Bermondsey, London — fermenting since 2019
We mash chillies with sea salt and nothing else, then wait six to ten weeks while wild lactic fermentation does the work. What comes out has depth before it has heat — bright, savoury and still alive in the bottle. Two hundred bottles a week, no gums, no pasteurising, no shortcuts.
The range
Every bottle starts the same way — chillies, sea salt, time. What changes is the chilli, the fruit, and how long we let it sit. Six weeks in glass for all of them, then a different finish each.
The everyday one
≈6,000 SHU
Smoked red jalapeño and oak-smoked garlic, softened by a long ferment. Smoky and gently sweet — the one we put on everything, including a cheese toastie at midnight.
£8.50 150 ml bottle
Fruity, then it bites
≈18,000 SHU
Fermented habanero with charred Russet apple and a splash of our own cider vinegar. Apricot and allspice at the front, then a warm hum that stays with you for a while.
£8.50 150 ml bottle
Oak-aged, four months
≈48,000 SHU
Black garlic, chipotle morita and charred onion, rested four months in charred oak. Treacle and campfire at the front, coffee and smoke on the way down.
£10.50 150 ml bottle
The serious one
≈180,000 SHU
Ghost pepper and fermented tomatillo with wild fennel seed. Bright, green and herbal for about two seconds, then it opens up properly. Wash your hands twice.
£9.50 150 ml bottle
How it’s made
Fermentation is not a flavour we add at the end. It is the whole method — and it is why these sauces taste like food rather than like fire.
We weigh the chillies, add 2.5% sea salt by weight, and crush them. No vinegar, no water, no bought culture. Everything the sauce will become is already in the fruit.
The mash goes into glass jars and sits between 18 and 22°C for six to ten weeks. Wild lactic bacteria take over, the acidity climbs, and the harsh edges round off.
Black Bark and our seasonal ferments rest in charred oak barrels for another three to four months. The wood softens the heat and lends vanilla, smoke and a little sweetness.
We blend in raw cider vinegar, taste in small batches, and bottle unpasteurised. Nothing is heated, so the sauce keeps changing in the bottle — slowly, in your favour.
Measured on our own batches, not copied off a chilli chart. The figures are approximate, because every harvest comes in a little different.
The Cellar Club
Two or four bottles a month, delivered to your door. Members get first refusal on our limited barrel releases and free UK delivery. Pause, skip or cancel with one email — no phone calls, no retention scripts.
Two bottles a month. Slow Ember, plus one rotating sauce from the range.
£16/ month
Most taken
All four sauces, every month. The way we keep our own kitchen stocked.
£29/ month
Wholesale for independent grocers, delis, cafés and restaurants.
£4.20/ bottle, from
Prefer every other month? Say so when you write and we’ll set the Duo or the Full Shelf to ship every second month at the same price. Gift subscriptions run for three, six or twelve months, and we post a handwritten card with the first box.
Stockists
We sell through independent grocers rather than supermarkets — shops where somebody can tell you what to put the sauce on. Ring ahead if you are making a trip; the smaller ones sell out of Black Bark most weeks.
Peckham, London
Full range since 2021Hackney, London
Full rangeStokes Croft, Bristol
Full range + barrel releasesMargate, Kent
Full rangeHebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
Slow Ember & Orchard FireLeith, Edinburgh
Full rangeChorlton, Manchester
Full range + barrel releasesNorwich, Norfolk
Full range since 2023We wholesale from £4.20 a bottle with a twelve-bottle minimum per sauce, and free UK delivery over £250. Send us your postcode and we’ll post out a taster set and a trade sheet — usually within a couple of days.
Word of mouth
“I have stopped buying anything else. Slow Ember goes on eggs, rice, and — regrettably — toast at eleven at night.”
“Black Bark tastes like somebody took a campfire seriously. I put it on brisket and I am not sorry about it.”
“It is the only hot sauce we stock that customers come back and ask for by name. That never happens.”
The Dispatch
What is fermenting, what is back in stock, which market we will be at, and a recipe or two worth your time. No discount spam, and you can leave whenever you like.
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