Award-Winning Susie’s Hot Sauce and History-making Team Antigua Island Girls collaborate on Special Edition Label

PRESS RELEASE

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua (April 28, 2025)—The venerable Susie’s Hot Sauce—the 65-year-old world-class brand from Antigua and Barbuda—will collaborate with history-making rowers Team Antigua Island Girls in a project that will benefit charity.

The brand, which is reemerging as management shifts from its main driver, Rosemarie V. McMaster MBE, to her children, will feature the historic rowers on a label of the original flavor.

The limited-edition label featuring the rowers will be emblazoned on the five-ounce bottle. Eighteen hundred bottles will be offered, starting April 28, 2025, in time for Antigua’s Sailing Week, and will be available as long as stocks last.

Team Antigua Island Girls will receive a portion of the sale proceeds, which will be allocated to their charity and ultimately to the construction of a home for girls in conflict with the law.

That these two entities are teaming up is historic in itself. Susie’s is an eponymous brand named after McMaster’s mother, Susannah Tonge, who started her cottage industry, a small batch at a time, to provide for her children. When she died in 1990, McMaster, who worked with the brand part-time, completely transitioned from her travel agency to Susie’s. She expanded from a single sauce to more than 11 flavors plus jellies.

McMaster took the brand global, making it synonymous with Antigua and Barbuda, and winning several international accolades. McMaster was invested as a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2009 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to public service.

On January 28, 2019, Team Antigua Island Girls created history as the first all-woman Caribbean team and the first all-Black team to row any ocean when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean, from the Canary Islands to Antigua, in 47 days, 8 hours, and 25 minutes in the Atlantic Challenge. In 2023, the team conquered the Pacific Ocean, rowing from Monterey, California to Kauai, Hawaii in 41 days, 7 hours, and 5 minutes in the World’s Toughest Row—Pacific. The team was honored during the 2024 43rd Independence celebrations with an Institutional Award—the Most Precious Order of Princely Heritage for outstanding humanitarian efforts. In August 2019, they received the Governor General’s Faithful and Meritorious Service Cross for their performance in sports.

McMaster’s son, Orlando, who, along with his siblings Anthea and Marcelo, now leads the business, said the project is a perfect match.

“We see this as a fitting collaboration for women of exceptional determination and mettle,” Orlando McMaster said. “This initiative honors our late grandmother and mother, one who launched a product out of necessity and the other who took the brand higher and farther than the matriarch would have imagined. It also pays tribute to Team Antigua Island Girls, whose daring in another sphere created history and set an example of courage for other women and girls to follow.”

Francis, captain of Team Antigua Island Girls, said it is a privilege to be featured on Susie’s Hot Sauce label.

“The four of us grew up with this product. Our parents’ hot sauce became our hot sauce, and the brand’s place in local history and as an institution in Antigua and Barbuda is undeniable. All of us, and our children, can recall not just using the product but also school trips to Auntie Rosie’s place. When we rowed both oceans, if you followed us, you will recall that we used Susie’s to bring life to the rehydrated food, so this collaboration is an honor,” Francis said.

The special-edition hot sauce will be sold at local outlets and promoted at upcoming trade shows.