And now, we're bringing Tia Ali to you - a story of hot peppers, a tough cancer battle, and an all around great sauce. Courtney Menzies has this story.

This is no ordinary bottle of pepper sauce - it's the pepper sauce of Channel 7.

It is masterfully blended by one of the pioneers in broadcasting - 72-year-old Ramon Villanueva. He spent the last 4 decades as the TV station supervisor, and for about 5 years before the sauce hit the shelves, the Channel 7 employees served as taste testers.

Ramon Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"We began making it for the family, uncles, aunts, nephews, and then we began giving it to friends, we had to make for friends."

"After that I believe it's where I took it to Channel 7 and everybody said, this is great! And I began selling it."

Jules Vasquez, News Director, 7News Belize
"What you see here is the culmination of many years of research and development to become the Channel 7 house sauce. For many years we ate various evolutions of this pepper, various incarnations and they would always have a very distinctive, Ramon-esque masking tape with the date, etc, and it became a real, not that I need one, but it became a real reason to eat and so, you know, you want to eat it with everything, it's so good. But we didn't know that we were his guinea pigs and that he was working on what I believe is the perfect pepper sauce. Obviously, I'm not objective in this regard and it's really a remarkable sauce and it works with everything. It's a shameless plug, accepted, but it was a really good sauce and it's a great story. So how I use it in this application, this is Chon Saan's sweet and sour chicken, you pour that in that gunky too sweet sauce, mix it up, and you got yourself not a sweet and sour sauce, a hot sweet and sour sauce."

And after a few pours and a few dunks, beads of sweat began appearing - and that's how you know this pepper sauce isn't to be taken lightly.

Jules Vasquez, News Director, 7News Belize
"It has a brand name on it, Tia Ali's, but for us the sauce is really, it's just named BAPS, because it's named Bun Bleep Pepper Sauce because after years of experimentation and being experimented on, we can confirm, it has a particular effect on you."

It's so good that even our former colleague, Cherisse Halsall had to take a few bottles with her 2,000 miles away to Missouri.

Cherisse Halsall, Former Journalist/Anchor, 7News Belize
"I feel like that pepper is so synonymous with Channel 7 that the minute you get there, they hand you your first spoon, at least that's how I remember it. So it was around in these glass jars, I think it was some lunch time, probably went to the kitchen and Lance likely, our editor at the time, was like, hey you have to try this. Never went back."

"One of the things I want to say about my first reaction to tasting it, I was like, this has more flavor than Marie Sharp. I may get in trouble for saying that, that's how I felt."

"Jules was generous, when I left, he bought me six bottles, I have two left, there are bottles in every household that I frequent because it needs to be there whenever I have anything on a plate so it has to be in kitchen."

But the spicy spouses behind this pepper sauce say they didn't always plan to sell it. The encouragement came from those closest to them - but not long after they began production, they had to shut it down. That's because Villanueva had to abruptly retire and seek treatment after he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Ramon Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"I came down with cancer and it was kind of rough, chemotherapy and then radiation. I got halfway through radiation and I thought I couldn't make it, it's poison they put into you, they're poisoning your body so there's a lot of side effects."

"I would get indigestion and throw up, and all kinds of things. It gave me constipation. My throat would hurt, my throat felt like it was closing, I was afraid in the morning, I'd wake up with my throat constricted."

"My wife had to be with me and we were coming and going with chemotherapy but when it came to radiation, we had to stay there for two full months but the pepper thing stopped completely."

But over one year since his diagnosis, Villanueva is now cancer free. And what was once his side gig has now become this retiree's main source of income and he says while sales are steady, they're not increasing.

Ramon Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"The only problem I see is that people don't know it and it's the same people buying it so like the customer base is not increasing so what they need to know, or gotta somehow get people to try it, to realize it's so nice."

"I've been going around trying to promote it. There's a place here in Ladyville, Mel Perez Tamales. They sell lunch but a whole variety of things, you could get of course the nicest tamales and ducunu."

Courtney Menzies:
"So you sell to people who are waiting for food?"

Ramon Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"Yes, I go there because you have to form a line to order and as the people are standing in line, I approach them and tell them that this is Tia Ali's Pepper Sauce, we make it here in Ladyville."

"I would take a dozen or a dozen and a half peppers with me and I would sell them off. Lots of times people say, I have to try it."

Courtney Menzies:
"Do you think it's comparable to Marie Sharp or Hot Mama's, some of the more popular peppers in Belize?"

Ramon Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"I'm sorry but I think it's better than all those peppers."

Now Villanueva and his wife are hoping that more Belizeans will opt for Tia Ali's - especially after his hefty medical bill.

Maria Angelica Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"It wasn't a plan to go into the pepper business. During the pandemic I was home, just me and my husband, and I said, you know what, I tried to do it for the children, my children, I have four children."

"It's important because like we had a lot of expenses with Ramon's treatment and it's not that we are dying of hunger, we are continuing, we have our children to support us, and we don't want to be a burden and every little bit counts."

Ramon Villanueva, Tia Ali's Homemade Pepper Sauce
"We get Social Security, when I used to work, we lived more comfortably, with Social Security, you have to be on a tight budget, and we have children but we don't like to be begging our children so we think, well, we have this thing, this good thing, this pepper sauce we make, let's sell it."

"It took a lot of money and people surprisingly to me, they were very generous so I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart because I got through it, my cancer is in remission."

"I'm very thankful to all who helped me."

Tia Ali's can be found in Brodies Supermarket on the highway, Carnivore, Maulette's Store on New Road, and UMall in Ladyville.