An Okotoks business will be adding some local flavour to this year’s Calgary Stampede.

Covet Sips + Sweets will be making their mark at the midway.

Co-owner Meagan Layton says they’ll, of course, be operating out of a seacan, just like their main location in Okotoks, but they’re currently building a smaller one to meet Stampede regulations.

“They sort of took a chance on us because we’re building it out right now. We just promised and crossed our hearts that we’d have it ready, and they actually came out and checked out our current location and thought it was really cool. They were excited to get a local small business on board. They’ve been wonderful to work with.”

With the Calgary Stampede having a reputation for outlandish food, Layton and Covet’s other co-owner Whitney Smith aren’t holding back.

They took a look at current trends, namely extreme flavours like sour and spicy taken up a notch and applied it to their signature cookies.

“Whitney’s brain for baking is very unique but very talented. She was like ‘Let’s take some extremes and put them together,’ which is why we’ve got a dill pickle cookie with Flamin’ Hot Cheeto frosting. That cookie is an experience,” says Layton.

Smith describes a process of coming up with crazy combinations and then marrying them with Covet’s style.

“This was sort of a different journey because we had to kind of work backwards. It was like ‘Okay, we’ve got to come up with something crazy, different, and exciting,’ so we decided on these combinations and flavours and then it was like ‘Now we have to experiment and figure out how to meet that,’ because that’s what we told the Stampede we’re going to do.

They seem to have made an impression, with three of their items (mixed/dirty sodas, the Flamin’ Hot Dill Cookie, and the Sour Apple Caramel Cookie) being featured on the Stampede’s New Midway Food list.

That’s not all they’ve got in store.

“We’ve got a midway cookie that kind of combines caramel popcorn, candy, and churro, it’s a mash of a bunch of stuff. We’ve got our mini doughnut cookies that we’ve had in the past that people love,” says Smith.

They’re also planning on offering a few different varieties of soda as well as cold brew coffee.

One big factor they’re doing their best to prepare for is the sheer number of customers.

They haven’t been able to pin down specific estimates for guest numbers, but after running some numbers of their own, they’ve ordered 150,000 custom cups.

They’ll be located at the base of the Superwheel and should stick out from the crowd not only because of their unique seacan setup but also because they’ll have a large billboard/mural set up.

Layton expects it won’t be without its challenges, but she’s proud to be a part of the 111-year-old tradition.

“We’re super excited to be part of it. It’ll be a wild ride, and we’re just gonna get on and hold on.”