For some families, a nightly dinner table discussion about engravings from the 1800s, where in India to source the best tamarinds, or the seventh level of hell might seem unusual. For Underworld Feast proprietors Lucia Herrera, Ciro Rodriguez, and their son, Carlos, it’s the family business — salsa.
“People want something unique. They gravitate towards combinations they haven’t tasted before, like the smoky flavor of a chipotle blended with the sweetness of a fruit like a tamarind or habanero with the brightness of citrus. They want more than the flavors you can get in a restaurant,” Lucia said.
Underworld Feast crafts otherworldly flavors featuring exotic ingredients. They’re an altogether uncommon business. They based their branding on Dante’s Inferno and The Divine Comedy, with salsa names like “Eden’s Garden” and “Lucifer’s Tears”. Their nine degrees of spiciness correspond to the nine levels of hell. But, as Ciro will tell you, “The most unique thing about Underworld Feast is that three engineers run it. We knew nothing about the food industry. We record every single piece of data, and we analyze it. We love our pie charts and diagrams.”
Every detail of Underworld Feast is a strategic decision, from the type of wagon to buy for a farmer’s market to the most efficient piston filler to accelerate production capabilities. With their salsa featured in over 50 Kroger locations after less than two years of formal production, it seems they’ve engineered a recipe for success.
The Underworld Feast brand was born in September of 2021, but its roots sprang from a longstanding love of salsa. “My husband and I were born in Mexico. We’ve always made salsas for get-togethers, and our friends and family have kept insisting, insisting, insisting that we sell them,” Lucia said. During the height of the COVID pandemic, the family made time to focus on the details.
They were drawn to the fun, spooky underworld branding over their shared affinity for Dante’s Inferno and The Divine Comedy. “We have five permanent salsas in the collection and then four seasonal flavors, which make up our nine levels of hell,” Lucia said. Skulls and angels adorn the labels, and flavors range from milder choices like “Genesis”, to spicier flavors like “Dante’s Choice”. Each of the nine flavors focuses on just one pepper per salsa, a nod to tradition in authentic Mexican salsa.
Another authentic aspect of Underworld Feast salsas is that they’re designed to enhance recipes, mirroring the traditional Mexican approach where salsas play a central role in cooking rather than being just a condiment. The brand provides recipes online and hands out recipe cards at farmer’s markets.
“The creative ones in the company are Lucia and Carlos,” Ciro said. While it’s true that Lucia and Carlos workshop the flavors, everyone in the family plays to their strengths. “My dad is a mechanical engineer, so he knows a lot about the manufacturing side, systems, and how to process controls. My mom and I are computer scientists. My mom did a lot of the marketing for programs she’s involved in, so she’s worked on marketing for us. I’ve been developing websites since I was 12, so I made our website and an application that handles all our inventory management. We’ve saved so much money on stuff that we could’ve outsourced, so we reinvest it into the company, and it helps us grow,” Carlos said.
A critical component that helped Underworld Feast grow was connecting to ECDI. Salsa is an acidified food, and, as such, it must be produced in a commercial kitchen, so the Food Fort has proved to be an invaluable resource.
“Everyone at ECDI has been super helpful. We send a quick text, and we can get an answer to any question we have. They’ve really helped us scale up."
“The Food Fort has been fantastic. Their equipment is all high-end industrial-grade, like the oven, stove, and grill — we checked, and each piece is worth between $20,000 and $30,000. It’s so nice the amount of resources they have in there for people for not a lot of money,” Carlos said.
“And it’s not just the amazing facilities. It’s all the food industry experience they offer. They’ve got seminars, classes, and tons of advice,” Ciro said.
Underworld Feast participated in ECDI’s Consumer Packaged Goods Accelerator through the Food Fort. Through Anthony Berin, Vice President of Food Incubation Services, the family connected to Quest Marketing, who connected them with Kroger.
For Underworld Feast, 2024 will be a year of expanding production, testing and perfecting flavors, and selling through new retailers such as Giant Eagle and Lucky’s Market. “But, if you want a little hint for a future product line, we think that all taco seasoning tastes the same,” Lucia said. If Underworld Feast’s record is any indication, taco seasoning will never be the same.
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