Miguel Leal and his co-founders at Somos all hail from different cities in Mexico. Over the course of a few years, they noticed a huge shift in the flavors of Mexican food in US restaurants. “Food became a lot more like the food we ate growing up in Mexico,” Miguel says. It’s now more common to find favorites like al pastor, birria, and elote on the menu.
A consumer packaged goods (CPG) veteran, Miguel says the Mexican food he saw at restaurants still didn’t match what he was seeing in grocery stores, where the aisles still contained mostly bright yellow taco shells and canned beans.
So Miguel and his co-founders went on a mission to make Mexican food more accessible for home cooking. Their brand, Somos is a line of burrito and taco kits, rice, beans, and condiments based on authentic flavors.
Hear how Somos’ founders are capitalizing on restaurant trends with CPG Mexican food products.
Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to Shopify Masters.
Making cooking more convenient
Miguel and his co-founders felt confident in Somos because they knew most people were not comfortable cooking Mexican food at home—even though it’s one of the most popular cuisines in the US. This is due in part to the large number of ingredients required to make certain dishes.
“What Somos is trying to do is make Mexican food as convenient as making pasta with a jar of pasta sauce,” Miguel explains. That means Somos had to develop and test recipes that required fewer ingredients and less cooking time than the at-home recipes found online.
Developing unique cooking processes
The product development often forced Miguel and his co-founders to look for ways to capture the right flavors and textures, and do it at scale.
For example, Somos uses a cooking process called tatemado, which involves roasting vegetables and tomatoes together. That’s the secret…
This is only a snippet of a eCommerce Article, please visit the Authors Website and Read the Full Article