As the story is told, many moons ago, Lukas Mackesson set out to make the perfect hot sauce to compliment his Bloody Mary cocktail. He tried many different sauces that used the Tabasco style pepper, trying to mix them together to come up with that special kind of spiced up flavor that would add the perfect amount of heat without being overbearing.

He even sought advice from his younger brother Daniel, who was working on ingenious ways to spice up his Tailgate Chili and had been diagnosed with HOH (Hooked on Habaneros). The end result of Daniel’s experiments was a “taste it if you dare” chili that he began serving at his then-humble tailgate party in the Shea Stadium parking lot B in 1975.

“A sign of strength” was how Daniel Mackesson described it…

…which he told the foolish, hungry takers who were getting ready for the New York Jets game that would commence in a couple of hours. Well, a decade had passed and a change of scenery was necessary as the Jets moved out of Queens, jumped over the river, and landed in “THE SWAMP” (an accurate way to describe the New Jersey Meadowlands Complex). It was then that Daniel’s tailgate party settled into parking lot 18B and became known as the 18B Tailgate.

However, after all this time, Lukas still didn’t have that perfect taste that he was looking for in his Bloody Mary mix. Frustrated, he began to consume large amounts of alcoholic beverages while endlessly searching for that perfect taste. It was one big vicious, viscous cycle: Drink, adjust; drink, adjust … week after week!

Daniel, on the other hand, was actually cleaning up his Chili act

(although many to this day still disagree).

And through better sources for Habanero peppers, he began creating an almost edible chili

(although he could drink it like mother’s milk).

He still had opposition from his buddies who thought that the “FIRE IN THE HOLE CHILI” would be better suited as an auto compound.

Decades rolled on…

…and Luke kept on breaking outdoor drinking records, but sadly the only result was a hangover that required more “BLUKES” (Luke’s Bloody Marys) to remedy.

One stormy winter day at his house in the woods, Lukas was still trying to perfect his Hot Sauce for Bloody Marys when Daniel dropped by to lend a decisive hand. Lukas had been using Tabasco peppers he purchased from a specialty shop, and Daniel never left home without a Habanero pepper in his pocket. Well – low and behold – when they put their peppers together, the final blend emerged consisting of approximately 70% Tabasco pepper and 30% Habanero pepper.

Luke’s 18B Tailgate Hot Sauce is Born

Finally, after decades of hard work, we can now bring you the perfect Tabasco/Habanero style hot sauce for Bloody Marys … or in anything where you need to kick an extra point to cover the spread. In case you were wondering, the answer is no: It didn’t cut down Lukas’s drinking, for he was firmly in the midst of a lifelong pattern.