The first time I met Shaquanda, the drag persona of Andre Springer, was during Queer Soup Night, a party highlighting LGBTQ+ chefs while raising money for community organizations. She was hosting a queer chili cook off, sauntering through the crowd providing cheeky commentary while encouraging attendees to make donations, and of course, sample the chili. She greeted me with the warmest embrace, pressing my face into her colorful hair wrap and dangling gold earrings. After chatting with her for several months via Instagram, it was a delight to feel her radiant energy in real life.
Shaquanda's Hot Pepper Sauce was launched in 2014 when Springer debuted his hot sauce at Bushwig, a drag and music festival hosted in Brooklyn, New York. Springer wanted to add another dimension to his drag, and introducing hot sauce would take his performances from eyes to mouth. Springer enlisted the help of his friend (and current business partner) Dominic Mondavi to create custom bottle labels adorned with Shaquanda's face and cheeky, queer-centric catchphrases. He filled each one up with his signature hot sauce blend and attended the event in full Shaquanda drag, complete with a colorful bandana and linen apron — a look inspired by his Barbadian grandmother and the many characters he grew up with in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His signature sauce, made with fresh chiles and a slew of aromatics, filled audience members' mouths with flavor as lively as Shaquanda herself. The performance was a success, and from that initial debut, Shaquanda's Hot Pepper Sauce took off.
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