More Than Sauces: Rachel Ama on Building AMA

For AMA, innovation in the condiment space goes beyond creating another product to place on supermarket shelves. It is more about bringing Caribbean heritage and storytelling into how we consume food. In a category often dominated by mass production and marketing, personal stories will always carry more than just a product. “Food is the biggest love language in the world”, Rachel Ama explains. AMA is arriving at your largest supermarket, Tesco, with not only authenticity and energy but also a meaningful purpose. 

Image credit Rachel Ama.

To understand AMA, we first need to understand the process behind creating products that respond to personal and cultural needs, while also reflecting, in this case, the vision of Rachel Ama, the creative force behind the brand. From the very beginning, it was just an idea, a thought, until her first batch in 2023. Even then, the journey wasn’t easy as she had to face reality and eventually decided on starting  with her very first sauce from home. But the question would be, why sauces? 

Well, here’s her answer: “I wanted to bring new energy, new flavors forward. I am relying on cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, aromatic spice, and real ingredients.” Today, the brand AMA offers its consumers two types of sauces: the Jerk Marinade and the Sticky Miso Jerk. The jerk marinade is a cooking style originating in the Caribbean, where Maroons used it to season, cook, and preserve meat. It has since evolved into a staple seasoning blend used across vegetables, proteins, and grilled dishes alike.  Defined by bold ingredients, AMA pays respect to its Caribbean roots by using Scotch bonnet peppers, allspice, and more. Each of her sauces adds deep flavor, warmth, and tenderness to every dish it touches. 

When talking about the design of AMA’s jars, Rachel Ama lights up immediately. Working alongside Studio Nari, whom she describes as “amazing”, she then explains that the visual identity of her brand began with one very specific vision board goal: “I want Pharell and Rihanna to want this in their pantry”. From the bold colors to the playful wording, every detail was designed to feel vibrant and instantly eye-catching.“I wanted to be big energy”, she says, “and for people to look at it and go: ‘Wait… what is that?!” Between carefully chosen colour combinations and striking branding, AMA manages to balance personality and cultural storytelling, while also looking cool enough to sit in a celebrity kitchen. 

Behind this success and growing achievements lies the story of a woman at the beginning of her journey: a creative learning to embrace risk and ambition. Trying to move beyond the limitations people place on you is never easy, especially when those perceptions have followed you for years. For Rachel Ama, learning not to let others dictate her next move became an essential part of her entrepreneurial journey. Alongside the pressure of building a business came another reality: the feeling of often being underestimated as a black woman. 

Beginning on YouTube, she taught herself everything from filming to recipe creation, using cooking as a space for experimentation and self-expression. As her audience grew, so did the idea of building something of her own, supported throughout by her mother’s constant belief, “I believe in you, you can do it.” Food became more than just content creation when she discovered she was lactose intolerant. Living with the condition encouraged her and her mother, who studied nutrition and naturopathic medicine, to rethink ingredients and to open a deeper reflection on how to consume. Through her recipes, she began reclaiming space for Caribbean cuisine in a way that felt more expressive and aspirational. “I just wanted to show people from my community that you could still have delicious food, like cutting dairy out didn’t need to be a compromise,” she shares. Even as opportunities in TV and brand collaborations came in, something felt misaligned. The formats were often too rigid, limiting the creative freedom on which she had built her voice. She realized that telling her own story wasn’t about visibility, but about identity and authenticity. 

Image credit Rachel Ama.

Once Rachel Ama decided to build something on her own terms, AMA truly started to take shape. After years of sharing recipes, building a community online, and publishing books, she wanted to create “something I am really proud of”, as she puts it. 

The process began with sending her first recipe to a manufacturer, resulting in months of feedback and reformulation focused on taste and texture. What first felt intimidating slowly became part of the journey. Seven months and nearly twenty back-and-forths later, she finally achieved the result she wanted. “When you scale recipes to massive quantities, the spices interchange with each other differently”, she explains. Throughout it all, one thing remained non-negotiable: creating products with quality ingredients and no compromise on flavor. 

With her launch at Tesco, her journey from her own kitchen to one of Britain’s major supermarkets feels like an act of legacy-building. Rachel Ama traces that connection back to her family history with her grandparents arriving in Britain in the 1940s, growing up surrounded by Caribbean culture and music in her childhood home which have shaped the person she is today.  Although her grandmother, who was an important figure for her, cooked for hospitals and schools, she never had the chance to cook alongside her, as her own passion for food came later in life. Yet food was always present as her grandmother expressed love through feeding others. Cooking then became an unexpected connection to her heritage that she understood later.   “It’s quite important to me, and it’s been really influential,” she argues.

Looking ahead, Rachel hopes to build a real community around the brand while creating moments of connection and joy through food. Beyond, she also seeks to expand into other creative fields, such as art, fashion, and music. 

As summer turns into autumn and invites reflection, time around the table getting longer, it is the perfect season to enjoy AMA’s sauces with friends, family, or even by yourself.

Image credit Rachel Ama.