Welcome to A Taste of St. Augustine, the site to order distinctly Floridian flavors through our sauces, dips, marinades & spices. Our founder, the late Jerry Millen, was a botanist and devotee to St. Augustine and the promotion of its success. He used Datil peppers and Seville Oranges, grown locally, as a way to cultivate interest in its history and traditions. He grew the peppers at his Bayberry Farm and collaborated with Candy and Dale Borror in their commercial kitchen at the Florida Gourmet to develop some wonderful sauces and spices. Datil peppers are from the Habanero pepper family, which most likely came from Cuba during the second Spanish occupation of Florida.They have been identified with the Minorcan culture in St. Augustine since the 1700's.

Jerry believed that the Minorcans named the pepper after the date palm due to its resemblance to the latter’s fruit. Any time you see the name, "Minorcan", you can bet it is loaded with the Datil peppers! Over the years, natural hybridization has created its very distinct and wonderful flavor. We think it combines the sweetness of a red pepper with the heat of the Habanero pepper.

Since 2000, Jerry’s business has continued to grow and we are striving to carry on his legacy since we began Raynor Foods, Inc. in 2004, taking over the Old St. Augustine sauces. Our mission is to foster growing awareness of our great ancient city through the creation of wonderful tasting products. Craig and I love to barbeque and over the past thirty years have worked on sweet and tangy sauces for family and friends. We really enjoy our wholesale, telephone and mail order customers, as well as meeting folks directly at the St. Augustine Farmer’s Market.

As we celebrate our five year anniversary, we were very honored to be featured in a recent article of Garden and Gun magazine, Charleston, SC. Our two hot sauces, Snakebite and Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce, were named to the "FIFTY BEST PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH". Please see our hot sauce product page to hear what they had to say!

We really enjoy conversations with our wholesale, telephone and mail order customers, as well as meeting folks directly at the St. Augustine Farmer's Market, Nocatee Farmer's Market, Stephen A. Foster Folk Festival in White Springs, and the Gainesville Christmas Fair. We give special thanks to all the Florida retail shops in St. Augustine, Jacksonville and the Beaches, Fernandina Beach, Cocoa Beach, Claremont, Fleming Island, Mandarin, Orangedale, Gainesville and Key West who give us great support. We are pleased to announce our expansion into North Carolina and Virginia Beach hot sauce shops. It is a step towards our goal to offer our sauces in many specialty stores across the USA.

Thanks for all your feedback, recipes and testimonials. Please keep them coming and we will publish them for all our customers to read and enjoy.