Everything sauce
Live brand · Auckland since 2021
New Zealand's original hot honey.
Chilli-infused, honey-based, no added sugar. A drizzle or a dollop on your favourite foods makes the magic happen.
Our story
Rich in DIY enthusiasm, low in experience.
Sweet Sting started the way many things in New Zealand do. Two blokes with a good idea, (but no relevant food experience), started experimenting with an unhealthy amount of fresh chillies and buckets of beautiful local honey.
We were after one thing: honey with more life to it. Not a hot sauce with a token dab of honey on the ingredient list. Not a jar of honey with powdered chilli stirred through as an afterthought. We wanted something where the sweet and the heat arrived together in a triumphant celebration of flavour.
Getting there took a while. Nine chilli varieties, countless trial batches, and a rotating cast of patient friends, family and random barbecue guests who were told they were being helpful. Most of them were, thanks Steve.
What eventually came to life is the green bottle we still make today. It was the first Hot Honey made in New Zealand, and it's still the one we'd take to a desert island.
One small idea back in 2021 has since spawned six sauces packed with big flavours, now in 150+ stores nationwide. Real honey, real chilli, nothing that doesn't need to be there.
What it is
Three ingredients. That's the whole list.
The original Hot Honey is Coromandel & Marlborough honey, Northland & Auckland chillies and apple cider vinegar. No added sugar, no preservatives, no stabilisers, no thickeners. Turn the bottle around and read the back. It's a short trip.
Perfect on absolutely everything: pizza, cheese boards, fried chicken, ramen, the barbecue, cocktails. There are 48 recipes and counting on sweetsting.co.nz.
Coromandel & Marlborough honeyRaw and unblended, never heated past the point where it stops tasting like honey.
Northland & Auckland chilliesNine varieties across the range, grown here and picked ripe rather than early.
Apple cider vinegarThe bit that keeps it bright instead of cloying, and does the preserving so nothing artificial has to.
Made in AucklandMade in Auckland since 2021 by two blokes who got carried away.
The range
Six sauces. One beautiful buzz.
Start off mild at Smashed Tomato and slide your way up to Superhot. Most stick to the middle ground, but why not live dangerously.
Next level chilli jam
Space Jam
🌶 Ok… I felt that
Next level mustard
Down & Dirty Mustard
🌶 Ok… I felt that
Your everything BBQ sauce
Smoky Joe
🌶 The perfect Sweet Sting
The original
Hot Honey
🌶 The perfect Sweet Sting
A fiery hit
Superhot
🌶 Face melterWho it's for
Anyone who thinks food should be more interesting.
Sweet Sting is for people who cook with curiosity. Who pick up a sauce because it sounds interesting and put it on things the label didn't suggest. Pizza, wings, cheese, stir-fries, straight off the spoon. We've heard it all and we're not judging.
It's also for people who care about what's actually in the bottle, and want to support NZ producers while they're at it.
Where to find it
In 150+ stores nationwide, plus stockists in Australia and the United States.
You'll find us in New World, FreshChoice, Farro Fresh, Four Square and Moore Wilson's, plus an amazing selection of local delis, butchers, grocers and the best pizzerias in NZ. Order direct from sweetsting.co.nz, and if you're a retailer or distributor, we'd love to talk.