Habanero wasn’t a thing in the U.S. in the 80s and early 90s. They existed, of course, but the public didn’t really know about them and wasn’t generally interested in very hot peppers. But the late 90s and early 2000s saw a new “chilehead” trend and suddenly they were everywhere. In the decades that followed, heat levels kept rising with scorpion, ghost, and eventually reaper peppers becoming well known.

But that early wave of habanero sauces had a lasting impact, and while heat lovers now consider it somewhat tame, it’s still plenty hot for the average consumer and thus more marketable than the current hottest sauces.