Unboxed: 14 brands to honor Hispanic Heritage Month
From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the U.S. pays tribute to the contributions of Hispanic Americans. Click through the gallery for a selection of authentic products.
![Unboxed: 14 brands to honor Hispanic Heritage Month Unboxed: 14 brands to honor Hispanic Heritage Month](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/blt9726d3850d310c03/651f0027ee402836a9bf418e/01-hispanic-heritage-month.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Axel Provisions brings Argentinian-inspired flavors to the tradition of Texas barbecue. The brand offers original, spicy and verde variations of chimichurri, as well as spice blends and toppings such as pickled onions. Axel Brave, a resident of Houston, Texas, is a first generation Argentine-Texan, as he explained to Assembled Brands in August.
Brazi Bites offers a traditional Brazilian cheese bread, pão de queijo, as close as consumers’ freezers. The latest flavor is Everything Brazilian, made with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, onion, and salt. All Brazi Bites breads are Certified Gluten Free, grain free and soy free, and do not contain artificial ingredients. Junea Rocha founded the brand after she moved to the United States from Brazil.
El Nacho tortilla chips are made in the Aztecan tradition of soaking whole grain white corn in water and lime, then grinding it with volcanic stones—a process called nixtamalization. The brand, made by Alpine Tortilla Company, launched just this past summer. This CPG comes from the founders of Painted Burro Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar in Somerville, Mass.
Fillo’s was launched by Daniel and Antonio Caballero, two sons of a Cuban immigrant whose nickname is Fillo. As boys, their family regularly ate beans seasoned with sofrito, rice and tamales. The brand offers seasoned packaged beans, grains and walking tamales in savory and sweet flavors. The products are Non-GMO Project Verified and shelf stable.
Frescos Naturales was inspired by Juan Ignacio Stewart’s childhood in Guatemala, where his family would drink fresh juices—even cutting lemons from the tree to make lemonade. He launched the first flavor, Rosa de Jamaica, which is made of hibiscus flowers, in January 2021 and has since added five flavors.
Gear Hugger is a nontoxic, plant-based lubricant created by Checo Diaz after he realized how much petroleum-based product was soaking into the ground. Diaz’s family has a long history in the lubricant business, going to back to his grandfather’s work in a Mexican gas station.
I Eat My Greens founder Manuel "Mac" Villarreal hated eating vegetables, so his mother snuck them into the soups she made. After he moved to the United States from Mexico, he decided to create nutritious soups with whole food ingredients, made in small batches. Available in a wide variety of flavors, I Eat My Greens in Non-GMO Project Verified.
Salsa Queen started in Utah when Maharaba Zapata found herself divorced with seven children, relying on food stamps and Medicaid, according to the Deseret News. A native of Mexico, Zapata moved to Provo, Utah, when she was 17. The brand’s newest product is freeze-dried salsa, a shelf-stable product that only needs water added to it.
Saucy Lips was inspired by a mother’s secret recipes. After Natalia Dalton Salazar and her family moved to the United States from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, she and her brother, Jess Dalton Salazar—with their mother, Gabriela—started creating clean-label, authentic Mexican dressings and cooking sauces. The products are made with fresh ingredients, free of gluten, soy, dairy, nuts and GMOs.
Siete Family Foods might not exist if Veronica Garza hadn’t been diagnosed with lupus as a teenager. Garza started making grain-free tortillas, which received her grandmother’s seal of approval. Since introducing grain-free tortilla chips, Siete has added gluten-free totopos (corn tortilla chips) as well as grain-free tortillas, taco shells, puff snacks, potato chips and even cookies. Most Siete products are Non-GMO Project Verified, Certified Gluten Free, dairy free and vegan. The brand is founded and owned by the Garzas, a Mexican-American family from south Texas.
Tia Lupita Foods was inspired by recipes from Hector Saldivar’s mother. After Saldivar moved to San Francisco, California, from Mexico, he shared her hot sauce with friends; later, he sought her blessing to bottle and sell it. In addition, Tia Lupita offers grain-free chips, tortillas and salsa macha. Saldivar won the 2021 Expo West Virtual Pitch Slam, as well.
Vista Hermosa offers USDA Organic, gluten-free corn tortillas, vegan flour tortillas and gluten-free totopos made with traditional Mexican cooking techniques. All three products are Non-GMO Project Verified and do not contain artificial preservatives, additives, colors or flavors. Tacombi, a chain of taquerias in New York City, New York, Washington, D.C., and Miami, Florida, created the tortillas to serve in the restaurants.
Xinca brings traditional Salvadorian foods to the United States. Cynthia Duran leads the brand, which her family founded after fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. Pupusas are made with corn or rice dough. The Loroco and cheese flavor uses the Loroco flower from Central America, while the bean and cheese flavor uses slow-cooked refried beans. Both options are vegetarian.
¡Ya Oaxaca! brings mole sauces from Oaxaca, Mexico—specifically, chef Susana Trilling’s cooking school—to American consumers. Ingredients in the three flavors include organic criollo corn, wild garlic, smoked chiles and house-made chocolate, most of which are grown or sourced from the Oaxaca community. Trilling’s family owns and operates the business, which was the runner-up in the 2023 Expo East Pitch Slam contest.
¡Ya Oaxaca! brings mole sauces from Oaxaca, Mexico—specifically, chef Susana Trilling’s cooking school—to American consumers. Ingredients in the three flavors include organic criollo corn, wild garlic, smoked chiles and house-made chocolate, most of which are grown or sourced from the Oaxaca community. Trilling’s family owns and operates the business, which was the runner-up in the 2023 Expo East Pitch Slam contest.
National Hispanic Heritage Month was created to honor Hispanic and Latin American culture—and the contributions of the people within those cultures—in the United States.
The term Hispanic applies to a broad range of ethnic people, whose preferences differ because they or their families were raised in different countries or based on where in the United States they live. Hispanic people account for an ever-growing portion of the U.S. population, as well. With an annual growth rate of about 3%, Hispanics are expected to be 22% of the country’s population by 2028, up from 12% in 2000, according to the 2022 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas.
L.E.K. Consulting reported in January that Hispanic consumers shop at more grocery stories than non-Hispanic white consumers, an average of 3.8 versus 3.3. And they are looking for foods that are authentic to their native cultures. Fortunately, authentic Hispanic foods are becoming more common and more convenient, with new shelf-stable and frozen products launching regularly.
Click through the gallery to view some noteworthy Hispanic products.
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