Lexington woman takes family recipe from the kitchen to the grocery store

LEXINGTON, Tenn. — Chocolate gravy; a southern tradition, known to be drizzled over homemade biscuits.

“But you can do it over waffles, pancakes, ice cream. You can dip your bacon in it. We got some people that pours it over their eggs,” said Gail Horine, founder of Grandma’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Gravy.

Horine, who grew up in Lexington, said this tradition has been a part of her family for generations. Her family recipe, always drawing a crowd.

“I had family and friends who would always ask for a recipe, or they would want me to make it for them, so that is kind of where this started from, and we did,” Horine said. “We started making it, and after a period of time everybody started wanting to buy some.”

So Grandma’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Gravy mix was born, but Gail said, it wasn’t easy starting a business on her own as a single mom with limited funds. She tells us how it all began, and how bringing mason jars of her product to local trade shows didn’t last long.

“When you have cases of this break everywhere, you have a lot of trouble, so that’s when we ended up designing the new packaging,” said Horine.

Gail says, it was the love of this family tradition growing up that inspired her to take it from her mother’s kitchen in Lexington to retail stores across west Tennessee.

“We did six months worth of taste testing to find the recipe that took us back to yesteryear, and the moment that we tried it, we knew then that it was a part of our heritage,” the founder of Grandma’s Old Fashioned said, “and that’s what I want to do. I want to take people back to their homes.”

Even though her business has successfully grown, Gail says, she wants to keep her family tradition, just that.

“On the very bottom, you’ll see a little cartoon, and it’s got three little girls in a car going to grandma’s house for some delicious chocolate gravy,” Horine said.

Gail says, her chocolate gravy mix can be found at Food Giants across west Tennessee or at the Old Country Store Buffet.