The barbecue sauce was to be used in a concept new to grocery stores in the area at that time; barbecued chickens for take out. In the beginning twenty-four chickens at a time were barbecued in a Rotiss-O-Mat cooker. When a cooking was finished, the chickens were put in foil-lined bags and stored in a warmer. This soon grew to five cookings per day with customers being turned away. Sunday was our biggest day; customers would come in the store after church and buy a barbecued chicken for their Sunday main dish. One whole chicken was $1.39.

I was working there during my school summer vacations when I was about 14 to 16. This was in about 1956-59. Daddy (Lenwood King, Sr) started me as a bagger, then in the produce department, then on to the meat market. It was a good place for a young person to work. Daddy would not let me work directly under him. He wanted to make sure I pulled my own weight. Mr. Merritt would be out on the road selling BBQ machines and Carolina Treet to go with the machine.

Soon, people started asking for the sauce to take home, so a retail size Carolina Treet Barbecue Sauce was born. The picture above shows the original bottle and label. In 1960, Lenwood M. King. Sr. acquired Carolina Treet and it has remained in the King family since then. My brother, Lenwood King, Jr., joined me in 1991. My son Will joined us in 2006.

In the late 1980's we developed a line of liquid tea concentrates under the brand name Aunt Bertie's. Bertie was the Grandmother to Joe and Lenwood, Jr., sons of Lenwood, Sr.

I hope you will try some of our products. If you are not satisfied, I'll refund your money.

Thanks,

Joe King
President