We were lucky to catch up with Silvana and Pete recently and have shared our conversation below.

Silvana and Pete, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

When we decided to launch Cowamel, we did not know exactly how we were going to bring this idea to potential customers. We had the vision, but what was next was a bit uncertain. We knew we wanted to showcase something new, and unique and we knew there will be a lot of teaching to our customers, and still is. Everyone grew up with the famous caramel, the chewy textured sweet treat that some love but some definitely don’t, they always tell us ” I do not like caramel, it gets stuck on my teeth!”, pretty funny. So how do we convince them to try our dulce de leche, to give us a chance, and to show them how different it is from their traditional caramel? We started to look for different products, the best quality, with minimal to no additives or preservatives. Our vision was broad, with so many flavors to choose from. So we began our search, we began to try different methods that will allow us to give our customers the best possible product. Different cooking techniques, different flavorings, and countless hours of testing until we found what has become a beloved sweet treat to many of our most loyal customers. Once we knew we had something great the next step was figuring out where to sell our product, we knew about farmer’s markets but the question was what was required of us. We started to send applications and visit different markets until we finally were accepted at the very first market we sold our very first dulce de leche, the Maitland at Lake Lily Sunday market. So that first day, April 18, 2021, Cowamel was presented to our city and since then it has been a fun, exciting journey. We will love to see our product go beyond this city and we are very grateful to everyone who has been walking this journey with us. So much more to come for us. This is only the beginning.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Our story starts in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Silvana was born and raised. Dulce de leche is a huge part of the culture in Argentina. A jar of dulce de leche was always on the table ready to add to your morning toasts and pastries. After moving to the United States and settling in South Florida, she looked for great dulce de leche but often found mass produced products that had chemicals and food additives. Not like home.

We traveled to Argentina and were blown away by the growing food and drink scene there. We found several shops that sold Dulce de Leche. But, they still had a lot of fillers and additives. “I thought hey I’m a chef and I can do that….but better”.

So we came up with their version …and Cowamel was born.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What has worked for us from the very beginning has been the quality of our product, and all the new flavors we bring our customers seasonally. We always listen to what they will like to try, a new idea. Sometimes those new flavors they suggest do not work but we then surprise them with something unexpected that they end up loving. We try our very best to keep our dulce de leche as natural as possible, with no additives or preservatives added, we know our customers appreciate that. Our most loyal customers spread the word (no pun intended) to others who then try to find us just because they know what we offer is made with care and dedication and that is what has made us successful.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

After being at the markets and events around the Orlando area for as long as we have, we are sure that new clients find us through word of mouth, we like to think that there is a jar of Cowamel somewhere nearby! we love it when new customers come to visit us at the markets and they tell us they saw our jar in their friend’s or family members’ fridge, this is a great feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cowamel.com
• Instagram: @cowamelddl
• Facebook: @cowamelddl