How did it all begin? The story of Chino Salsa started in a pretty normal way. A tourist was sitting at a bar in Costa Rica and decided to charter a boat for fishing. The bartender called up a captain and said that there’s a guy that wants to fish. The captain, curious about the prospective client, asked what the guy looked like. The bartender described the tourist as Medio-Chino, which translates to half Chinese, even though he is a quarter Filipino. The Chino nickname stuck from that point forward.

After multiple successful fishing trips over the next couple of years, it seemed their luck had run out. One day, the seas seemed dead with not a single fish. Trying to cool himself off, Chino decided to dip his hat in the water for some relief. As soon as he put his hat back on his head, BOOM, there were three jumbo Mahi-Mahi on the lines. Chino, being superstitious, asked everyone on the boat what they had done to get the fish to bite. One of the guys leaned back, cracked open a beer, and said “You put your hat in the water…..that’s the secret sauce for the fish.” At that point, the legend of Chino Salsa was born.