Renfro Foods opened its doors to Fortitude. BP and JW got to visit with Renfro Foods president, Doug Renfro, for an inside look into the legendary company and factory that has been providing Mrs. Renfro’s delicious products since 1940. From syrups to chow chow to world famous salsas, the Renfro Family has endured through through it all as they continue to make those products with hard work, determination, and a touch of creativity and humor. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you are missing a Fort Worth staple that never disappoints. We may heard been privy to a few family secrets. Enjoy!
Please enjoy the best Fort Worth has to offer.
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roxo media house
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welcome back fortituders JW Wilson here
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with my co-host brinton Payne we are
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off we are off site today at a very
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special location with a new friend of
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ours the guy between us brinton
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he’s the president of Renfro Foods a
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company founded in 1940 he’s got a heck
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of a story to tell us he’s going to show
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us some behind the scenes stuff but
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welcome to the show Doug we appreciate
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it yeah thanks Doug thanks thanks for
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coming out so you um being a Dallas
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Cowboy uh you’re a lot smaller than we
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had initially expected it happens yeah
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there’s shrinkage from the Renfro
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Cowboys lineage we do know him he knows
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us it’s funny uh Mike renfro’s mother
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went to high school with my Uncle Bill
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Renfro who was who worked here half a
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century second gen strangely did you
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like how I just threw that curveball
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starting out I did like that yeah a lot
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of trade shows we need to relaunch now
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so Doug would you tell us a little about
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the history of the family and the family
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business Renfro Foods please you mean
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the non-football part the non-football
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part exclusively certainly so uh 19 in
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the 1930s my granddad distributed
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grocery items and it’s the Vintage
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building if you drive up to Jyoti
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Garcia’s right now up North Main on the
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right they’ve nicely renovated the
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Vintage company building I have photo
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outside my office of my granddad and his
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company truck for that operation in the
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30s we think my grandmother took the
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photo because of Shadow we’re pretty
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sure we had no corporate photographer
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back then and then in 1940 he had the
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courage you know being a true
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entrepreneur he had the courage to quit
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his job and for the next 12 years out of
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their house they distributed grocery
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items they would take flavored vinegar
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garlic cloves and things to grocery
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stores
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and that is the early part in 52 they
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started making syrup in the building
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that we’re standing right now we now
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have two city blocks but this core
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building was just one small part of the
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of the neighborhood it was a church and
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a bar and on houses and things in our
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little Factory which was built in the
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20s to make ice cream cones just you’re
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welcome that was free
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um so they started making syrup I always
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tell people there were no maple trees
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harmed in the process and they had about
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85 percent of the DFW Cafe business my
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children don’t even know what a cafe is
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and that was not sexy for my dad who
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went to TCU along with Bill we think it
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was free
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because they didn’t have any money they
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lived at home worked for free and my dad
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would have to do things like clean out a
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60 gallon syrup Kettle they couldn’t
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afford a hot water heater so we do it
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with cold water and then go to TCU to
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class with his wet t-shirt so he is
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quite popular there what’s that being
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Jack Jack rinfo correct yeah thanks for
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delineating it’s my dad’s Jack Becky and
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James Renfro who run the company with
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Becky Renfro borbola and James Renfro
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run the company with me their dad bill
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was an older brother and they were
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second gen we have an Aunt Linda who
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worked here in college and then taught
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public school for 30 years or so and she
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also was an owner of the company how big
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is the Cowboys question brinton no it’s
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not a syrup question how big are like
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the is the vat or whatever the pot is
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in the 50s that said 60 gallons and you
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can’t prove otherwise and is is it just
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a painstaking task to clean it with cold
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water he indicated it was very uh what’s
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the opposite of fun very not fun yeah
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yeah and that uh and that was what they
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did for quite a while then in the late
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50s early 60s they started making a
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southern relish called chow chow and
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when Becky and James and I were children
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that’s all we made and now we make it
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four hours a month if that tells you how
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things have changed over time what’s a
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southern Relic ciao what what is it it
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is based on cabbage bell pepper onion
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pickling spices so my my poor dad who
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ran production his car just reeked of
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pickling spices basically all of his
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clothing in the car you know we’d go
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we’d go in the other car to church and
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PTA and things because his JW smelled
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like that on the way over today I can
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make that happen we still have some chow
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chow this is some chow chow right here
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there you go
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this is what we’re going to put in
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brinton’s hamburger today ghost pepper
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sauce watch out Britney you’re in
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trouble Doug how many products does
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Renfro Foods currently make we currently
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have 30 Renfro items are they all Salsas
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are we talking jellies are we talking
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chow chow oh what all types of things do
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you guys make we make Salsas relishes
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barbecue sauce cheese sauce and we have
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jalapeno peppers sweet hot and regular
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the bulk of what we sell is indeed salsa
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and our our Forte has been flavor
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development so the last 30 years we’ve
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come out with habanero black bean
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tequila craft beer salsa Chipotle corn
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and other people were doing those sorts
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of things but it like this William
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Sonoma 12 housewarming gift level and we
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want to be at the everyday in my grocery
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cart level what’s the difference between
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Salsa and Picante they’re spelled
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differently that’s it uh yeah I had to
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answer that question when I came back we
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still called them Picante sauces and we
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have mild medium and hot Picante Picante
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is simply Spanish for spicy and as
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people begin to know more Spanish they
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realize how stupid it was to say mild
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spicy medium spicy hot spicy so we
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changed the names from picante sauce to
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Picante salsa and then to salsa and our
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green taco sauce which change to Greens
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also because you don’t always want to
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have a taco okay so what’s your family
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making this while they were doing the
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syrup like at home just for a home meal
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type of deal no but that’s a really
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romantic backstory we make I just
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envisioned yeah I like that a lot don’t
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distribute these groceries we’re going
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to make a quick salsa here for ourselves
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now you know it’s better to be lucky
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than smart and sometimes things come
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along and you’ve got to be smart enough
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to take advantage of it and there was a
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guy making taco sauce who got in over
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his head and my dad and my uncle went
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over there and said you know this might
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be it would fit nicely with our
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operation and Chow Chow has the velocity
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of a snail so that you’ve not a lot of
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money around when you just make a little
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southern relish yeah and with taco sauce
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it wasn’t a lot more when we went into
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salsa every day salsa that’s when the
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velocity really took off because you go
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to a football game and have a hosting
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party at your house any kind of party
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you’ll eat the whole jar usually
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what is the most popular uh product that
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you guys make currently the number one
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item is habanero which is extra hot that
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was one of the first two items I got to
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create after they put me in charge of r
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d in my spare time as a finance weenie
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with all my training and uh at the time
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when we came out with it we actually had
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comments internally that it wouldn’t
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sell much because it’s crazy hot which
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now of course you go to Chili’s in
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London and you can find right uh
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habanero Chipotle whatever
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but people really got into it the
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American pilot has gotten so much more
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heat tolerant over time we had a
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shipping clerk who started eating like a
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tablespoon of the habanero salsa a week
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and by the time he retired 10 years
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later he was eating a bottle a week
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really so what do you think that the
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cause of that was like so the heat deal
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is fairly new in the American Cuisine
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but has it been in other cultures or
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what’s going on with the US eating
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hotter stuff you know food gets boring
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sometimes and as we had more income and
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more free time we’re able to experiment
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more from a culinary perspective and
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spice is stimulating to your body it
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releases endorphins you get like a
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little runner’s high but you develop a
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tolerance and so you can go hotter and
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hotter for whatever reason the 50s and
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60s you know a boiled potato and roast
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beef seem to be sufficient but now it’s
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not
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well uh Doug we appreciate you getting
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this little background you’ve agreed to
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give us a little tour of the facility
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maybe Brent can try some habanero salsa
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maybe on the side we definitely some
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footage of that if that’s okay but uh we
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we appreciate you uh giving us some
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insights uh 82 years I think about
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Matt’s correct 1940 is that check my
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math brinton oh yeah to your old company
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that’s incredible you get around and you
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guys were known a known entity your
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family’s very involved in the community
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you do a lot of things especially for
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TCU you’re wearing the purple of tissue
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today uh but you guys have been around
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done this for a long time with hard work
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and sweat and it’s it’s quite an
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accomplishment you guys have had with
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the family so thank you for the the time
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and we look forward a little tour inside
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real real quick though Doug what is the
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spiciest thing on this track I gotta
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find out what the spiciest thing in this
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office would be the spiciest thing which
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you’re going to taste soon I believe is
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the Carolina Reaper salsa and that is
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what what type of a friend of ours Ed
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Curry created that he got the Guinness
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Book of World Record accreditation at
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the time is the hottest pepper in the
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world and he has a contest he was on
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Netflix with half an hour of his contest
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of making people pass out they have five
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gallon buckets beside them I’ll let you
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guess why in terms of eating that so
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we’ll get you a little small bucket
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all right brinton you ready to try some
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habanero salsa I’m sorry to interrupt on
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the clothes out thank you very much for
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having me facility
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[Music]
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it’s just really dangerous
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[Music]
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thank you
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foreign
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[Music]
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cards
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[Music]
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fresh salsa for bad employee
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[Music]
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we found the real Secret Sauce here
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[Music]
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do it
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I would come after classes and do this
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for like seven hours
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yeah you’re welcome wait I’m feeling it
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in the lungs here with Doug Renfrow of
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Renfrow foods and Mr Mr allergies in the
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spice room no I’m seriously coughing
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that’s from breathing this place smells
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wonderful but you gotta be careful
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street value of a bag like this stuff
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two million yeah all right thank you how
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you feeling I got no sneeze coming I’ll
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tell you here in a second
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I can’t stop yellow pepper up there
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okay I’m good for a second we wanted to
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thank Doug Renfrow president redfro
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friends from giving us a tour of this
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wonderful facility thanks for being such
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a steward of the city of Fort Worth we
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appreciate you it was an amazing
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opportunity to see what goes on behind
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the scenes I still fill it up here in my
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in my nasal cavity but uh thank you
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again and thank you so we already always
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end the show in the studio with asking
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somebody familial aside and this is
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beautiful family facility you guys have
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built this great business on it what’s
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the best day of your life that is a hard
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one from a brand perspective I think the
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day that we were on the cover of a trade
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Magazine with Coca-Cola is an example of
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brand uh flavor development and
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Innovation our Peach salsa and Coke with
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lime were featured right centered on the
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magazine that went internationally to
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think to think that our whole family
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business was compared to Coca-Cola
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before Labor Innovation was huge yeah
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would you eat the two together and like
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frankly wash it down
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salsa uh no I haven’t delicios okay Mr
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Renfro is going to give us a couple
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samples to take home I know habanero is
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on brinton’s list so oh that’s right
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yeah oh no I you know okay is this the
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um is this the intestinal tract after
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eight years yeah yeah okay thank you
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thank you Doug Renfro thank you we
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appreciate your time thank you yeah
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thanks Doug appreciate you guys okay
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thanks
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foreign
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[Music]