Randy Lindholm is officially the hottest man
in Texas. Yes, you read that correctly. The
man is hot: not for his new romantic comedy or
sexy music video but his award-winning
jalapeño sauces. Tired of the grocery store
salsas that taste like used sandpaper, he and
business partner Troy Burklund created their
own line of organic salsas called Texapenos.
“They never had enough body, not the flavor I
wanted,” Lindholm says of the store sauces.
“So I started blending peppers with different
garden products to meet my taste. I cranked
out three hot blends right away: a red, an
orange, and a green.”
Lindholm next began using friends as guinea
pigs to learn how the sauces could be
improved.
“I soon picked up from some of my taste
testing friends that they wanted their sauces
less hot, so I adjusted my recipes to tame
down the spicier sauces to better fit
mainstream pallets.”
From there, Lindholm’s sauces gained word of
mouth – “we started out in a commercial
kitchen and selling our sauces at local small
town festivals,” he says – but what really
made Texapenos well-known was entering his
creations in the Austin Chronicle’s
2003 Hot Sauce Festival.
“We took home first place in the Green Sauce
division of commercial bottlers with our
Gourmet Green Pepper Sauce,” the sauce man
remembers. In 2004, they regained their first
place title. Gourmet Red and Orange Flame
also claimed first place in other categories
in 2003, and Red Flame won second place in the
Pepper Sauce competition.
“The win helped catapult us into the HEB
Central Markets with all five of our fresh
pepper sauces. We had to then begin to work
with a food manufacturer, or co-packer, to
produce larger volumes of our product.”
Texapenos aren’t any ordinary salsa dips: they
can be used for almost any food. Lindholm had
more than a few suggestions.
Lindholm says Texapenos are perfect with “any
protein dishes: for beef, I use it on my
burgers, beef enchiladas, fajitas, breakfast
tacos.” On chicken: “chicken enchiladas,
mixed into your chicken salad for sandwiches,
and it is also great as a marinade.” On fish:
“great fish glaze.” On vegetables and salad
too: “Gourmet Red is my salad dressing.
Texpenos sauces go great mixed in with
stir-fry vegetables or to liven up green bean
casserole. I also feature it in a garden
fresh Okra Creole recipe I have up on the
website.” In fact, Texapenos are so good at
livening up meals that they could probably be
thrown on two-month-old cottage cheese and
make it taste amazing.
The sauces lack preservatives and last
approximately one year since they don’t
contain tomatoes. The fact that Texapenos
dips are organic is surprising, considering
that organic foods occasionally earn the “it’s
not as tasty as the regular version”
reputation. Why peppers? Why not something
like cheese or potatoes?
“I really like hot peppers and have grown them
for almost 20 years. I usually plant too many
plants and have a lot of extra peppers to
experiment with,” Lindholm said.
When not out doing sampling sessions at
grocery stores and events, Lindholm is supply
chain manager for Applied Materials. Though a
bachelor’s degree in management and his career
experience didn’t exactly prepare him for his
latest jalapeño adventures – “I have worked in
the aerospace and semiconductor industries for
the past 23 years,” said Lindholm – he has
enjoyed the excitement of watching his sauces
grow in popularity. The future includes plans
for more Texapenos spin-offs.
“I have a really special traditional Pepper
Sauce I developed two years ago out of Scotch
Bonnet peppers, my 6th sauce and so named,
Texapenos No. 6. That will be the start of
Texapenos dry goods line of traditional pepper
sauces,” the native Austinite revealed.
“Next up after that, I am working on a
traditional green jalapeño sauce which we have
already named 7’s Heaven. We may expand to
other foods and jellies down the road, but for
now, hot sauce is our push.”
The sauce man wants people to remember that
Texapenos products are “fresh pepper sauces
with BIG flavor.” To quote Paris Hilton:
that’s hot. For more information on Texapenos,
ordering sauces and where to purchase them in
Texas, visit texapenos.com.
Texapenos 
Texapenos