I didn’t grow up eating spicy foods. Sure, there were spicy foods — whole jalapeños in vinegar, homemade salsa, and roasting chiles smoking out the house — at home, but I didn’t eat them. Those were for my parents and grandparents. Mom would often make two batches of the same food, one for the kids and one for the adults. The only time I tasted jalapeño or other chile was when it accidentally got mixed in to our foods. I didn’t like it. In fact, jalapeños were our punishment for cursing.

Then I grew up. I spent more time in Mexico. I started cooking my own food and realizing I liked the addition of a little chile.

I’m not about to swallow whole habañeros, but I won’t ignore the escabeche (tiny bowl of carrots, onions pickled in jalapeño vinegar) on my table at Mexican restaurants. And of course, like every other Chicana, I’ll add Tapatío to my tacos and burritos.

Tapatío bottle costume
In the past, I’ve met people who loooove Tapatío and add it to everything. If you’re one of those people, why not show your love for Halloween?

Of course, if you’re a bigger fan of another table hot sauce like Cholula or Sriracha, it would be pretty easy to switch out the logos. You could also make this a couples or group costume. It’d be much spicier (sorry) than those ketchup and mustard or salt and pepper costumes.

How to do it:
1. Get a large piece of cardboard or some other sturdy poster board and roll up in a large cylinder. Make sure you can fit in this cylinder. Either paint the cardboard red or cover your bottle with red butcher paper.

2. Attach a smaller cylinder up top with tape, staple gun or whatever else you have lying around in your crafts drawer.

3. Hand draw (or blow up a copy) of the Tapatío label so that it’s large enough to cover most of the bottle.

4. With an X-Acto knife, cut out a circle for your face. You could also cut out a larger hole and wear a large sombrero through the whole. Get creative!

5. Get some green contacts. You need to have the ojos Tapatíos, right?

6. If you show up at King Taco at midnight on Halloween weekend, be ready to pose for photos.

Thanks to Alan for taking this photo and letting me use it.