Charles Jones, one of the founders of the D.C.-area company Capital City Mambo Sauce, died Friday. He was 46 years old.
Washingtonian reported that Jones was on a campus tour in Georgia with his son when he had a heart attack.
Jones’ wife and the company’s co-founder, Arsha, said in a statement posted on the company’s Facebook page that her husband loved the business and took pride in each and every bottle.
Jones was raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
He and his wife, who is from D.C., started their Anne Arundel County, Maryland-based business in 2011, after Arsha, who missed the sauce she grew up with, started making it in her kitchen for their children.
In November 2018, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser stirred controversy and was criticized when she said that she was “annoyed by Mumbo sauce,” CNN reported.
The company was initially called Capital City Mumbo Sauce. However in 2013, Arsha petitioned to void the trademarked name “mumbo” — owned by Select Brands in Chicago — but was not successful.
The two companies came to an agreement, and the Jones’ changed their product to mambo, Washingtonian reported.
Capital City Mambo Sauce products are sold at grocery stores and available at several restaurants in the D.C. area.
Arsha said that Jones was the reason “stores stayed fully stock with mambo sauce,” and that the company will keep pushing until everyone knows about D.C.’s culture, “It’s what Charles would have wanted.”
Mambo or mumbo sauce is a sweet and tangy sauce popular in D.C. Both D.C. and Chicago claim its origin.
