Credit: Photo By John Anderson

Randy Lindholm: Texapenos

“Excited” might be the best descriptor these days for Randy Lindholm, co-owner and saucier of the fledgling Texapenos pepper-sauce company. In general, hot sauce makers love talking about their babies, and Lindholm is no exception. He just can’t wait to share his tale of evolution from avid gardener to blossoming commercial entrepreneur, all within two short years.

Lindholm and his wife, Janene, had grown organic vegetables in their spacious backyard garden for 17 years when he began developing hot sauce recipes to make use of “way too many” peppers. “I studied up,” he says. “There are lots of pepper books out there, and I’m a big reader of ingredients on hot sauce labels.” He began sharing his experiments with friends and co-workers at Applied Materials, where he has worked as a supply-chain manager for 10 years. His enthusiastic taste-testers encouraged him to expand his hot sauce horizons.

“During hunting season in 2002, my Houston cousin, Troy Burklund, really spurred me on, and by March 2003, we felt ready to go commercial,” Lindholm says. “So, he and I incorporated, with the goal of getting the sauces into stores. We moved operations to a commercial kitchen and started doing demos, like at Dripping Springs Founders’ Day Festival and the Pflugerville Deutschen Pfest. And then we heard about the Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest.”

Texapenos entered the 13th annual Chronicle contest last August – their first competition ever – and took first place in the Commercial Green Sauce category with their Gourmet Green. Additionally, their Orange Flame and Green Flame both received honorable mentions.

“That was a huge break for us,” Lindholm says. Before they knew it, word-of-mouth demand outgrew their capacity, so they found a co-packer. “We didn’t even know what the word meant.” They created a Web site (www.texapenos.com), and soon they’d placed four sauces on the shelves of all Central Market stores. “I just want to say that the folks at Central Market have treated us like gold,” he enthuses. “This has been a fun project that turned into a real business, and it’s a lot of work. To do this kind of thing, you really have to believe in your product, and you need something pretty special that fills a niche, has a different angle. Just having a good-tasting pepper sauce isn’t enough.”

So what makes Texapenos products different? Lindholm is quick to point out several reasons. “They’re refrigerated sauces – no preservatives – and they’re thick and pulpy because they’re full of vegetables as well as peppers.” Heat in the two milder Gourmet sauces derives exclusively from jalapeño, but secret pepper combinations flavor the zippier Flame sauces. Lindholm did reveal that the Orange Flame contains habaneros and “carrots for sweetness.” He adds that “ours are not really chips-and-salsa kinds of sauces, although people eat them that way, too. They’re meant to go with food: steak, salmon, enchiladas.

“It’s a great feeling to see your product on the shelf,” Lindholm says. In his case, he can see himself there as well. Every jar label sports a photo of Lindholm balancing an immense jalapeño. Must be a Texapeno. – MM Pack

This article appears in August 27 • 2004.

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MM Pack is a food writer/historian and private chef who divides her time between Austin and San Francisco. A regular contributor to The Austin Chronicle and Edible Austin, she’s been published in Gastronomica, The San Francisco Chronicle, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink in America, Nation’s Restaurant News, Scribner's Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, The Dictionary of Culinary Biography, and Southern Foodways Alliance’s Cornbread Nation 1.

Mick Vann is a retired Austin chef who is a food writer and restaurant critic, cookbook author, restaurant consultant, and recipe developer. He moonlights as a University of Texas horticulturist with a propensity for ethnic eats and international food, particularly of the Asian persuasion, but he also knows his way around a plate of soul food or barbecue.

Wes Marshall is the author of What's a Wine Lover To Do? (Artisan) and The Wine Roads of Texas (Maverick), as well as the Executive Producer of the PBS television series of the same name. Wes has written for The Austin Chronicle since 1999, covering wine, cocktails, food, and travel.

Mexico City native Claudia Alarcón has made Austin home since 1984. She worked her way through college in the local restaurant industry, graduating from the University of Texas in 1999. She has been a Chronicle contributor for 15 years and presents lectures and workshops on topics related to the foodways of Mexico, both locally and internationally.