A Catering we go...a catering we go...kind of.

This whole Sweet Life Sauce Company thing is a hoot as far as I am concerned. I am having a blast with it...I think Holly is warming to it more and more each time she packs an order and sends it off.

It is no secret to those in my circle of influence that I really dig cooking for big crowds. It's a secret to my wife though. Well...maybe not that I dig cooking for big crowds but that someday, SOMEDAY I hope to get other people(also known as customers) to give me certificates of appreciation(also known as money) for the stuff I cook for them.

I think this fascination and passion comes from my days during my high school years as a cook at Fryers Chicken in Umatilla, Florida...my hometown. It was the Sieberts in Umatilla that had this neat little fried chicken and hamburger joint called Fryers Chicken...always flush with employees from the local high school. I happened to be one of those high school kids that needed a job to pay for the stuff a high school kid needs.

You know...that stuff all us 80's teenagers had to have. Stuff like quarters to play Star Wars at the arcade at the Lake Square Mall(it took 2 quarters to play that game!)...stuff like a new comb as big as my hip bone for my flowing locks that could stick prominently out of my back pocket...stuff like the newest tape cassette from Journey...stuff like $1.83 for 3 gallons of leaded gas to stick in Donald's chick magnet 1973 Plymouth Fury...stuff like the latest Members Only windbreaker...or Chams...or bleached jeans...or stuff like a big ole' Maxi Burger from Fryers Chicken. I just needed some money...or so I thought!

Have you ever found yourself in one of those jobs where you only did it for the money but you wound up LOVING the work and the money didn't matter. That was Fryers Chicken for me. We cooked all kinds of stuff in that little kitchen in the back. Fried chicken, fish, burgers, chicken sandwiches, mushrooms, cole slaw, fries, hush puppies, corn fritters, potato salad, macaroni salad...man, we had some good stuff.

I learned how to prepare food and cook food and serve food to the public at this gig at Fryers Chicken. And I'll let you know there was some serious inventin' going on in that little kitchen. We had all kinds of things we would throw together...just to see what "could" happen when certain ingredients were thrown together in a melange of flavors...a dance of delicacy.

I remember some of the first fried pickles I ever had...they were yummy. I remember breaded hamburger patties layered with bacon and cheese on toasted buns...I remember something called a jack-o-melon sitting in the cooler...I remember incredible tasting fried chicken that had been brined in this big ole' tumbler that let the chicken get all happy in its own juices with the brine solution...I remember some very tasty cole slaw made from scratch...and I remember these really amazing corn fritters we made from scratch with tons of whole corn all in them finished off with powdered sugar...mmmmm...mmmm...M!

And I remember Donald on his last day of work playing toilet plunger darts on the door of the walk in cooler...man he was good at that game...I suspect it wasn't his first round of this fast food kitchen game....and now that I think about it...THAT WAS GROSS! (all sanitized at the end of each shift I tell you!)

Man what a time it was...to know that I cleaned grease traps and washed dish after dish and cooked pound after pound of food. Now 25 years later...or so...I can look back to that time and really find my roots for my love of cooking. This love moved right to college with me.

College...the "casserole" years...

College...the University of Florida...School of Building Construction. The Phoenix Funhouse. Give me a box of Bisquick, some ketchup, a couple Kraft Cheese Slices, and a hot dog and I will bake you an incredible cheese pizza topped with German spicy sausage. Let me go out to Lake Lilly in Melrose, catch a mess of specs and put a fish fry in front of you that makes your parents come back to college to visit for three weekends in a row! A bag of rice...some peas...a couple cans of the cheapest cream of mushroom soup and a freezer burned chunk of venison from Theron...DA BOMB!

Fast forward 20 years or so and you'll find me doing BBQ's with the friends and family. No meat will intimidate me. Big honkin' chunks of beef with rib bones included and chunks of pork on charcoal and gas grills, smokers and open pits...it doesn't matter. I prepare for my first whole sheep on an open pit...I'm going Middle Eastern on you!

Pounds and pounds of boiled crawfish thrown out on open tables with pieces of corn on the cob, onions, fresh lemons, whole heads of garlic, sausage, hot dogs, baby red potatoes...jumbo shrimp drown in a buttery and garlicky and spicy sauce.

I just loving cooking for the masses!

And then I get hooked back up with Darryl. Me and Darryl go way back. I was this fresh from college superintendent put into a been there done that sales dudes neighborhood of Darryl's...and he taught me the ropes in the world of home building. He teaches me to this day. Though these days its on the fine art of feeding large groups of people with exceptionally tasty and well done morsels of pork and chicken and beef and all the accoutrement's that would go with a proper BBQ catering company. He is a pro for sure and one that I can recommend without reservation from Sweet Life Sauce Company.

If you're up for some incredible BBQ in Central Florida...or just about anything else you can think for a big group of people...outdoors...ready to do some finger licking...listen to some music...hang out around a bonfire...doing some tailgating...got a birthday party celebration...want to have a Shindig...have a wedding reception...need to do a company picnic...want to reward your team for a job well done...Darryl is your first call. Backwoods Boys BBQ...proudly recommended by Sweet Life Sauce Company!

Check out his website and awards at www.backwoodsboysbbq.com. He can even feature sauces from Sweet Life Sauce Company.

Did I say he has an award winning Cole Slaw...a concoction that has won a State of Florida Food Award! Just hook me up with an I.V. and shoot this stuff right into my arm...I could live on his cole slaw...and pez. And baklava...and garlic pegged shrimp coated with Spice of Life BBQ Sauce...

I digress...

As we say at Sweet Life Sauce Company...all is well in the land!

Get your Sauce!...at www.sweetlifesaucecompany.com.

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The battle of...THE LABEL!

You can't put a Bible on a business card. Now I know.

I have found the entire process of starting a company from scratch quite fascinating. Now 90 days into our new venture with Sweet Life Sauce Company and the writing bug hits me at 5 am in the morning. I'm a process guy, I'm a big picture process guy...80% of getting this gig going was having the courage to try it and the last 20% was going through the "process" of a start up you can find by doing a Google Search or reading a start up book or taking a class from the local university.

But.

1% of this process was getting labels made for our sauces and rubs.

I never imagined in a million years the absolute BATTLE I would have on my hands in making a label for jars of BBQ Sauce, Hot Sauce, and Grilling Rubs. We take for granted anything behind the machine of the food industry in the US. We are blasted day in and day out with bulletin boards, labels, ads, newspapers, web pages, and every other type of media you can think of that is trying to yell out a message to you...BUY SOME SAUCE FROM SWEET LIFE SAUCE COMPANY! That is the message behind every type of media that we are hit with day in and day out. BUY ME! I have a much deeper appreciation for all the marketing people I've ever met in my entire life now. Yarbrough...you are on an even higher pedestal now.

Maybe "BUY ME" was the very first marketing slogan that showed up on the side of some cliff or was carved in the bark of a tree back in the days of our ancestors as they trudged along the hunting trails to go gather some squirrel meat and rooty tubers from the local Wal-Forest. Maybe this was the way the first food company marketed their primordial slime. BUY ME!

We humans have grown to be much more sophisticated than that...we've evolved you see. Now we have all kinds of fancy media to get this simple message across and a virtual army of people that do it every day.

Did I say I was amazed by the absolute battle it took to get a label completed for a jar of BBQ sauce?

Let me put this into perspective...pretend you are me...say May 28th of 2009. You think the label comes first in this whole process of selling some BBQ sauce so you bring a couple of chicken scratch concept ideas on the backs of napkins to the local label joint. I'm pretty pumped up see...I'm going to get some labels printed. I am jacked!

Imagine you are the lady that is sitting at the desk at the label joint when I come strolling in. She has seen this play before.

I rattle off who I am and how I'm going to take over the world with BBQ Sauce....20 minutes of rambling. (all part of my marketing plan)

Label lady..."That's nice"

Me..."And I brought you some with our homemade labels"

Label lady..."That's nice...but these won't work"

Me..."What do you mean these won't work?"...(not part of my marketing plan)

Label lady..."sit down and breathe...calm down."

Me...not out loud but thinking..."hmmmmmm...I wonder if the label company across the street can print me some labels today...I got sauce to sell."

And then the well rehearsed soliloquy by the label lady...she's done it a million times I am sure...goes like this. Ahemmmm (I had to clear my throat to write this)

"You have all of 3 inches by 5 inches to get a bunch of stuff on a label.You have to have your branding information...your company logo stuff on the front panel where it can stand out on a shelf from all the other products.You need to theme your labels too...what is the product name and all...it goes on the front panel with your logo stuff.You need a little story somewhere on that label...no more than 50 words.We have different gloss levels you need to select.You have to have the the city and state where it was made, you need some form of contact in case you get someone sick. Where is your ingredients statement?....you need an ingredients statement and it has to be a minimum font size.What about your weight...it has to have the weight on it...its not liquid measure, its weight...how much does that jar of sauce weigh...net weight now...don't include the weight of the jar, cap and label.The jar says 16 ounces but your product may be heavier or lighter than that.If you are wantin' to go retail...nutritional statement panel will have to go here...and it takes up most of the side panel...who is doing your nutritional studies?What are the technical specs of the glass jar you are using...we need that.Dimension from shoulder to shoulder on the jar will be fine...ooohh...circumference too.?Ohh...UPC code...we have to get a UPC code on here somewhere so it can be scanned...it'll make your product be more professional.What type of gloss do you want?We have a few options for you.Here's the number for a graphic artist you can call to get this ball rolling."

Me...pregnant pause..."Sooooo...can I get some labels printed today or not?"

I was off to speak with a graphic artist.

Now the graphic artist thing is REALLY cool. They take chicken scratch from the backs of napkins and turn them into really cool logos and labels. All I had to do was scan my stick figures and basic shapes and then just talk with them about what was in my head. Sweet Life Sauce Company...need a logo that shouts to the world "BUY ME!" I want folks to connect with the image on the logo. Some kicked back dude or dudette in a little boat with a fishing pole in their hands in the middle of some body of water with palm trees and a warm sun and a cool hat and a hot pepper at the end of the line. Just enjoying the Sweet Life! Can you do that?


They can do that! I send them this concept and the one at the top of the blog. I wait in eager anticipation....what is this thing going to look like when it comes back to me?


I was not disappopinted and received this image back a few days later...call it logo image 1.

I liked the overall format for the logo though I didn't see any palm trees, the lake reminded me of a cold lake up in Canada that you would catch Walleyes and Northern Pike in(which I love to do)...which of course took away from of the sun imagry in the background and the guy had on one of those hats like John Candy wore in the Great Outdoors that would have had about 20 mepps spinners, a hot dog, and a treble hook stuck in it and I was ready to see the guy in that boat start swatting at blackflies and he was using one of those rod and reel combos that you buy at the check-out line at Wal-mart. Oh yeah, and it had an old Johnson motor to me on the back of the boat...my Johnson motor blew up and stranded me on a lake 10 miles from the boat ramp....THAT does NOT remind me of the Sweet Life or want me to buy BBQ Sauce!

So I made those comments and waited for round 2 to come back my way. Again, I was not disappointed in the next iteration of the logo...and actually rather pumped up that they turned chicken scratch into this work of art! I'm starting to feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders, the lake or ocean or flats that the sleek canoe or kayak or poling skiff is floating on looks calm and I imagine a tailing redfish or striper or smallmouth bass coming to the fly that is hand tied by Nome and on the end of an 8 weight bamboo flyrod with a fly reel and the palm trees look awesome and I like the pepper on the end of the line and we are going to have a shindig when we get off the water and eat some great food with Sweet Life BBQ Sauces all over it...but wait....just wait one minute. Something is not right.

If I were to actually catch a hot pepper with the warmth of the sun on my shoulders, the lake or ocean or flats that the sleek canoe or kayak or poling skiff is floating on looks calm and I imagine a tailing redfish or striper or smallmouth bass coming to the fly that is hand tied by Nome and on the end of an 8 weight bamboo flyrod with a fly reel and the palm trees look awesome and I like the pepper on the end of the line and we are going to have a shindig when we get off the water and eat some great food with Sweet Life BBQ Sauces all over it....

I better catch that hot pepper in the mouth!

That pic has a hot pepper that I just snagged in the tail like a snagger on the Salmon River and that ain't right!

So I send it back and ask for the pepper to get a turn and I get this back...

And it is perfect. It is exactly the image I had in my head and it is sitting in front of me on this screen and it looks really cool.

And now I can start to work on the food labels because I have found an incredible graphic artist that is making me want to buy some stuff from the Sweet Life Sauce Company!

So the march starts to get labels made for our 4 products. We finished up our final labels last week. They turned out beautifully and we hope that you like them as well. Here they are in all their glory...with all the stuff that has to be jammed on a 3 inch by 5 inch piece of paper.

In high gloss.















We have all 4 products available for sale on our website at www.sweetlifesaucecompany.com.

"BUY ME!"

As we say at the Sweet Life Sauce Company...all is well in the land!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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