Meet Peppion

PEPION™ HOT SAUCE

Born from Pizza. Driven by Purpose. Fueled by Fire.

It Started with a Slice

About ten years ago, I set out on a mission:
to make the best pizza my daughter’s oldest daughter’s boyfriend had ever tasted.

He’s a die-hard pizza connoisseur, so I took it seriously.

I made my own dough.
Crafted my own sauce.
Hunted down the perfect pepperoni and cheese.

Hundreds of pizzas later, I was still chasing that perfect slice. The hardest part the best quality pepperoni

Then Life Hit Hard

Several years ago, everything changed.

I was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer.

I’ve been fighting ever since — but I never stopped creating. Cooking kept my mind focused and my spirit moving forward. In the middle of that fight, something unexpected happened.

An idea sparked.

A Crazy Idea That Worked

What if pepperoni could become hot sauce?

About three years ago, while still chasing pizza perfection, I started experimenting. I blended the rich, savory flavor of pepperoni with the intense heat of the Moruga Scorpion pepper.

I called it Peppion —
pepperoni + scorpion.

I had no idea if it was even possible.
But after more than 64 recipe variations, it became something special.

Savory. Smokey. Spicy.
And damn good.

Put It On Everything

We target comfort-food lovers who want more than heat — they want a rich, savory kick that transforms simple meals. I really dig it because I put it on almost everything! Once you taste it, you’ll understand.

Still Moving. Still Fighting. Still Living.

I’m 58 years old.
I still skateboard.
I still pop wheelies on my beach cruiser.

Things most people my age don’t do — let alone someone battling cancer.

I do it to motivate anyone struggling mentally or physically. To prove that purpose and passion don’t stop when life gets hard.

More Than a Sauce

Pepion started as a quest to impress a pizza-loving kid.

It became a creative outlet during the toughest fight of my life.
And now, it’s something I want to share with the world.

My goal is simple:

• Sell enough Peppion to retire
• Travel
• Crush the bucket list

I’m racing to finish — and every bottle carries a piece of that journey.

This Is Peppion

Every bottle tells a story.
Every drop delivers fire.

PEPION™ HOT SAUCE

THE STORY

Pepion began with one mission:

to make an unforgettable pizza.

After years of crafting dough, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni combinations, one wild idea sparked:

What if pepperoni could become hot sauce?

More than 60 recipe versions later, Peppion was born — a plant-based, pepperoni-inspired hot sauce made with savory depth, smoky heat, and the fire of the Moruga Scorpion pepper.

PEPPERONI + SCORPION = PEPPION

WE TARGET COMFORT FOOD LOVERS who want more than heat — they want a rich, savory kick that transforms simple meals. Once you taste it, you’ll understand.

(For the actual sign design, I’d make the biggest text)

BORN FROM PIZZA

DRIVEN BY PURPOSE

FUELED BY FIRE

(Then use the story text in a framed center box, and end with)

EVERY BOTTLE TELLS A STORY

EVERY DROP DELIVERS FIRE

1.        The Perfect Slice - 10 years ago I set out to make the perfect slice of pizza pepperoni pizza my oldest daughter's boyfriend was and still is an avid connoisseur of pepperoni pizza so he asked me one day if I could make a pizza from scratch that would rival some of his favorites challenge accepted little did I know making perfect pizza is incredibly hard the the dough has to be exactly right the sauce exactly right the cheese the balance and finally the one thing that I couldn't make that I had to buy was the pepperoni itself I bought every what kind of pepperoni that was available to me without having a restaurant license to purchase from giant food distributors I did pretty well I think if his favorite pizza got a score of nine out of 10 I think I got to a 7 out of 10

2. Sauce made from real pepperoni – somewhere after the years of trying and never making it past 7 I had the crazy idea of making a hot sauce using real pepperoni I had found a really good pepperoni to do this with delicious best of its kind that I could find what I didn't account for is all of the regulations certifications and money that it takes if you try to put actual meat into what's called an acidified food if I were going to try to pull that off I was going to have to have an inspector from the United States Department of agriculture stand over my shoulder while I made every batch of sauce from a commercial kitchen the costs were very prohibitive I would have had to have sold sold the sauce for at least $22.00 a bottle and that wasn't the price I had in mind that seemed very expensive so being involved in my day job and having a lot of other things going on I dropped it in 2025 no more real pepperoni hot sauce

3. The transition to plant based- then in late 2025 my younger sister and I had a conversation she was fed up with her job and her kids were getting older and she was just really burnt out so I proposed starting the company pepion back up again so we did that and then I remembered all of those regulations and at that point I had the revelation with help from several people around me to say if I could do it using real pepperoni the new challenge became could I do it using plant based materials getting the inspiration and influence from real pepperoni but using everything that came from the earth as deposed to from the animal and the earth so 64 variations of the recipe I felt like I finally had it there were still a lot of regulations people don't understand how much is involved when you manufacture and sell hot sauce particularly from California I still had two get permitted 4 food safety two different certifications I had to get approval from the California Department of public health you have to get approvals from city and county health departments then there's the taxes and the permits and what's called a temporary food facility at TF there are a lot of hoops and they're all expensive but I still accepted the challenge and I wanted to do something with my sister so we got peppy on VV for vegetarian started

4. Here we are- it took a few months of getting all of those permits and certifications and to finally finalize the recipe and get that approved and then we started making some batches and then the next level of hurdles came let's sell the farmer's markets not as easy as it sounds farmers markets especially the ones that are hustling and bustling want proven track track records they want to know that you can move your product in their markets and it makes sense what makes us successful farmers market successful farmers and product purveyors so it's kind of a catch 22 the old well how do I get the experience unless I get into a farmer's market but then it's you can't get into a farmer's market without any experience so we went a different route and we started entering these hot sauce competitions some very well known competitions in the United states and we started doing pretty well and when we were in person I got the feedback that I had been longing for your sauce is really good this sauce is really good and that was all the validation and vindication that I needed so from there we got a break we got into a couple of farmers markets started selling did well in a couple of those competitions and we were off and running next came Instagram now I've never been on social media I'm not much interested in it generally speaking I mean I get entertained by videos just like everybody else but I never really had the burning desire to understand the inner workings and and whatnot but all of those farmers markets applications we were filling out said send us pictures and send us your social media so we can check you out well there it was I guess we had to do something in that social arena so we set up the Instagram and started posting I still don't know exactly what I'm doing but I have some people around me that have given me some knowledge that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten the other thing is that I'm passionate about cooking I'm not a good cook but I'm good enough to where I cook the food that I like to eat and those were the posts that I started putting out there just turn on the camera and film myself making the things that I eat and it just happens that many of the things that I eat pair very well with pepper on hot sauce so here we are

5. Where are we going - now the question is where are we going and the answer to that remains open but my sister and I are having a great time doing this and we're able to produce in small batches and keep U with orders and meet a lot of nice people along the way we are getting to the point where we're going to have to start automating some of the processes a lot of the things we do these days is by hand and we're going to have to automate the labeling onto the bottles and the filling of the bottles which is going to mean buying some machinery and equipment the other thing that's likely coming up are a couple different variations of pepion I'm not going to tell you exactly what those are at the moment but in the testing phase where we're at two of them are starting to taste really really good so stay tuned and we'll see where this goes I would love to end up in some smaller restaurants and especially on people's dinner tables I'd be thrilled and tickled