As Interstate 10 snakes its way through San Antonio, it passes an unassuming limestone building that is responsible for so many kitchen epiphanies. Bolner’s Fiesta Products Inc. is a spice brand, but that description significantly downplays its culinary contributions to the Lone Star State. Yes, the company sells individual spices like garlic powder and various grinds of black pepper, but it’s their famous blends that are relied upon by grandmas, pitmasters, and crawfish boilers statewide. Simply put, Bolner’s Fiesta makes Texas food taste Texan.
Inside the lobby of its home base is a stained-glass window depicting the famous brand icon who graces Bolner’s Fiesta labels, a woman decked out in ballet folklórico regalia. She gazes upon framed family photos, industry awards, and shelves stuffed with vintage Gourmet compendiums and a vast array of community cookbooks from Texas and Louisiana. A rhythmic clanging in the distance turns out to be a cumbersome metal machine that weighs and packages spices before heat-sealing them in cellophane baggies. Its slow, repetitive ch-chunk sets the pace for my entire visit.
Enjoying this article?Vice president of sales Chris Bolner greets me in the lobby to show me around his family’s facility. A Bolner’s employee since 1985, he has worked in a number of different capacities for his father, Clifton, the company patriarch and a veteran of the San Antonio grocery and butcher trades. Once a partner in Bolner’s Grocery and Meat Market, Clifton made a career pivot when he discovered a local spice company that was for sale. Regarding his rationale for the decision, his son says, “He figured it was pretty easy to do spices versus cleaning chickens all day.”
he company was christened Bolner’s Fiesta in 1955, and, according to Chris, his father was still going over sales reports at home until a week before his death in early 2023. That work ethic was instilled in Clifton and Rosalie Bolner’s seven children, five of whom have worked for the company. Today, a third generation of Bolners has been folded into the spice company, which now offers more than 600 products imported from across the globe.
This includes chiles hailing from Peru and Mexico, cinnamon cultivated in Sri Lanka, and paprika so vibrant, you can see the fields of the Spanish-grown red pepper all the way from the International Space Station. Back in his San Antonio office, Chris enjoys watching the company’s spices travel around the world via apps that track shipping container boats. “We buy quality spices,” Chris says. “And all our people we buy from, they’re stable family businesses.”
Guiding me through the labyrinthine building, Chris explains how they’ve grown their catalog with spice blends like his bestselling “Uncle Chris” line of barbecue and steak seasonings. This part of the business has always been a tight-knit family endeavor, as the Bolners have carefully honed each flavorful concoction in their home kitchens. The practice began with the Mexican blends of the 1970s as a shortcut for women who were entering the workforce in droves.
Innovation doesn’t end with these mixtures, either. About five years ago, Bolner’s bought a sifter for their black pepper in a new size that sloughs off the outer shell, leaving just the meat of the peppercorn. This development means home cooks can have access to the famous 16-mesh pepper beloved by pitmasters like Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ, where it’s used to lend a jewel-like bark to brisket. Some things never change, though. Before sifting those peppercorns, they are ground in another massive machine with decades’ worth of service: an industrial coffee grinder purchased in 1971 from San Antonio’s H and H Coffee.
On my way out, Chris shows me a case containing packaging from the history of Bolner’s Fiesta. There are large one-pound metal tins, cardboard boxes, and a few jars from a short-lived experiment with glass packaging. And on every single one, the Fiesta lady is ensconced by that familiar confetti border, one dainty foot peeking out from under a voluptuous red skirt.
“Cooking is all about family,” he explains. “And growing up in a family with seven kids, everything revolved around reconvening at the dinner table. That’s really the big deal for us.”
