English
Hola we are Ya Ya Bean
The story on the back of every bottle of La Boca Roja reads “Hola we are Ya Ya Bean: hot sauce guys, musicians, and above all best friends. While abroad in Buenos Aires we became frustrated by the lack of spice, so after graduating we moved back to do something about it. After living and learning on an organic farm in Patagonia we returned to BA and La Boca Roja was born!”
So we were thinking, maybe you came to this site because you wanted to learn more than what could fit onto the back of a hot sauce bottle. For that reason, we’ve decided to expand upon our story line by line.
“Hola we are Ya Ya Bean”
Yep. Mark Sandusky and Kevin Dean make up Ya Ya Bean. In fact we have made up Ya Ya Bean since 2006 when it originally started as our band name as seniors in high school. But as we started our journey in Argentina we realized, why limit it to just a band name? So we made it our duo name in general – allowing it to be applied to anything we do from playing music, prank phone calling girls and now even starting a hot sauce company.
“Hot Sauce Guys”
Pretty self explanatory.
“Musicians”
As an acoustic crunk duo we’ve played in many bars and clubs in Buenos Aires. We’re multi-instrumentalists and write our own songs but that doesn’t mean we aren’t partial to some random covers every now and then.
We use music to promote the hot sauce through live shows and through making customer slideshows for all of the people who stop by the san telmo fair to support our business.
“and above all best friends”
We were best friends since the first time we hung out. A hang out which consisted of us making smoothies out of everything we could find in our pantries, trying them and then simultaneously vomiting out of disgust.
“while abroad we became frustrated by the lack of spice”
We both studied abroad here in Spring of 2009 and would both search every grocer to find some sort of decent hot sauce to put on our empanadas. We never really found one so it made us frustrated.
“So after graduating we moved back to do something about it”
We knew we liked Buenos Aires, we knew there was a massive niche spice market to fill, we knew Argentine foods pair well with hot sauce.
“After living and learning on an organic farm in Patagonia”
We had to learn somewhere. Craving that useful peace of knowledge we decided to rough it on a farm in El Bolson, Argentina for a month to learn the ancient secretes of hot sauce making.
“we returned to BA and La Boca Roja was born!”
In November 2010 we moved back to Buenos Aires and began our adventures perfecting our hot sauce making craft with a minipimer and some villa bought peppers. It took us a few months to get the final recipe set in stone but once we did, the hard work and dedication payed off making Ya Ya Bean’s La Boca Roja the tastiest hot sauce on the planet.
Thank you all so much for the support so far. Please help us out further by spreading the word and following all of our adventures!
Love,
Ya Ya Bean
