What do you get when you combine a December trip to the Mayan Riviera with the holiday season in Upstate New York? You get an unexpected holiday gift (yes, you! If you win). A bottle of warmth and flavor that, like a vacation, will taste completely unexpected in the most delightful kind of way.

Have you ever heard of the Karma Sauce Company? Last June, one of Karma Sauce Company’s founders Kelly Olzeck offered up a generous donation of her fabulous sauces to the MS Society Benefit Horse Show. When I went to pick up the bottles she handed me a box asking me to give the Karma line of sauces a test drive.

Now, there must be a kajillion (whatever…a lot) of sauces on the market. I expected Karma’s to be good but how different could it be? I cracked open the first bottle. Aptly titled “Good” it was a red pepper butternut sauce with the Heat Index 3 (according to the thermometer on the label). Being a Californian the first thing I did was dollop it on my breakfast eggs.

Speechless.

Seriously impressive. I poured it on my eggs. Added it to black beans and spinach. Sauced up roast pork loin. Dumped it on potatoes. My husband and I started getting competitive about who would get more. It was that good.

What’s the big deal?

The Karma sauces are all hand-made, all natural, gluten-free sauces with a red pepper and butternut squash base. Ingredients are locally sourced (love that part) but really, the key is the butternut. Something about that texture and smooth, seamless flavor makes an unusual but completely perfect base for the sauces. The Karma Sauce Company also donates 5 percent of their profits to charity. (Read about them, you’ll like ’em.)

Soon my 11 year old got in on the action. His favorite was the “Smokey” (red pepper with chipotle orange and a heat index of 2). Yeah, that bottle didn’t last long.

The “Curry” (red pepper curry with mango) was divine on fish tacos. With a heat index of 5 it was a balanced delivery of flavor and heat. This flagship sauce with the straight-forward red pepper and butternut squash comes in different heat indexes. “Bad” is ranked at 9 and definitely earns that higher number.

We’re into the tomato katsup now, made with apple cider vinegar and butternut squash. I’m telling you…this stuff is unreal. And now the Karma Sauce Company has launched a line of mustards in time for the holidays. This brings me back to the holiday giveaway.

The Holiday Giveaway

I spent last week soaking up the sun and spirit of the Mayan Riviera on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Yup. The Caribbean, coconut trees, Mayan ruins. It’s the land of vanilla, honey, history and mystery. The people were beyond friendly and the food, oh the food! I gorged on avocados, black beans, coconuts and ate every bite with sauces and salsas. It put me in a verrrrry good mood.  Kelly gave me three bottles of the delectable “Smokey” sauce. One went in the donation box. One I ate. And that leaves me with one more.

Would you like to have it? The Smokey is a red pepper with chipotle orange and butternut squash base. The heat index is mild, ranked at 2 so it’s a warm sauce but its soul is about flavor…not the childish practice of blistering your taste buds into oblivion.

Easy to Enter

Do one of the following:

1. Leave a comment on this post on food gifts you’d love to receive. OR,

2. Friend Spice Sherpa on Facebook and comment on this post over there  http://www.facebook.com/SpiceSherpa OR,

3. Subscribe to Spice Sherpa (see the signup box at the top of the right-hand column?) You’ll get an email from Google feedburner to verify the subscription. Once you do that I’ll get a notification and your name will go in the hat.

I’ll announce the winner January 12th. Wouldn’t this be perfect karma for starting 2012?

The Karma Sauce Company is available at a few select merchants, and available for order through their website:

http://karmasauce.com/