H-E-B Crowns 2022’s Quest for Texas Best Winners

Grand prize goes to salsa maker from McAllen

8/25/2022

This is the ninth year H-E-B has held its Quest for Texas Best product competition.

After announcing 10 finalists two weeks ago, H-E-B has unveiled the five winners of its annual Quest for Texas Best product competition. The winners, all small businesses from around Texas, received a combined $80,000 in cash prizes as well as space on H-E-B store shelves throughout the state.

Annie Leal’s I Love Chamoy salsa out of McAllen was the grand prize winner and received a $25,000 prize, while Ashley Cameron and her Love & Cookies Frozen Cookie Dough from Lakeway took home $20,000 and the first place spot. A spicy, traditional harissa won second place, and Chuck Wagon Chile Mix and Smokey John’s BBQ Rub tied for third place.

“Each year we are amazed by the submissions. The creativity, passion, and determination is truly impressive and inspiring,” said James Harris, H-E-B’s senior director, diversity & inclusion and supplier diversity. “H-E-B has been committed to diverse product offerings and workforce for more than a century. As we continue Florence Butt’s legacy of an entrepreneurial spirit, we are thrilled to shine light on these five outstanding businesses and their Texan-made products that will add to the diversity of products on our shelves and to our roster of small, local and diverse suppliers. This is one of the many ways we offer so much more at H-E-B.”

H-E-B’s Quest for Texas Best is now in its ninth year and has expanded from only accepting food and beverage items to including Texas-based companies making beauty items, toys, home goods, household necessities, gardening supplies, coolers and more.

The Texas grocer has been busy this year with expansion plans in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a one-day hiring push across the state earlier this month and the planned addition of frozen capabilities at its distribution facilities in Temple.

The largest privately held employer in Texas, San Antonio-based H-E-B has more than 420 stores and 145,000 employees in Texas and Mexico. The company is No. 16 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.