Texas Pete Brand Guidelines: The North Carolina Hot Sauce & Its Look

Texas Pete is a North Carolina brand.

Texas Pete is a lesson in a name that tells a story it doesn’t quite mean. Despite the name, it is made in Winston-Salem, North Carolina — not Texas — by the T.W. Garner Food Company, and was introduced in 1929, growing out of the family’s Dixie Pig barbecue stand.

The naming is the fun part: an adviser suggested “Mexican Joe,” but patriarch Sam Garner wanted an American name, so he combined “Texas” (for its spicy, Southwestern ring) with “Pete,” the nickname of his son Harold. The Original is a Louisiana/cayenne-style sauce; the range now includes CHA! (a sriracha-style sauce) and ¡Sabor! (a Mexican style). It remains independent and family-owned (led today by CEO Ann Garner Riddle).

(Honest notes: it is made in North Carolina, not Texas; a 2022 class-action lawsuit alleged the name was misleading — the court declined to dismiss it, then the plaintiff voluntarily withdrew the case in 2023 (there was no ruling that the claim lacked merit); and no official brand hex is published, so colours are an interpretation.)

Texas Pete lives in red, black and cream. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Texas Pete’s identity is western, bold and classic — a chili red, a cowboy black, a saddle tan, a cream, and a chili maroon. The palette is western Americana: bold red (the sauce), black, and warm cream/tan on the label, with a red cowboy silhouette. It signals a heritage American hot sauce with cowboy swagger rather than a modern craft bottle. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is red, black and cream read as western Americana. Texas Pete’s world is bold and frontier-flavoured. For designers, it is a reminder that a red-black-cream palette plus a cowboy motif can carry a folksy, western heritage, matching a brand that leaned into Southwestern imagery for its name. The takeaways: build on bold red with black and cream; anchor it with a western motif; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using the cowboy black for small text so the red stays bold.

The wordmark spirit is a western slab — bold and folksy.

Texas Pete’s identity carries a bold, folksy, western spirit — a “Texas Pete” wordmark in western-flavoured lettering, alongside a red cowboy silhouette. A western slab captures the mood: it is bold and frontier-flavoured, the register of a brand whose tagline is “Let Flavor Run Wild.” Set against red, black and cream, the western slab feels folksy and heritage — exactly the cowboy-swagger, Southern-American personality Texas Pete carries. It is bold rather than refined, mirroring a cowboy label. (Texas Pete’s real wordmark and cowboy figure are trademarks we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not something we assert.) Because the specific mark is not ours to use, the honest description is “a western-slab spirit,” not the Texas Pete logo. The type behaves like the brand: bold, folksy and western.

Texas Pete stands for its western swagger.

Texas Pete is a lesson in a name and image that sell a feeling. It did not name itself for where it’s made; it chose “Texas” and a cowboy for the spicy, western feeling those evoke — a marketing instinct from 1929 that built a memorable, folksy brand. The name is vivid enough that people remember it, even if it points to a story rather than a geography. The differentiator is evocative branding: a name and image that make you feel the heat.

For designers and brand-builders, Texas Pete offers a clear takeaway: a vivid, evocative name and motif can anchor a brand — but be honest about what they mean. The lessons: pick a name and image with feeling (Texas, the cowboy); back them with a bold western palette; and stay transparent about the real origin. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: Texas Pete is made in North Carolina, dates to 1929, and remains family-owned, and the 2022 lawsuit ended without a merits ruling — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Texas Pete chose a feeling — proof that an evocative name can be the difference.

Keep Texas Pete’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.