Originally, my brother did not agree with both of these flavors coming together.
I thought they would just not work out.
We literally took a trip to the closest grocery store that there was and we bought all of the ingredients,
started making them and they were the best thing ever.
My name is JJ, I am 26 years old.
My name is Rudy. I'm 19 years old, and we're brother and sister.
And we're both the owners of Enchilositos Treats, and we brought in $105,000 this past year.
Enchilositos Treats is a homegrown Mexican-American candy brand inspired by the flavors of Mexico. The
brother and sister team started experimenting with sweet candy dipped in sour and spicy flavors as a side
hustle. It quickly grew into a lucrative business. And its success is due in part to Rudy and JJ's parents.
My parents were born in Mexico, both of them were born in Mexico. My dad came over at around 17, 18 years old,
my mom at around the same age.
Our parents taught us a lot about work ethic. They taught us to never give up.
JJ has a lot of experience working in different industries. After college, he worked in manufacturing,
food delivery, selling on eBay and other side hustles.
I felt very confident that I could now run my own business because I've seen other people run their
businesses. My sister sparked the idea. I did not agree with it.
Originally, I had seen dulces enchilados on TikTok and social media. And I really had like been wanting to try
them. I was so happy that I had finally had the chance to be able to try them and make them on my own. We kind
of looked at each other and had that first little bite. We were like, let's start trying to sell it to our
friends and family and just like the locals if we possibly can.
In May of 2020, Rudy and JJ opened up shop in their parents' kitchen in California. Dulces enchilados or
chilitos are made using American candies like Gushers and Skittles. These candies are dipped in chamoy, a
tamarind-based sauce, and sprinkled with a dry spice blend, like Tajin.
It was an American-Mexican fusion. That's the way I depict it.
When JJ and Rudy started the business, JJ was working at a manufacturing facility.
I want to say about two to three months in was when I kind of gave my notice. And I was done working for
somebody else. And I took the riskier route.
When he told me he was quitting, I got a little bit scared.
And thankfully, I've saved my money. And I was able to then invest it into this new idea. But at that point, I
had a little bit over $10,000.
It was a big moment where I was like, "Okay, you know what, if you already did it, let's just go for it
then." And we have to put all our effort into this little business that we just started.
This started off as a side hustle. Our goal was not to make a lot of money or even get big, it just did it on
its own.
Our sweets taste sweet, sour and have a little bit of that spicy taste into them.
So if you grew up eating spicy, just any type of combination of food, the candy just kind of brings you
back and it makes you feel like a kid again.
Our parents top off everything with salsa or spices, like if we have fruit and we put chamoy on it and
Tajin, so we've already kind of grown up with that.
We have two types of chamoy. And as for the spices, we have three different combinations. It all depends on
the treat that we're working with, just because one single spice cannot work for every single treat.
Rudy and JJ have taken American candies like Fruit by the Foot, Nerd Ropes, Sour Patch Kids and gummy bears
and created a fusion that people love. Enchilositos Treats start at $4 for a four-ounce bag. The company
makes back about half after cost of goods.
We do shop mainly at Sam's Club to get, that's where we source our treats. We have shifted into Amazon as well.
And Walmart for some reason carries some of the treats that we also use but we try to find backups.
In December 2020, the family moved from California to Brenham, Texas.
He didn't really realize how many of these people in other states didn't really have anything like this
around them.
They started an Instagram account to get sales going. Within a day, the company had 100 followers on
Instagram and their DMs started to fill up with orders. To get the word out even further, Rudy reached out to
an influencer she respected, Beauty Bird.
She actually pretty much pushed us into opening up a website.
Within a week the site was live. They currently ship to all 50 states and receive international requests from
Canada, Mexico and Australia.
Now we're able to sustain ourselves with it and pay off our bills and things like that. And we're hoping to
continue to grow bigger and bigger.
We've been wanting to have a location. Since we were in California, people had already brought up the idea of
us just opening up a spot. When we moved out here, we were like, people are asking for us out in Houston, San
Antonio. And now that we have our home, we're ready to be able to open up a location very soon here in Texas.