Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Covarrubias.
Maria, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
2020 held a lot of promise to our small family. We were getting all the duck on a row to take a big step. If you are from San Diego, you know that life can get pretty expensive. But instead of paying rent, we were ready to invest in something for our growing family. We found a townhome and placed an offer. The Sellers approved our offer and our soon to be home was in escrow! And then COVID hit. We cancelled our offer to the house and started to feel the economic effects of COVID at home. My husband lost his business and we needed to get creative ASAP. We had to move out of our apartment and into my Mother’s house. At least that would help us survive for a few months!
Once we started to realize that this was not going to get better anytime soon, we brought Cien Chiles to life! We took our saving and invested them in my dream to have our very own line of sauces!
Growing up in Mexico, I always had a big connection with food and cooking it. It has always fascinated me that food always bring people together, sharing moment and building memories. As a teenager my house would be full of friends and family coming together over delicious food and it is a big part of my culture!
These last eight years I had been working in different parts of the culinary world, catering, bread making, front of the house, back of the house, comis, Sous Chef, Italian, Innovative Mexican, French-American, product development, production lines, a lot of everything! I tried to cover every corner that would give me the tools to finally bring to live a product of my own.
What a perfect way to be able to share my passion and take advantage of this opportunity for people to experience my food through our beautiful bottles of sauces. Each one of our sauce are unique in their own little way and, to me, they are a great representation of our cuisine.
Cien Chiles was officially launched August 1st 2020. A San Diego company that is proud to be transparent and honest with our ingredients. Our packaging is 100% reusable and recyclable, wanting to help mother earth stay clean. We aim to flavor your life one drop of sauce at a time! Hope we get the opportunity to be a part of your family table!
Has it been a smooth road?
Timing. Timing has been the key for us to be able to bring this to live. It was a lot of back and forth between, is it the right time or is it not. Sometime we just never feel ready to take that jump, so COVID made me do it! Providing for our daughter and our family has been the motor beneath the surface!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We bring the authentic flavors of our cultural background in an innovative way. They are the flavor of home in a bottle. We strive to use real ingredients that you love and recognize. Our sauces are made with clean, honest ingredients and we have spicy levels for everyone on the family! Free of chemicals and preservatives.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Now a days it is a great opportunity to launch a product through e-commerce or online shopping because that is where the market is moving towards with the current situations. None the less, Cien Chiles is already meeting with local retailers to bring our fixins’ to a store near you!
Pricing:
- THE Habanero – $8.99
- THE Jalapeño – $8.99
- THE Mustard – $8.99
- THE Thai Bird – $8.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cienchiles.com/
- Email: info@cienchiles.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cienchiles/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cienchiles/
Image Credit:
Luicianna Mcintosh
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