Aardvark Founder Scott Moritz: Born to Burn

How Scott’s Taste for Adventure Inspired the Unexpected Flavors of Secret Aardvark.

Scott Moritz loved travel, music, and food (not necessarily in that order). He passed away far too soon, and every October we honor the culinary genius behind Secret Aardvark. One of Scott’s biggest inspirations? The wild, wonderful world of global flavor.

“Scott’s philosophy was you don’t travel someplace for one week. You go for an extended time — three or four weeks if you can,” says Stacy Moritz, our fearless leader (and Scott’s partner in both life and sauce). “You explore the small cafés, the food trucks, the markets, the places the locals actually eat. Food unites people. The food the locals love tells you so much about the community and the culture.”

Eat Like the Locals

Every region has its own definition of spicy — whether it’s salsa, chili oil, pepper paste, or a table-top bottle of homemade fire. In Ecuador, Scott’s hunger for local flavor led to a long bus ride (with sheep!) to a remote market where foreign visitors were a rare sight. When he asked about local foods, villagers proudly shared their specialties.

“They’d say, ‘Oh, you like spicy?’ That’s when they’d bring out their homemade hot sauce,” Stacy recalls. “They’d tell stories like, ‘My cousin grows this pepper,’ or ‘I picked these in the jungle.’ It was all personal, all pride.”

Of course, peppers were just the start. Garlic, onions, carrots, herbs — all the regional ingredients that give a sauce its soul — were part of the equation too.

Hot Sauce Is More Than a Condiment

“Nobody ever brags about their local ketchup or mustard,” Stacy laughs. “But hot sauce? That’s something people are proud of.”

Scott and Stacy noticed that while Americans often reach for vinegar-and-pepper heat, around-the-world hot sauces were more like culinary compositions: balanced, layered, and bursting with flavor. One Ecuadorian mystery sauce kept showing up everywhere they went. “We kept wondering, what is this flavor?” Stacy says. “Later, someone told us: tree tomatoes.”

Naturally, they bought some and Scott went to work reverse-engineering the taste. Curiosity was his compass – and flavor was the treasure.

Bringing It Home

When Scott began creating what became Secret Aardvark’s original lineup, he drew from his global flavor map. This was long before “fusion” was a buzzword. He wanted to bottle the excitement of discovering something new, without needing a plane ticket.

“Every Secret Aardvark sauce has some international spin,” says Stacy. Here are the three that Scott created:

• Habanero Hot Sauce (3 flames): A fusion of Tex-Mex and Caribbean flair, balancing sweet tomatoes, onions, and carrots with a punch of habanero heat.
• Drunken Garlic Black Bean Marinade (1/2 flame): An Asian-inspired stir-fry star featuring soy, garlic, and orange juice with a whisky wink.
• Drunken Jerk Jamaican Marinade (3 flames): Scott’s final masterpiece: a rich, rum-laced mix of habanero, thyme, allspice, soy, and garlic that delivers authentic jerk flavor without all that fuss.

Pro tip: Pineapple and Jerk are an A+ combo. So, drizzle some Jamaican-style Drunken Jerk Marinade on your Canadian Bacon and pineapple pizza. International, baby!

20 Years of Unexpected Flavor Fusions

Today, Stacy carries on Scott’s tradition: she’s still chasing the world’s great hot sauces, from Thailand to Sri Lanka, Vietnam to the Caribbean. And she’s brought those influences right to your table by expanding our sauce line-up with her own take on global fusion flavors. Because at Secret Aardvark, hot sauce is much more than a condiment. It’s a way to explore the world, one bottle at a time.

Whether you’re fortifying a humble bowl of ramen, elevating fried eggs, or spicing up your Taco Tuesday, every Secret Aardvark sauce, marinade, or creamy creation starts with a simple goal: to give you something unexpectedly delicious. Here’s to Scott — and to keeping flavor adventurous.