The Blend That Started It All
Seven years before Unkie’s Seasoning became a business, it started with a family vacation, a batch of Bloody Marys, and a request from my wife, Elizabeth.
She asked me to make a smoky rim salt for her family’s morning Bloody Marys on the beach. When her brother asked what it was, I replied, “Well, that’s Elizabeth’s Salt.” The name stuck.
What started as a Bloody Mary rim salt followed us camping, made its way to the firehouse, and eventually became a staple at our table. We bottled it as Christmas gifts for friends and family—never knowing it would eventually become the first blend behind Unkie’s Seasoning.
From Christmas Gifts to a Business
Four years after Elizabeth’s Salt, my mom asked me to create something completely different—a salt-free garlic and herb seasoning. Like any good son, I did what my mom told me.
Garlic & Herb quickly joined Elizabeth’s Salt at our family meals and around the firehouse. At Christmas, we’d bottle both blends and give them to friends and family as gifts. Then something changed.
One year, so many people asked us to make extra bottles—not for themselves, but so they could give them to their own friends and family. And this time, they wanted to pay us for them. That was the moment this became more than something I made in my kitchen.
I talked to Elizabeth about it, and she said the words that changed everything:
“You should start selling it.”
And that’s when the idea for Unkie’s Seasoning really began.
Why “Unkie’s”?
In 2017, my first niece was born. A few years later, when she started talking, she had a hard time saying “Uncle.” Instead, she called me “Unkie.”
I loved it.
Instead of being Uncle Adam, I had a nickname that was uniquely hers. Even today, hearing her call me Unkie still warms my heart.
So when it came time to put a name on the seasoning business, I knew I wanted to stay away from the typical firefighter-themed company name. The recipes may have been tested around the firehouse table, but they weren't just for firefighters. They were for everybody.
I kept coming back to a name I already loved being called: Unkie.
For a short time, I leaned heavily into firefighter-themed names for individual seasonings. But as the business grew, I realized something important: people wanted names that made it easy to understand what they were buying and how it would taste. And that fit what Unkie's was becoming anyway.
Unkie's Seasoning is a family-friendly, family-run business built around good food and bringing people together.
That's why I like to say that when you support Unkie's, you're not just another customer.
You're one of my nieces and nephews.
From Gifts to the Farmers Market
For years, Elizabeth’s Salt and Garlic & Herb were something we made for ourselves, the firehouse, friends, and family. Then people started asking for more.
Friends and family wanted bottles they could give as Christmas gifts—and they were willing to pay for them. That’s when Elizabeth encouraged me to take the next step and actually start selling my seasonings.
By the time I headed to my first farmers market, I had created a third blend and officially had a lineup: Elizabeth’s Salt. Garlic & Herb. Coastal Cajun.
Coastal Cajun was my personal take on the classic Cajun seasoning—a blend made the way I thought Cajun seasoning should taste.
Those three bottles were the beginning of Unkie’s Seasoning as a real business.
No big company. No huge product line. Just three seasonings, a farmers market table, and a belief that if my family and firehouse loved them, maybe other families would too.
And that's where Unkie’s Seasoning really began.
Made at the Firehouse. Made for Everything.
As Unkie’s grew, something pretty cool started happening. Customers weren't just buying a bottle once—they were coming back every time I was at the market wanting more.
Some of those customers eventually became close friends. They loved the flavors, but they also loved supporting a small, firefighter-owned business. Their support helped keep me going and showed me that Unkie’s could become something bigger.
About two years after starting the business, I enlisted the help of my firehouse crew to create our fourth seasoning.
After months of experimenting, plenty of opinions, and a whole lot of meals around the firehouse table, we finally developed it.
We called it “Beef Rub.” Yep. Beef Rub.
The original idea was to eventually create a Beef, Pork, and Chicken line. At the time, it made sense. A lot of seasoning companies were doing exactly that. But there was a problem.
Customers saw Beef Rub and naturally assumed it was only for beef. I found myself constantly explaining that it was great on chicken, pork, vegetables, and plenty of other foods too.
Eventually, I made the executive decision to change the name. Beef Rub became Chipotle. That decision helped define what I wanted Unkie’s Seasoning to be.
I didn't want you to buy a seasoning for one specific piece of meat. I wanted you to grab an Unkie’s bottle for steak, chicken, fish, noodles, vegetables, popcorn—or whatever you're cooking that day.
My goal is simple: I want Unkie’s sitting right beside the salt and pepper in your seasoning cabinet.
From Local Markets to the Fire Service
What started at the farmers market slowly began reaching beyond our local community. Unkie’s Seasoning landed in its first local retail store, our social media presence started growing, and I began connecting and collaborating with firefighters from across the country on TikTok.
Those online friendships eventually became something much bigger. A group of us started The Cool Fireman Podcast, with Unkie’s Seasoning serving as its primary sponsor. Suddenly, the seasoning that started around a family table and found its way into the firehouse was being introduced to firefighters and their families all over the country.
Around that same time, I became good friends with Brian Kelly of East Coast Kellys. Brian and I were constantly bouncing ideas off each other, and eventually we started working on a new flavor profile together.
That experiment became Buttery Rosemary — The Fire Marshal.
It was supposed to be a temporary release.
Our customers had other plans.
The response was overwhelming, and when we made the decision to move Unkie’s Seasoning into larger-scale commercial production, Buttery Rosemary earned a permanent place in the lineup. Brian also became an important part of our growth, helping introduce Unkie’s to small shops throughout North Carolina.
What started locally was becoming something bigger — one friendship, one bottle, and one firehouse at a time.
From the Farmers Market to the Fire Conference
In 2023, Unkie’s Seasoning took another big step when we attended our first fire conference in Virginia Beach.
Taylor’s Tins was kind enough to invite me into their booth to promote and sell my seasonings. Later that summer, after collaborating together, they invited me again—this time to the state fire conference in North Carolina.
For Unkie’s, selling at fire conferences was huge.
It put the brand directly in front of the fire service community that had been part of our story from the beginning. What started around a firehouse kitchen table was now traveling to fire conferences and reaching firefighters from across the country.
As The Cool Fireman Podcast continued to grow, another door opened through our sponsorship with The Burn Box. The podcast crew was invited to FDIC, the largest gathering we'd experienced in the fire service.
That trip became about much more than selling seasoning. I developed friendships with Tom, the owner of The Burn Box, and his friend John. I learned a tremendous amount from them about business, relationships, and growing a brand.
Eventually, that relationship led to another opportunity: creating recipes for The Burn Box inserts, allowing Unkie’s Seasoning to reach more than 2,600 homes every month.
The farmers market gave Unkie’s a table. The fire service gave us a community.
From Firehouse Approved to Award Winning
In 2023, Unkie’s Seasoning received our first major recognition when we were voted #1 Specialty Food in the CommunityVotes awards. What made that award especially meaningful was that it came from the people and community who had supported us from the beginning.
And they kept showing up.
We’ve been fortunate to receive that CommunityVotes recognition every year since.
In 2025, we decided to see how our seasonings would stack up on a bigger stage.
At the Scovie Awards, Chipotle earned 4th Place in Dry Rub/Seasoning – Southwest, while Coastal Cajun earned 4th Place in Dry Rub/Seasoning – Cajun.
That same year, we entered the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, where we finished in the top 10% of the field, beating out a number of nationally recognized brands along the way.
For a seasoning company that started with a homemade Bloody Mary rim salt, Christmas gifts for friends and family, and a table at the farmers market, those moments meant a lot.
But the goal has never changed.
We don't make seasoning to win awards. We make seasoning people love putting on their food. The awards just let us know we're doing something right.
Still Growing. Still Family. Still Unkie’s.
What started with a homemade seasoning mixed for a family vacation has grown into something I never could have imagined when we bottled those first Christmas gifts.
Today, Unkie’s Seasoning has grown beyond the farmers market. Our seasonings are commercially produced in larger batches, carried by retailers, shipped to customers across the country, used in recipes and collaborations, and shared throughout the fire service community.
But as the business has grown, I've worked hard to make sure the reason behind it hasn't changed.
We're still a firefighter-owned, family-run small business. I still want our seasonings to be the bottles you reach for when you're cooking dinner for your family, firing up the grill with friends, or making a meal around the firehouse kitchen table.
And we're still growing.
There are new flavors to create, new stores to reach, new recipes to cook, and plenty of people who haven't become part of the Unkie's family yet.
Because when my niece first called me “Unkie,” I never imagined that one day I'd consider thousands of customers my nieces and nephews too.
No matter how big this gets, that's what I want Unkie's Seasoning to feel like — family.
Good food brings people together. And there's always room for one more at Unkie's table.
There’s Always Room at the Table
If you've made it this far, thank you.
When I started making these seasonings, I never imagined they would become a business. I was just cooking for my family, cooking for the guys at the firehouse, and making something I thought tasted pretty damn good.
Along the way, customers became friends. Friends became family. And a little seasoning company gave me opportunities, experiences, and relationships I never could have planned.
That's why Unkie's has always meant more to me than what's inside the bottle.
It's about the family vacation where Elizabeth's Salt was born. It's about my mom asking me to make something without salt. It's about meals around the firehouse kitchen table, farmers markets, friendships, late-night ideas, fire conferences, and every person who has ever spent their hard-earned money supporting this little firefighter-owned business.
My niece gave me the name Unkie.
All of you gave that name a purpose.
Whether you're cooking for your family, your firehouse, your friends, or just yourself, I hope an Unkie's bottle helps make that meal a little better and gives you another reason to sit down together.
Because at the end of the day, that's what this has always been about:
Good food brings people together.
Thank you for being part of our family.
— Adam “Unkie” McCoy
Founder, Unkie's Seasoning
From the Firehouse to Your House