Mikey V’s builds new manufacturing facility in Jarrell

Pepper, Dill Pickle Jalapeño and Moroccan Madness hot sauces are only the tip of the iceberg of what is being produced at the new manufacturing facility in Jarrell. With the new machines, Mikey V’s is growing from producing 4,800 to 18,000 bottles of hot sauce per day. 

Michael Valencia, the owner of Mikey V’s, said the company also does private labeling for other brands. This means that some of Mikey V sauces are also secretly sold under the label of much larger companies — while more refined versions of these sauces are sold at the brand’s store, located on the Square. 

Mr. Valencia said approximately 80 percent of the factory’s production is for private labels — who either pay him to use his recipe or send him their own recipe to use. While he does hope that Mikey V’s will one day be a household name, he acknowledges that the world isn’t perfect. 

“We can’t just rely on Mikey V’s,” Mr. Valencia said. “I mean, in a perfect world, that would be great, but I think for the health of the company— we need to branch out and hit all those avenues of revenue.” 

Mr. Valencia said building the new facility and buying the land in Jarrell cost $2.5 million dollars. Then, the company is spending another $350,000 on the new equipment. Even with the new automation, they are doubling the amount of factory employees to keep up with demand. 

Mikey V’s started when Mr. Valencia entered his original red salsa into the Austin Hot Sauce festival in 2012. He ended up winning first place in the red sauce category. His original red salsa placed again in the 2025 Austin Hot Sauce competition on September 7. 

“It’s so cool that everybody loves it. They’ve seen us for years. They followed us for years. It’s been great,” Mr. Valencia said. He explained that his hot sauce company started as something he did with his family on the weekend. 

“Now, oh my gosh, I can’t make it fast enough for some of my clients," he said. 

“Since 2015 [my wife] Tanya and I have traveled around the country representing Texas as a whole in the small batch craft hot sauce industry. We travel seven, eight times a year to different festivals and competitions, from Portland, Oregon all the way to New York City, Brooklyn, New York— in hopes of still branding ourselves and making us a household name with our brand.” 

He opened up a store on the Square in March 2015. In 2020, the business moved to a larger location, on the Square, and opened up a taco shop in the back. The vision of opening up a taco shop in the back of the store was to use what Mikey calls ‘the Cracker Barrel’ approach. 

“You know, you walk through a Cracker Barrel and you get to shop and then go back to the restaurant [taste the products]. Then, you come back up and shop again. Kind of the same concept.” 

The taco shop did increase hot sauce sales quite a bit, he said. 

Mikey V’s hot sauces differ from traditional hot sauces at that they are made to match different cuisines. When Mr. Valencia asked for hot sauce in an Italian food place, they gave him Tabasco. He said this was way too vinegary for Italian food— which is how the Ghostly Garlic, Garlic Scorpion, Roasted Garlic Reaper trifecta were born. 

His most popular sauce is the Sweet Ghost Pepper Sauce. He made this sauce in the middle of the night when inspiration struck him in his sleep. 

“I was inspired by the sauce my wife and I were going to have with Chinese food or some kind of Asian stir fry the next day,” he said. He ran down to the kitchen and combined ghost peppers with a more sugary sauce that would fit a Chinese-food flavor profile. 

Mr. Valencia has also started making Gator Toes, a fried garlic snack, based off of his hot sauce flavors. Mikey V’s Gator Toes recently went viral on TikTok. Jessika Gancedo, a famous snack reviewer, made a video that got over 90,000 likes. 

“They are so crunchy, like, it’s addicting,” Ms. Gancedo said in the video. 

The new facility has a machine that can package 30 bags of Gator Toes per minute. 

Mr. Valencia said he is very grateful that he didn’t sell his business when he was approached by a larger company back during the coronavirus. “We declined because I didn’t think the timing was right,” he said. “I had a lot more growing to do before I really thought about selling. I had more goals to finish— And I’m not done yet. Since then, I mean, shoot, we’ve grown exponentially.'

“To this day, I’ve never had to discontinue a sauce. Knock on wood, I’ve never had to discontinue a sauce, because people just continue to buy the sauces no matter what.”