Annie Leal, on the right in the pink shirt, and her father Leopoldo celebrate their grand prize win Wednesday.
San Antonio products may not have taken home any prizes from H-E-B's "Quest for the Best" contest, but most of us can probably get behind grand prize winning chamoy products. I Love Chamoy, a business out of McAllen, took home the grand prize of $25,000, Alamo City-based H-E-B announced in a Wednesday, August 24, news release.
I Love Chamoy products claim that its sauces are authentic sweet, tangy, and spicy flavor, but all of its sauces are sugar- and carb-free, allowing chamoy lovers (like myself) to enjoy guilt-free. It's founder, Annie Leal, says on her website that she was born and raised in Mexico, so the sauce was a common treat for her and her family.
Then her dad got diabetes, so she created a chamoy that her father could enjoy without being a risk to his health. Leal is quite active on TikTok where she has humorously documented the company's "biggest L's" — when the sauce was in a bottle that looked like shampoo or body wash from Bath & Body Works.
Now I Love Chamoy's sauce is in more sauce-friendly bottles that can be found on H-E-B shelves.
H-E-B has held the "Quest for the Best" contest since 2014 and gave out $80,000 in cash prizes to five Texas-based winners this year. There were initially 10 finalists that were in the running, including a San Antonio-based coffee drink Puro Nitro. In the end the San Antonio business didn't make the top 5 winners.