H-E-B revealed the winners of a delicious competition this week. The annual Quest for Texas Best competition seeks to find the best Texas-made food products, with the big winners being sold at H-E-B grocery stores around the state.
Five winning brands, narrowed down from more than 500 entries, were announced Wednesday, August 24.
Claiming the $25,000 grand prize in the H-E-B contest was McAllen-based I Love Chamoy, which makes a sugar-free version of the sweet, tangy, spicy Mexican sauce. Creator Annie Leal "made it her mission to make this traditional staple of Mexican candy more accessible to people with different dietary needs," following her father's diabetes diagnosis, the H-E-B website says.
The first-place winner was an Austin-based maker of frozen gourmet cookie dough, Love & Cookies, which received $20,000.
Ashley Cameron founded Love & Cookies in 2019 after her 5-year-old son was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, a common heart ailment among children. After returning home from a stay at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, all her son wanted to do was “bake cookies with Mommy.”
Cameron kept making cookies, sharing them with friends and family and subsequently opened a store baking and selling 14 gourmet flavors of cookies. She followed that up by introducing a line of four varieties of frozen gourmet cookie dough.
Reacting to the H-E-B victory, Cameron says part of the winnings will be donated to the Kawasaki Kids Foundation and the rest will be invested in Love & Cookies. “We can’t wait to share our product with the rest of Texas,” Cameron says.
Grabbing second place and a $15,000 prize was Houston-based Zwita, which produces harissa, a traditional Mediterranean chile sauce that originated in Tunisia. The company’s owners are Karim and Mansour Arem.
“This is a monumental achievement for us because it confirms that there is indeed interest in our Tunisian stories and culture,” the Arem brothers say. “It is also a testament to how multiculturally rich our beautiful state is and how there is not just one meaning to being Texan. We are humbled that H-E-B wholeheartedly supports us in our mission of preserving our Tunisian ancestry by helping us share it with our fellow Texans.”
The Arems say their prize money will be earmarked for marketing and advertising campaigns.
Tying for third place and snagging $10,000 prizes were Dallas-based Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que, which makes a barbecue rub that will be available at H-E-B stores, and Guthrie-based Burnett Ranches, which produces Four Sixes Ranch Chuck Wagon Chili Mix.
Brent and Juan Reaves, the brothers who own Smokey John’s, say the H-E-B recognition means their dad’s dream has been realized. Their father founded the Smokey John’s barbecue joint, originally known as Big John’s, in 1976.
“He always believed that he had a quality product, but he didn’t live to see it validated,” the Reaves brothers say. “H-E-B believing in us today was really them believing in our dad. And today we are so proud that he was validated by a retail giant.”
The brothers say some of the prize money will be shared with the company’s employees, and the remainder will go toward product marketing and expansion of retail sales.
“Each year we are amazed by the submissions,” James Harris, senior director of diversity and inclusion and supplier diversity at San Antonio-based H-E-B, says of Quest for Texas Best. “The creativity, passion, and determination is truly impressive and inspiring.”
I Love Chamoy was the grand-prize winner.
