Press

Cocktail Sauce Review by Charleston Fork

April 21, 2011 -- I don’t eat much fish, but I do seriously LOVE raw shrimp. For some reason I was craving it for dinner last night, so Jay and I picked up some fresh jumbo shrimp at Whole Foods (also known by my friend Erica over at Itzy’s Kitchen as “Whole Paycheck” because it’s so damn expensive….yet we both shop there because it’s so fresh and offers a great organic selection). Not trusting the shrimp plate came with enough cocktail sauce, we decided to buy a bottle for backup.

We looked around and decided on a bottle of “Charleston Original Sauces: Cocktail Sauce.”  We try our best to buy local when we can, and support the great city we live in, so we were excited for some hometown sauce.

I tried the sauce that came with the shrimp, but wasn’t impressed. Probably made in-house at Whole Foods, there was way too much horseradish in the sauce. I cracked open the Charleston Original Sauces and loved it! There was a perfect combination of sweetness from the ketchup/sugar combination, tangy from the horseradish, and zest from the lemon. It was, hands down, the best cocktail sauce I’ve ever had!

Local Interview on SCETV's "Making It Grow"

January 18, 2011 -- Mary Caroline Rhea was interviewed and provided a tasty sampling of dishes prepared with a variety of Charleston Original Sauces and spices. Mary Caroline's segment is about 25 minutes into the program at the following link:  

http://www.scetv.org/index.php/making_it_grow/show/making_it_grow_1-18-2011/

Local couple create sauces for seafood

The Post and Courier | Published on 12/09/09
BY TERESA TAYLOR

Eating local seafood and fish? The Lowcountry now has its own gourmet sauces to go with them.

A Mount Pleasant couple, John and Mary Rhea, have turned their homemade blends into a commercial venture called Charleston Original Sauces. The 12-ounce bottles of cocktail and tartar sauces are available at a number of stores, including Boone Hall Farms, Seaside Farms Piggly Wiggly, Simmons Seafood, Coastal Cupboard, Whole Foods Market (cocktail sauce only), Crosby's Seafood on Folly Beach and Stono Market on Johns Island. Bottles generally are priced at $4-$5.

"My wife and I have been making cocktail sauce to enjoy with our favorite seafood, especially oysters, for some time and decided to start a company so everyone else could enjoy it, too," says John Rhea.

The husband and wife, born and raised in Charleston, first met when they were 11 and dated through high school. Thereafter, their lives diverged until 23 years later. "We are now married raising our blended family of seven boys. To add to the excitement, we had our own baby — yes ... a girl!"

The Rheas always have shared a love of Lowcountry waters and its bounty of crabs, shrimp and oysters. "Our affinity for great seafood was established at an early age," he says, and the sauces were a natural extension of that.

The bottle label, created by local artist Clay Rice, depicts two shrimpers from years past throwing a cast net. "It only took one try and he nailed it," says Rhea.