Former Miami WR Lance Leggett's Taste One Boiled Peanuts "Boiling" Across Florida Stores
He’s not from Texas, he’s from Florida. Bartow, to be exact. However, many who don’t know Lance Leggett personally may have that misconception. Leggett was born and raised in Bartow, which resides in Polk County. Leggett is about as “Polk County” as it gets. Leggett left Florida in high school for Grace Preparatory Academy in Arlington, Texas. But it was only a matter of time before he made his way back to the Sunshine State.
“I always knew I would go to Miami,” Leggett said. “That was a goal I set for myself at a young age. That’s my dream school, my dad’s dream school and nine times out of ten, who your parents like, that’s who you like. I committed to Florida, but I knew I was going to Miami.”
Leggett played four years as a Miami Hurricane from 2004 to 2007. Unfortunately for Leggett, the Miami Hurricane teams he played for were unable to reach the pinnacle of success they’d reached just three years before.
He also found himself in the beginning of an era that has gone down as one of the program’s worst, and arguably still trying to dig itself out of. The lessons Leggett learned during his time at Miami would prepare him for his ever-so-unique journey to where he is today.
“The University of Miami teaches you how to have thick skin,” Leggett said. “It taught me how to have thick skin, You’re going to hear all the naysayers, you’re gonna get people talking about you, you have to close your ears, have amnesia, forget about s*** and just keep moving forward.”
Leggett went undrafted in the 2008 NFL Draft but was quickly picked up by the Cleveland Browns, where he played for two seasons before exiting the NFL. Leggett then entered the blue-collar workforce. Leggett had high expectations throughout his career, but many don’t know lingering knee issues prevented him from furthering his career in the NFL.
When he left, many deemed his career and future a failure. He had amnesia for the naysayers, he had to, he couldn’t let the negativity get to him. Leggett always knew what drive he had within himself even if it wasn’t for football and that’s what makes him more successful now than he could have imagined in the NFL.
“When my knee said, ‘it’s time to stop,’ it was time to stop,” Leggett said. “I told myself, ‘it's over with, shoot, I gotta get out here and get it now.’ But, I’ve always been a hustler. I never panicked. When everybody thought I fell off the face of the Earth. When I fell off? That’s when i came up, man. I just got in my zone, I wasn’t on social media, I was just grinding.”
The idea for Taste One was not a new one, but rather an established one, just without the emphasis on peanuts. Leggett’s uncle has owned a food truck called “Slush Yo Mouth” since he was a child and it operates all around Bartow and Polk County. The slushes, the corn and of course, the peanuts, are all a mainstay of Polk County. After the NFL stint, Leggett wanted to go into the family business that he grew up with.
After some time with Slush Yo Mouth, Leggett branched out and made his own brand called “Slush World” in Tampa Bay. Leggett made a joke that epitomized what it was like for him to break into the food business, more specifically, perfecting the taste of the peanuts.
He's only one man, but Leggett is constantly on the move, showing up at tailgates, promotions and He's not hard to find as he's always posted up with his bright orange Taste One tent, with a microwave and boxes of peanuts on deck.
Taste One Boiled Peanut Co.
“When I got to the boiled peanut part, I’m like, ‘man, I don’t know how to make no boiled peanuts, I played football all my damn life.’”
Even though he struggled at first, he eventually perfected the flavor of the peanuts. They sold out every day. It was clearly his best-seller. So, after two years, Leggett decided to go big time. He closed down Slush World and opened up a warehouse, dedicating it to creating and perfecting the flavor of boiled peanuts unique to his brand. But, just like when he started making them on a smaller scale, he ran into issues, except on a far larger scale.
“When I had my brick and mortar, I was basically doing it the shortcut way,” Leggett said. “I had the warehouse and I’m in there cooking trying to get it right. Man, I could not get that taste right. I can do this in my sleep, but when I get on the big scale I can’t do it. So, guess what I did? I shut down the warehouse. So when I shut it down, I was like, ‘what are you gonna do now?”
That’s where Leggett’s next quest came. Of course, making it to the NFL was his main dream, but he’d be lying if he said that was his only dream. He always wanted to own trucks. No, not a Ford, not a GMC or a Chevy. Think a Mack truck or a Peterbilt. Yeah, trucks. After he closed down his warehouse, he started training to get his commercial driver's license.
After he got his CDL, he drove trucks for a few years, but he kept plotting. Even though he shut down his warehouse, he never shut down the dream he had of perfecting his unique, boiled peanut flavor. Leggett was assembling a team, a plan and a will to ensure a future for the boiled peanuts he grew up loving.
“I was just thinking away, ‘when I come out with these peanuts, I have to come out right, I can’t come out half-stepping,’” Leggett said. “So, I'm on the truck, I’m going all across the country. But, I’m putting together a game plan of how I want Taste One to look before I present it to everyone. I put together a creative team and we just met and kept going over stuff. We designed the bag, came up with the logo. When we came out, we came out hitting, throwing haymakers.”
Simply put, the rest is history.
Leggett wanted to distinguish his peanuts and set them apart from the competition, which he's done by having his unique choice of a bright orange bag.
Taste One Boiled Peanut Co.
Leggett’s Taste One Boiled Peanut brand can be found in over 150 stores in Florida and two stores outside of Florida in New York and Georgia that routinely put in orders for the peanuts. While Leggett has aspirations of expanding his business regionally and nationally, he’s adamant about putting and keeping Polk County on the map.
In September, defensive back Sam McCall signed a NIL deal with Taste One, signaling that Leggett had officially entered the NIL game. However, that’s not the only thing of importance about that deal. At the time, McCall was enrolled and playing at Florida State, but has since transferred to Texas A&M.
Leggett, a Miami graduate, did not sign a Hurricane to a NIL deal. However, it goes back to the root of what Leggett is trying to do not only for his brand, but his community. McCall was born and raised in Polk County, as was Leggett. To Leggett, it’s always been about supporting, promoting and giving back to Polk County and signing one of Polk’s best to a NIL deal was exactly what he had in store.
“We told ourselves, the first NIL deal we do, it’s going to be with a Polk County kid, no matter what school you go to,” Leggett said. “We don’t care what school you go to, it’s not about that. It’s about the kids from Polk County. A lot of people don’t know, but my whole creative team is from Polk County. I want everyone to build everyone up from Polk County.”
Leggett wasn’t worried about the potential of negative publicity because as he said, it’s deeper than a rivalry. It’s a partnership where Leggett can expand his brand and McCall can gain the recognition he earned. The man who brought the idea to the team was Vicente "Vince" Lara, the lead graphic designer for Taste One. Lara has been working with Leggett ever since the idea came to fruition. He’s also a Polk County native. Lara is proud to be a part of what is being built at Taste One because of how true-to-self the brand is to Polk County.
“Man, it’s rare that you see things that are homegrown like that getting such positive feedback everywhere, but especially here,” Lara said. “It’s a good look. It’s a good look to see somebody who’s had success at other places that most people would call it a day. Just being a DI athlete, five-star recruit, some people would ride that out for a long time but Lance is like, ‘Nah, I want to build something else, I want to do more.’
"The fact that he is keeping it so centralized to Polk County and the athletes from here, the people that made [McCall’s] uniform, the commercials, it’s coming right out of Polk. It’s super cool and I don’t even think most people know that yet.”
College football fans are extremely passionate and that passion follows athletes beyond the university of which the fans root for. Leggett's decision to sponsor an FSU athlete certainly drew some unpleasant attention from some Miami fans. However, there were even more that supported the brand and young athlete despite him being enrolled at FSU at the time.
Anyone who knows him well enough to call him, "L9," knows that he can be a brash personality. Not in a bad way, but in a no-nonsense way, and he has to be. Leggett grew up in Polk County, where nonsense gets you anywhere but forward. The negativity didn't bother him. To him, publicity is publicity and he created it.
Katera Kennon is a childhood friend and grew up with Leggett before he moved to Texas and knows maybe more than anyone how unique of a character he is and how he doesn't play around with his business.
Considering they've been in a relationship since 2016 and friends since way before that, she's seen a lot of Leggett's personal growth and his dedication to the business first-hand. She feels like his want to give back to the community is attributed to how he was raised.
"He was raised in the projects, low-income housing and he sincerely wants to see everyone eat," Kennon said. "He went to his friends first and asked if they'd be distributors because he's like, 'I want you all to eat, if I'm eating, I want you all to eat,' It's admirable because some people can be selfish and worry about themselves. But his upbringing and where he came from, because he didn't have a lot, he wants to give other people an opportunity."
Leggett's end goal is to put his children ahead of where he was as a child. He could care less about anything else regarding himself. Taste One Boiled Peanuts were created for plenty of reasons, some being to share a unique flavor with the world and to put Leggett's city on the map. However, there isn't a bigger reason than leaving a legacy and a brand for his children to uphold, or to create their own.
"I'm happy because I'm doing something where I can leave something to my kids," Leggett said. "If I leave this earth, I don't care if I have no money, no nothing. I want to be able to leave something for my kids so they could give them a jump start. "Even if they don't want Taste One, sell it. It's something for them and that's my main thing: I don't want to leave this earth without being able to leave my kids something, that's my main reason, I do it for my kids."
Head coach Mario Cristobal, defensive back coaches Demarcus VanDyke and Jahmile Addae along with analyst Dennis Smith posed with the famous peanuts on a recruiting trip.
There's a lot to be learned about Leggett's journey. Much of it is something that many young men will experience in Polk County. Leggett was an athlete, but now he's an entrepreneur. Many know that Leggett's athletic career may not have worked out the way he and many others anticipated, but that's the lesson to be learned.
That's why Leggett is so hands-on with the youth of Polk County and constantly tries to give recognition when he can with his platform. Expanding Taste One Boiled Peanuts nationwide is a major goal of his, but he's showing the youth how to work and how to grind, which will take them further than anything else in life.
"I'm actually showing these kids, not everyone is going to make it to the NFL," Leggett said. "I had a promising career coming out of high school. I was a five-star, everybody just knew, 'Lance is going to the NFL.' But, on the other hand, it didn't happen like that.
"That's what happened, I don't look back on it, I don't dwell on it, I don't care about it. I've always been a hustler. So, with me, I'm showing the kids if football doesn't work out, you can start a business and you can be the next young man out. I'm showing them, 'if you had a good work ethic in football, carry that work ethic with you into business and watch how successful you will be.'"
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