Food & Cooking

Flavor is the focus, too, at Spring-based Hot Line Pepper Products.

“Our sauces are complex,” said founder Kerry Stessel, who started his hot-sauce business in 2011.

A self-described amateur chef who manages the 15,000-member Woodlands/Spring Foodie Club on Facebook, Stessel said the roots of his business go back a dozen years when he and his poker buddies began trying to one-up one another when it came to snacks.