About

Hei Ma started as a tiny chili crisp project in a Brooklyn apartment back in 2019 by Lani Chan (hi!)

I originally mixed a batch of chili crisp in 2019, never imagining that 7 years later it would have its own website. I was simply eating too much of the stuff from the Asian market (which I still love!) and thought I could iterate on it. I wanted the chili oil I was slathering on my desk lunch every day to have more acid, texture, and flavor. (Back then, I was working as a news producer in downtown Manhattan. I like this job better.)

I drew from years of experience behind a cocktail bar to develop a recipe. The mason jar full of chili crisp I kept in my desk drawer started disappearing when word got out I had a stash. 

When the pandemic brought my then-partner and I back to the west coast, we found ourselves surrounded by small, independent farmers and neighbors who didn't know what chili crisp was. We felt that this was the perfect place to build a sauce brand that celebrated the flavors we craved, Chinese culinary traditions, and peak-season produce. We were both fresh out of a job and eager to gain our footing in our new home, so we devoted a bulk of our time to introducing Occidental, CA to an olive oil-based chili crisp using locally-grown chiles and crispy peanuts. That's our OG chili crisp-- the recipe everyone fell in love with first.

We secured commercial kitchen space and the necessary permits, and sold the OG chili crisp at four farmers' markets, eventually expanding the core lineup to include Magic Beans (a recipe leaning on nostalgic Cantonese flavors) and Dragon's Booty (a ridiculously hot but incredibly flavorful wild card of a recipe with habanero chiles and orange zest). These two sauces fill out the mild and hot ends of the spectrum, with our OG chili crisp landing squarely in the middle. 

Today, I own and operate the business on my own, along with a small production team and sales team, out of a warehouse and kitchen in Windsor, CA. Everything is still handmade using traditional Chinese methods of infusing fresh aromatics in oil, and done in small batches. When I say small, I actually mean small. We use a 20qt stockpot! Bigger equipment would make this process easier, sure. But to maintain integrity of the ingredients, particularly those we source from our farm partners, we keep things small. We have an expanding list of retail partners and a loyal customer base online.

We've expanded the lineup to include seasonal, limited releases that fill in the gaps between the mild, medium, and hot categories, working with our local farmers to produce each one. These seasonal releases are available for members of our club (like a wine club except for instead of getting wine in the mail, you get chili crisp) and online while supplies last. We keep things interesting around here and always have something new to try. So if you're in northern California, keep up with us to see when we'll be sampling near you!

 

About the name

Hei Ma means 'dark horse' in Mandarin. The name is a nod to my own Chinese heritage, a playful wink to our structure as a woman-owned and women-led business, and a little hat tip to my being born the year of the Horse. 

We're currently in the year of the Fire Horse. This combination on the Chinese Zodiac calendar is associated with momentum, renewed motivation, bold moves, and adventure. It's our sixth year in business, and the Fire Horse energy is perfect for a chapter that feels earned.

 

Thank you for reading and for your support!

 

-Lani

Owner + operator, Hei Ma