Out of more than 370 businesses, 10 finalists competed in H-E-B’s Quest for Texas Best competition, hoping to get their product into stores around Texas. Two hopeful entrepreneurs and alumni, Rocío León and Dr. Maria León-Camarena, pitched “Tozi Superfoods,” their brand of blue corn and amaranth tortillas and totopos. H-E-B announced the sisters as first place on Sept. 25.
Receiving a prize of $25,000 as well as a home on H-E-B shelves, Tozi Superfoods will add H-E-B to their list of 29 current distributors, including Royal Blue Groceries and local restaurants. Co-founded by CEO Rocío León and Health and Nutrition Advisor León-Camarena, along with their mother, Bertha León, Tozi focuses on healthy, accessible Mexican food products.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed of since starting the brand,” Rocío said. “When I was hustling in 100 degrees at the farmers market last summer, I would just picture getting to walk into a nice, cool (air-conditioned) grocery store and see my product.”
According to the H-E-B website, H-E-B distributed $110,000 to five locally-made products selected from the competition, as well as possible shelf placement.
“Tozi is an outlet of things I have always felt are missing,” León-Camarena said. “Teaching people how to eat and diet is one thing, but is the availability there? Not everyone, unfortunately, can go buy fresh produce every single day. So being able to provide a product that can combine both those things is great.”
Rocío said she started Tozi over a year ago after inheriting the family ranch, inspiring her to create a business connecting her family legacy and honoring her heritage.
“We’ve always been into healthy eating (and) authentic ancestral Mexican food, because we would spend all of our summers on our ranch in Mexico when we were growing up,” Rocío said.
Rocío said Priya Kumar, an operations management lecturer and business owner, helped guide her through business decisions. Kumar said she’s seen many businesses fail over not understanding the supply chain or how to manage money.
“(Rocío) and I have had discussions about how she’s managing logistics and I can tell that she’s brought all of that knowledge into the business, and she’s going to do it right,” Kumar said. “She’s not going to make that same mistake. It’s a perfect story of how that academic theoretical knowledge has really come to life as well, in a real scenario where she’s going to benefit the world around her is going to benefit too.”
Rocío said she and her fiancé, Charlie Edwards, work on the day-to-day business while León-Camarena handles nutrition and Bertha León manages the recipes.
“This is something that has been deeply ingrained in me from a little girl and it’s just the way that my family’s operated,” Rocío said. “My real purpose in life is not about becoming a millionaire through this business. Obviously, I want to create a profitable business, but the reason I want it to be so profitable is because I get so excited about how much good I can do using the influence and the money from creating a business like this, along with helping people eat healthier.”
