Meet Gloria Badilla of Chilttepica Products in Tempe

2010 Chilttepica Products was born. It took us about 6 months to get going since we did not know anything about making salsa to sell at stores. Get our health dept license and they ask me where I was planning to sell my salsa? my answer was “Well if you ask me I want to sell it at our local Costcos” and a few years after we landed an opportunity to have three Tucson local Costcos carry our Chilttepica Salsa. It was not easy, 2 1/2 years of emails, phone calls, and lots of patience got us an opportunity that we are still on their shelves since January 2015  next month will be five years!

Chilttepin Peppers are native to our region of Arizona Sonora Desert, very spicy pepper with a lot of flavors and great health properties. A good combination that makes our Chilttepica products a very special product.

Chilttepica Products make wonderful gifts, native to our region, easy to just grabbed them put it in your purse and be able to pass airport security, easy to ship, and also we ship all over the USA.

After that we start playing with a spice line since we had our star product “Chiltepin Peppers” we have a 1 oz whole chiltepin 2 oz ground chiltepin and 3.5 oz sea salt infused with chiltepin. Currently working on a couple more products. Our spice line is On-Line Store and a few stores in the Tucson area since that was our home till last year that we moved to the valley (Tempe) We have knock on doors like Bashas, also to Hudson Group (who takes care of airport, museum gift shops being that our products are very representative of Arizona).

At this time we continue knocking on doors to have a presence here in the valley and be able to serve our customers better.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s been OK not ease but we have managed to stay “alive” we have made a few mistakes or more than a few since we have done all of our stuff ourselves like getting ourselves educated in nutrition value for our products, health dept. info what to do, how to do it and all that stuff. One of the big hurdles is that big grocery companies don’t give you a time of day, the have “good gate keepers” most of the time I don’t get any further than the front desk.

I’m ok taking a NO for an answer if they don’t have room for our product, or don’t have the customer base for it. It is really hard to have someone take a look at you sometime! But I will keep at it. 🙂

Please tell us about your business.
Chilttepica Products are the following … 32oz fresh medium heat red salsa, 1oz whole chiltepin peppers, 2oz ground chiltepin peppers, 3.5oz sea salt infused with chiltepin. We also have a Gourmet fresh chorizo seasonal with ten Costcos in Arizona (about two times per year) also an opportunity nothing for sure when they will order.

Chilttepica Peppers are the star of our products the thread that binds our products. It is a native pepper to the region of Arizona-Sonora Desert. Huémac & I are just two people to making our “American Dream” come true! I describe our company as family owned, operated & argued over some time!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our goal in five years is to be served gift, airports, museums, shops all over the USA and be able to share a part of our Arizona Desert and our “American Dream” with the rest of the world.

Pricing:

• 1oz Chiltepin $15.00
• 2oz Ground Chiltepin $20.00
• 3.5oz Sea Salt Infused with Chiltepin $10.00
• Molinitos (Spice Grinders) $20.00

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chilttepica.com
• Phone: 520-477-7066
• Email: info@chilttepica.com
• Instagram: chilttepicaproducts
• Facebook: Chilttepica Products
• Twitter: @chilttepica