Scarlet BUrn “was created using ingredients that were in abundance at the farm and may have otherwise been wasted,” says Lexie Raczka, BU Dining sustainability director.

Food

BU Dining Services Has a New Custom-Made Hot Sauce: the Scarlet BUrn

University partners with Lowell, Mass.–based Craic Sauce, reflecting its commitment to local sourcing and sustainability

Across Boston University dining halls, Terriers can find a dozen hot sauce types to sprinkle on burritos, scrambled eggs, pizza, and just about anything else that needs a little extra burst of heat and tang. Now, they have one created especially for them.

BU Dining Services has partnered with Lowell, Mass.–based Craic Sauce on a custom hot sauce crafted with locally grown produce, including vegetables that might otherwise go unused when farms have a surplus. The sauce, called Scarlet BUrn, combines garlic scape vinegar with cayenne, onion, tomato, golden beet, carrot, garlic, ginger, Thai basil, and hot Portugal, Fresno, and ghost peppers. Last spring, BU students tasted three early versions—with different flavor and heat profiles—and then voted on their favorite to help shape the final recipe.

The ingredient that may sound most intimidating is the ghost pepper, which can exceed one million Scoville units—the scientific measure of spiciness—earning it a Guinness World Record as the world’s hottest pepper. But Scarlet BUrn’s heat isn’t overly aggressive; Craic rates it “only” a 4 out of 10 on the spicy chart. After all, says Craic founder Brian Ruhlmann, it makes up only 1 percent of the recipe. 

In September, Ruhlmann brought the finished Scarlet BUrn to campus, serving samples at BU’s Sustainability Festival. 

For Aghajabrayil Jafarzade, the new sauce hit all the right notes. “It’s my favorite sauce out of the ones I’ve tried in the dining hall,” says Jafarzade (Questrom’30). “It has a complex taste; I can taste a mix of the sweet, spice, and tang, and it’s versatile.” 

Students can already find other Craic Sauce flavors in the dining halls, Fuller’s Pub, and the George Sherman Union food hall, but the special-edition Scarlet BUrn arrives on campus this week. It will also be sold at Buick Street Market and City Convenience locations. 

Keeping it Local

Dining Services has had a longstanding commitment to supporting local food producers and reducing food waste. Lexie Raczka, its sustainability director, says Craic’s approach aligns with BU’s own sourcing efforts.

Ruhlmann founded Craic (pronounced “krak,” an Irish word meaning good times and good company) in 2014 and has since built relationships with local farms and community organizations, including UTEC, a Lowell organization that helps young people involved with gangs or struggling to find stable work to build their skills and find jobs. For the BU collaboration, Abrantie Farms in Boxborough, Mass., grew the produce. 

The BU-Craic partnership began in 2024, when Craic founder Brian Ruhlmann reached out to Rackza. Craic’s sauces seemed like a natural fit for the dining halls and the George Sherman Union’s El Comal, a Latin American eatery, Raczka says. 

Ruhlmann and Raczka soon began discussing a special edition BU sauce, building on a similar collaboration Craic had done with UMass Lowell. 

“Beyond local sourcing, minimizing and preventing wasted food is central to BU Dining’s sustainability efforts, and something we were able to include in the creation of Scarlet BUrn,” Raczka says. “The sauce was created using ingredients that were in abundance at the farm and may have otherwise been wasted, such as garlic scapes, which were turned into vinegar for the base of the hot sauce.” 

For Ruhlmann, a good sauce’s flavor starts with more than just peppers. Craic makes many of its vinegars in-house, giving its sauces depth and flavor. Its garlic scape vinegar gives the sauce a distinctive base.

The finished vinegar is pungent, with a pronounced garlic flavor. Mainstream hot sauces just take “vinegar, chili powder, xanthan gum, and blend it up,” Ruhlmann says. “A lot of hot sauces use run-of-the-mill white vinegar or apple cider vinegar.” 

The partnership between the University, Craic, and local farms is part of a larger effort by BU Dining to keep more of its food dollars within the regional food system. BU Dining has supported local food makers and farms for the last two decades. Last year, the department sourced more than 223,000 pounds of produce from 36 local farms through its wholesale partner, Boston Food Hub, and expects that number to grow. 

These relationships are especially important in New England, where farmers face high operating costs and significant development pressures. “But by sourcing locally, [BU is] able to help maintain land in farming and preserve the open space benefits, while also keeping small family farms in business and serving our guests high-quality, freshly harvested produce,” Raczka says. 

Scarlet BUrn’s local roots are reflected in its packaging too. Artist Mark Steele designed the label for the condiment. Drawing on both the ingredients and his familiarity with his alma mater, Steele (CFA’72) depicted BU buildings and boats carrying garlic scapes and peppers down the Charles River. 

“We also decided to include BU’s famous paw print in a cloud formation, as well as the famous Citgo sign, depicted as a bright red pepper,” Steele says. Steele has created labels for other Craic products and for Beantown Brew, a recent BU Dining collaboration with Jim’s Organic Coffee inspired by the BU Police Department’s community resource dog, Bean. 

For Aditya Jain, the combination of heat and flavor made an immediate impression when he tried it.

“It’s pretty unique—I’m from India and know all about sauce, and I’m used to spice,” says Jain (Questrom’30). “I put Tabasco on everything—pizza, pasta, chicken, salad. I tried the BU sauce, and it was impressive. I’ll definitely use it.”