We were lucky to catch up with Cristina Rios recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cristina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
I knew I wanted to name the company something close to my roots in Mexico. It had to be something simple that everyone could pronounce and related to the type of company I wanted to create. I scoured through many names in Spanish, and English and then started to dive into words from the indigenous tribes across the region. We looked at words in Aztec, Olmec, Mayan, and many more native languages.
Then we stumbled upon the Tarahumara tribe in the Copper Canyon of Chihuahua; close to where my father was born. There we found the word ‘Kawi’ which translates to ‘planet earth’. It clicked once I heard it for the first time, and I knew this had to be our name. Unfortunately, when it came time to trademark and set up the business, the sole name had already been taken. Frustrated, I turned to my son for some help and he was the one who suggested we add ‘Foods’ at the end.
There Kawi Foods was born, a company dedicated to providing wholesome products, from natural ingredients.
Cristina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I never set out to start a business but a series of events led me to where I am today. It all started in 2007 when I was diagnosed with Anemia. The doctor told me that I needed more iron in my diet so that’s exactly what I did. Now to paint a bit of a picture, my passion is cooking for loved ones. I love cooking and creating exciting and new recipes.
At the time, I wasn’t one to look at nutritional labels but I was forced to now due to my condition. As I was grocery shopping, reading the labels my eyes wandered to the ingredients and would soon be very concerned with my discovery. Tons of sugar, salt, and worst of all ingredients with 4-6 syllables that I couldn’t pronounce let alone know what they were. Not satisfied with what the store had to offer, I took matters into my own hands and created a spice blend (NutraKik) that had natural ingredients but best of all tasted amazing!
At first, I would use the blend as a substitute for soup stocks, but later, I started using the blend to season my food as well. I would even send my son bags of the blend while he was in college so he could make a healthier cup of noodles! I would host many dinner parties to which friends and family would always ask what the secret ingredient was. Eventually, my best friend’s husband was the one who gently pushed me to take my mix publicly. Shortly after my son graduated from college, we teamed up together to bring Kawi Foods to life with now various lines of wholesome products from natural ingredients.
Since beginning this journey, I am most of proud of how accepting people have been of our products. It brings happy tears to my eyes when folks exclaim that they have been looking for something like us for a long time. They will pick up bags for themselves, and/or ship them out to their family members across the country and even some around the world. Bringing smiles to faces through food is what drives me every day. This has been a work of love and I invite all of those who are not familiar with us to visit our website and social channels, and if you’re in Southern California to check us out at a festival or farmers market near you. Come and try, don’t be shy!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Looking back, there are many examples I can use to show my resilience. I can say that I am in the process of living my experience of the “American Dream” which has tested if anything resilience. In my time in the U.S., I have had to start over from zero on a personal level which has led me to be resiliant in my journey at Kawi Foods.
I landed in California in the late 80’s, recently married with zero English. Slowly but surely, I learned the language, started a family, and grew roots in my new home which I have come to love very dearly. I still remember the day I figured out I was fluent in English when I could properly use the phrase “Forget about it!” Today you can find me striking up a conversation with nearly anyone who I encounter. I love meeting new people and hearing their stories.
Once my children were grown, I felt the need to keep myself busy now that I was more of a mother at a distance. Eventually, life led me to start Kawi Foods. Now for some backstory, I used to be the director of marketing for a prestigious Fortune 500 cosmetic brand. My territory was all of Mexico, working with the European directors when they would tour the Latin American offices. Aside from title and influence, what I really miss are the resources at my disposal. When starting Kawi Foods, it almost felt like day 1 of learning English again, but this time the language of owning your own business. There were so many things I didn’t know at the beginning, where to start, and technology has come so far from how I used to work back in the 80’s. Nonetheless, I was determined to make this venture thrive. My son likes to say, “What’s the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” And that’s what we did, we have grown tremendously since we first started, with plenty of mistakes and lessons along the way. Just like everyone else, the pandemic also through us in for a loop as we tried to navigate uncharted waters. However, I am happy to say that Kawi Foods is still thriving through the peaks and valleys, and am a proud business owner with her family. To me, that’s my American Dream.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
We do manufacture our products. We are very close to working with a copacker but at the moment we manufacture everything by hand out of our commercial kitchen.
I did not know manufacturing when I first started, after all, I was only mixing at a personal level. Scaling then led to renting our commercial kitchen. Dealing with dried herbs & spices creates a lot, and I mean A LOT, of dust as the powder can finely fly as mixing machines get whirling. There was some trial and error but we believe we now know the most efficient (and least messy) method to make our products until we move to the next phase of having someone co-pack it for us.
We have learned how to be resourceful, prepared, and overall ready to pivot as life will throw many wrenches at you. Rooms and/or pieces of equipment can be double booked which leads to delays and an array of other headaches but that’s what sometimes comes with it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kawifoods.com
- Instagram: @kawifoods
- Facebook: @kawifoods
Image Credits
Kawi Foods