EDWARDSVILLE - It isn't often that making a food product can turn into a popular local brand name, but in the case of Edwardsville's Christine Nelson, her salsa is brand that's available at grocery stores, small markets and craft fairs area wide.
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Christine's Salsa, is on sale across the entire Metro-East area, along with a few select markets in St. Louis, and has gained a wide following in the area.
Nelson has seen a passion for salsa take off, with future plans for expansion of the brand.
"I've been making salsa for 20 years," Nelson said during a recent interview. "I messed around with different peppers and spices, and sold it at craft fairs and area markets. I gained popularity and a great following, then it became hard to keep up, with it being homemade. That's when my family and friends encouraged me to put it out on the open market, and I've always wanted to sell it in stores. So I submitted the recipe for nutritional facts and found a co-processor who would make my salsa the exact same way that I do."
The process of preparing it for open sales started in January of 2019, and by last May 1, the first batch of the salsa was ready for distribution. Today, the salsa is made in three flavors - mild taco, spicy taco and hot taco. All three flavors are a thick blend of with a fresh, homemade flavor that's gained a great audience, and also has a taco-style taste to it.
"Once we had those three flavors, it really took off," Nelson said, "because there's something for everyone, and it's neat, because it has that unique taco flavor. That's what set us apart.
"We're in 45 stores area-wide, and we're self-distributing it right now," Nelson continued, "but we have a few places also in Missouri. We're doing really well at Schnuck's, and we're in a lot of meat markets."
The salsa is available at 10 area Schnuck's grocery stores, along with various family-owned markets and meat markets across Metro-East. Nelson is hoping to continue to grow the brand and make it more widely available.
"We've really been growing," Nelson said. "We hope to be in more chain stores soon. Our goal is to keep growing and be in bigger chain stores and pick up a distributor to branch out."
Nelson and her husband still are working full-time jobs as well, with Nelson being a Visa coordinator for GCS Credit Union, a job she's worked for the last 30 years. The rapid growth of her business was something she didn't see coming.
"It's bigger now that I thought it would be," Nelson said, "and it's grown a lot more than I anticipated."
Still, Nelson has very ambitious plans for the salsa going forward, also with an expanded online presence, and she invites anyone who hasn't tried her salsa to sample it.
"We'd like to have it available online, and even though we've not be able to do samples due to COVID-19, people still love it, buy it and come back for more," Nelson said. "Everyone's invited to try it."
For a complete list of stores Christine's Salsa is available at, along with more information about the product, please log on to the company's web site christinessalsa.com
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