Crystal's History is Peppered with Milestones

Crystal’s History is Peppered with Milestones

By David W. Brown

Everyone on the Gulf Coast knows Crystal Hot Sauce, that culinary staple found on home dinner tables, at restaurants, and in kitchens the world over. What you might not know is that this year, Baumer Foods, which makes Crystal, is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The company produces 4.5 million gallons of their hot sauce every year, bottles of which can be found in 30 countries around the planet. (Next time you are in Dubai and want the taste of New Orleans, you will be in luck.) Which means Crystal isn’t just a local tradition — it is a global phenomenon.

The story of Baumer Foods is, in many ways, the story of America. The company was founded in New Orleans in 1923 by Alvin Baumer, who came to the city after the Civil War. Though the finer details of the story have been lost in the mists of time, according to legend, Alvin, using a loan from his father-in-law, bought a sno-ball syrup manufacturing facility on Tchoupitoulas Street near downtown. While going through the files of the company they’d just bought, Alvin ran across a hot sauce recipe (which is the ultimate ironic find at a sno-ball company). He gave it a go and, like everyone who has had their famous hot sauce for the century to follow, he was blown away. Thus was born Crystal Hot Sauce.

If you live in the city, you might have noticed a giant “Crystal Preserves” sign over a renovated apartment complex on Tulane Avenue in Mid-City. That is indeed the very same Crystal of Baumer Foods fame. That building was at one time their main production facility. During World War II, to help the war effort, Crystal got into the preserves business, making jams and such for U.S. soldiers overseas. They moved from Tchoupitoulas Street to the Mid-City site, where they had more room to bottle, jar and can their products. After the war’s conclusion, they continued doing so, as they had exploded in popularity.

The company was a fixture there, operating continuously until 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which devastated Mid-City, flooding and ruining everything in the 75-year-old plant. It took several months to get back to work after the storm. About two years later, Baumer Foods moved a little down the river to Reserve, Louisiana. Flooding was no longer a threat, but it would not be the last trial the company faced.

“Remaining in operation for a century is not something that is easily done!” says Pepper Baumer, the president of Baumer Foods. “That’s a testament to my family’s legacy and our devotion to quality and taste.”

Of late, the company has had to contend with the fallout from the pandemic, which first brought the global supply chain to a halt, and now leaves it in terrible disarray. And yet Pepper, the third-generation leader of the company, hasn’t stopped finding ways to keep Louisiana well-stocked with Crystal. And because Baumer Foods is a family business, he always has his father as a sounding board.

“My father is great for that. He’ll say, ‘Yeah, we’ve done that before and it didn’t work! But maybe you can try this, or try that,’” says Pepper. “So it’s good to have that voice of reason.”

Today, Crystal is the most popular hot sauce in Louisiana and one of the top 10 hot sauces in America. Not that Crystal is Baumer Foods’ only product, however. “Crystal Hot Sauce is our flagship, obviously, but we make soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, teriyaki sauce and wing sauce,” says Pepper. In addition, they own a liquid smoke company called Figaro. On top of that, they have an industrial business line in which they make their product for other food companies to use as an ingredient.

Crystal’s bottle is famously bigger than Tabasco, but on industrial scales, companies need bigger containers yet. “We sell entire tanker trucks full of hot sauce,” he says.

To make all that hot sauce, it takes an astounding 15 million pounds of crushed peppers. Their lines are rolling out threeand-a-half million cases of product per year. And though supply chain hiccups have dampened the company’s big plans for their hundredth anniversary, for Pepper, just continuing to produce their Louisiana sensation is a triumph — and anyway, there is no rush to throw any parties. They can always roll out the festivities well into next year, which in a sense is the perfect New Orleans way of doing things.

“Our tagline is ‘How New Orleans Does Flavor,’” says Pepper. “Our product really encapsulates that New Orleans way of life. We are so proud to be part of the city’s culture.”

Their plans for celebrating a century are big and small. Every bottle will be emblazoned with a commemorative label with a “100 Years” badge. In addition, there will be a marketing blitz — everything from advertising in Louis Armstrong International Airport to a social media splash. They are also planning parties and festivals to celebrate the entire Baumer Foods lineup, as well as Louisiana food in general.

To prepare for the next hundred years of Crystal Hot Sauce and Baumer Foods, Pepper says the first order of business is restoring the supply chain. Beyond that, it is a matter of keeping up with current technologies. “We’ve got some things in the works,” he teases.

But when you get down to it, he says the secret to a successful second century is the same as the secret to a successful first. “You can’t be around for a hundred years if your products are bad. We’re not resting on our laurels. We work constantly to ensure that we are putting out the highest quality product — something that people enjoy — and we will continue to do that.”

As for the anniversary itself, it does not escape Pepper’s notice that a hundred years is a really big deal, rarely achieved even by multibillion-dollar, international business empires.

“Obviously, there’s a sense of pride,” he says. “I mean, to be a third-generation company in the state of Louisiana is such a great honor, and I’ll do everything I can to keep it going.” How serious is he? “My name is Pepper !” he says with a laugh. “I’m a walking billboard. It is ingrained in my DNA, and everything that I do is a reflection of the brand, positively or negatively.”

It can be stressful, he says, but he doesn’t shy away from that responsibility. “I take pride in it, just as my father and my grandfather did. We are proud of our company. We are a successful brand. People love our product. And we just try to deliver to the best of our ability.” One key to the success of Crystal Hot Sauce — something, he says, everyone at Baumer Foods takes great pride in — is that they are “the chef’s best kept secret.”

“We are not going to take away from the artistic creativity of a chef,” he says. “We are just going to enhance his or her flavor. So, some of our competitors, when you put their hot sauce in a dish, all you taste is their product. Crystal Hot Sauce, on the other hand, enhances the flavor component of a dish, but never becomes the star of it. We are the supporting cast, so to speak.”

Whatever they are doing, it’s working. Crystal can seem less like a sauce than a culinary way of life for some people. Pepper told me that he’s heard of people using it on their ice cream and salads, and even getting tattoos of the bottle. He once met someone with a 12-ounce bottle inked on his bicep. Running from the bottle was an IV line leading into a vein. “There are some diehards out there,” he says.

One hundred years may have shaped the New Orleans palate, and by extension, the world’s, but Baumer Foods is just getting started.

“Three generations is not something that is easily done,” Pepper says. “It is a testament to my family’s legacy, and how we are trying to move the company forward. I have two daughters — a two-and-a-half-year-old, and a seven-month-old — and my dream is, hopefully, that one day they take over and move Baumer Foods into the next generation. It is not an easy feat, but I believe we will be doing this in another hundred years from now.”

“Our product really encapsulates that New Orleans way of life. We are so proud to be part of the city’s culture.”