Tamarind Heads

Tamarind Heads Award-winning BBQ sauce with superfood tamarind. Tart, smoky, spiced—crafted for flavor-curious food lovers everywhere.

09/09/2026

How do you sell your craft BBQ up against the corn syrup corporates with millions in marketing? 💵💵💵

…and with a toddler by your side threatening to lick all the berries in the next aisle over?

Our sauce started as a family recipe, a complex, spiced bbq made from tamarind instead of tomatoes. We won awards, ended up in magazines and morning shows…

But the shelf is where it matters.

So this is what we do. This is our weekend, meeting customers, selling bottles, and this time, selling out in under 1 hour! 🥳

We’ll be back soon. Come say hi. We’re real people. Our sauce uses real ingredients and has out of this world flavor 🌎 🫶🏽

When was the last time you took a lil sample at the grocery store? You never know, you might be meeting the founder of that brand…and their whole family.

One bottle does seven different summer jobs. Not seven recipes — seven functions: grill brush, cold drizzle, saute splas...
08/14/2026

One bottle does seven different summer jobs. Not seven recipes — seven functions: grill brush, cold drizzle, saute splash, instant dip, last-minute glaze, overnight marinade, and the drink you didn’t see coming.

Tamarind is what makes the range possible. Sweet, sour, and deep enough to hold its own anywhere from a rack of ribs to a glass of soda and lime — the same spoonful working a different angle each time.

That’s the case for keeping it on the counter: one bottle, the whole season.

08/06/2026

The people we were waiting for had never met each other. Some of them had never even heard of us.

Around noon, we looked at each other and wondered if inviting a bunch of strangers to an eclectic lunch at an art studio in Brooklyn had been an incredibly optimistic (read: dumb) idea.

Then people started walking in, and they kept coming. We filled the table with bánh mì. Trinidadian doubles. Empanadas. Samosas.

At first, it just looked like a wild spread, every dish from a different country (and different mom-and-pop shop in BK).

But they all had one ingredient in common. Every dish on that table came from a place where tamarind has been part of the local cuisine for generations.

Jordan grew up with her mom’s candied tamarind from St. Lucia.
Carolina talked about falling in love with tamarindo in Mexico.
Brandon said food connects people when words can’t.
Shubh, who had just moved to New York, looked around the room and said, “This feels like community.”

Almost everyone already knew tamarind, just by a different name. Or from a different memory. And those that didn’t learned (and tasted!) something deliciously new.

How easy it is to believe our food and our stories exist in separate worlds. But, put everyone around one table, and the distance doesn’t feel quite so far.

We might start out strangers, but we’re more alike than we think.

Anyway, we didn’t grow up with much, but we were taught there’s always room to pull up another chair.

So, if you’re in New York, we’d love to save you a seat at the next one.





07/21/2026

Over 100 people showed up, and half of them tasted childhood…in a dish from a country they’d never been to. 🌍

Tamarind grows all around the world — West Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia — and everyone claims it as their own. So we threw a pop-up in Brooklyn and put it all on one table. Banh mi, fonio fritters, samosas, food from across the tamarind belt.

People came in solo and left trading recipes and favorite Brooklyn bars. Somebody dipped our sauce and said “if I was at home I’d just drink it.” (Same.)

We’re Tamarind Heads , a family-run tamarind BBQ company, and we’re popping up all around New York. Follow us so you can come hang at the next one!

07/15/2026

Dear algorithm, the heat has melted our brains. 🧠 Here’s a tour of yellow things in our NYC neighborhood + our latest Spiced Honey Tamarind BBQ, set to Coldplay bc we could all use a cool down. Thx! 🥵

07/13/2026

Still buzzing! A week before the we were down a founder (Chef Jim got a concussion) and feeling pretty down.

But our family pulled together, helped us man the booth, and got to witness us win a best in show award 🏆!

Plus, they got to see live reactions to our sauce 🤗

Honestly, takes a village to raise a business 💛

07/04/2026

Happy 4th of July! Our tips for surviving the heat wave 🥵, brought to you by our hottest little guy. He’s out making (four-legged) friends in NYC.

Hydrate, friends! 💧

Tamarind Heads 🔥

07/01/2026

That's a wrap on the Fancy Food Show — and we're proud to share that Tamarind Heads was named The Kitchn's Best in Show. 🏆

🔊 Sound on — the video captures the moment our team got the news on the floor.

It's been quite a journey: from taking home a 2024 sofi Gold to earning Best in Show this year, and officially launching Spiced Honey into the world. None of it happens without the buyers, editors, retailers, influencers and fellow makers who stopped by, tasted, and championed what we're building. Thank you.

We're a startup with big plans — and this is only the beginning.

📍 Find us at The Fresh Market, Central Market, and tamarindheads.com. Interested in carrying Tamarind Heads or partnering with us? Let's talk.

Pinch us. 🏆At the Summer Fancy Food Show, Tamarind Heads was named one of just 8 products to earn The Kitchn's Editors' ...
06/29/2026

Pinch us. 🏆

At the Summer Fancy Food Show, Tamarind Heads was named one of just 8 products to earn The Kitchn's Editors' Choice honors — selected from a Javits Center floor packed with the best in specialty food.

Five years of work went into this: tamarind instead of tomato, six clean ingredients, vegan and gluten-free, and a brand-new look that finally matches the flavor inside.

Huge thanks to the editors at The Kitchn for the recognition! We're at Booth #4924 through tomorrow. Come say hi and taste the superfruit for yourself.

06/26/2026

POV: throwing a summer pop-up out of a one-bedroom apartment.

The whole party lives in a storage unit — until we haul it across the city. Doubles, fonio, the whole spread.

Saturday 2–6 at Intelligent Mischief, Brooklyn. RSVP’s in the bio. You’re on the list — come.

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North Pole, AK

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