by number instead of by guessing from Scoville: Jalabáo 3, Piñazo 6, Best Day Ever 8, El Havanero 9, Matanza 10. It is a tasting scale, not a lab unit. The lab Scoville results are published separately on the lab results page.
Because it starts from mojo criollo, the Cuban marinade of sour orange, garlic, oregano, and cumin, instead of from vinegar and salt. There is some vinegar in the bottle, but the flavor is citrus and garlic first, pepper second. Mojo vs hot sauce, explained.
No. Lechón, ropa vieja, black beans, and arroz con pollo are seasoned with garlic, cumin, oregano, and sour orange, with no chile in the pot. Heat is added at the table, a dash at a time, which is exactly the job a Cuban hot sauce is built for. Is Cuban food spicy? A dish-by-dish answer.