BUDA — When Donelle Mendoza moved to Texas from California six years ago, she found that she was missing the traditional and authentic flavors that she loved on the West Coast. What started out as selling birria tacos from her apartment window turned in to climbing to the top and now, earning her a place on H-E-B shelves.

Each year, H-E-B searches for the best unique Texas-made products and back in August, Mendoza, also known as the Birria Queen, was named the grand prize winner of the 11th Annual H-E-B Quest for Texas Best competition for her Birria Seasoning Bombs. The take-home prize was $25,000, along with her products being sold at H-E-B stores.

“[It feels] amazing. I’m still kind of in shock. It’s a blessing. It’s an honor,” said Mendoza. “Finally, after so many years of hard work and dedication in specializing in authentic Mexican cuisine and trying to represent my heritage and my culture has paid off.”

Since the launch of the competition in 2014, more than 1,000 unique food items, beverages and general merchandise items have made it to H-E-B store shelves, according to the Texasbased grocery company. This year alone, H-E-B’s Business Development managers reviewed submissions from 470 creative entrepreneurs from more than 118 cities across the state and the competitors took home a combined $70,000 in prize money.

Additionally, H-E-B has awarded $2.2 million in prize money, along with marketing, mentoring and supplemental support and presented 55 Quest for Texas Best suppliers with a commemorative H-E-B Million Dollar Club belt buckle for achieving $1 million in sales.

Mendoza’s journey started back in 2018 when she moved from California to Austin, Texas, and after about a month or two of searching for her favorite food — birria — she could not find it anywhere.

Because of this, she decided to start making it herself using her family’s recipe. Mendoza took to social media to share the dishes that she was creating in her kitchen, leading people to ask if they were for sale. Since she was working a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job in the medical field at the time, she was only able to sell birria on the weekends.

Eventually, her presence on social media was becoming so popular, with multiple orders and interest from customers, that she ultimately quit her job in the medical field to sell birria full-time.

“I started selling birria on the weekend because it was a little side hustle.

And turns out, as soon as I started, like a week later after I posted that Facebook post, I was booked and busy every single weekend and sold out for weeks. Then, maybe a month of selling every weekend, a lot of customers were like, ‘Hey, are you gonna do it during the week’ and ‘I want birria during the week, not the weekend,’” Mendoza explained. “I have a medical assisting certification, so if the birria is slow during the week, I can always take another job … I quit my job and I posted that I was selling birria all week, Monday through Sunday. I never looked back after that.”

After earning a name for herself in her local community, and elsewhere, Mendoza said that there were people reaching out to see if she could share her birria recipe. Instead of sharing her family recipe, Mendoza got inspired to create her Birria Seasoning Bombs — which resemble bath bombs — in order for her customers to be able to have the authentic flavors without the hassle and mess.

“I really spent about a month or two in my home kitchen trying to figure out how to make this idea [come together] and finally, I figured it out. I posted it on Tiktok and I went viral. I had over seven million views on my birria bombs post on Tiktok, which is really cool,” Mendoza said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh’ and freaking out. ‘What do I do?’ I have over 8,000 orders within like a couple of hours.”

Mendoza going viral on Tiktok with her more than seven million views on one video actually led to H-E-B to contact her directly to sign up for the H-E-B Quest for Texas Best competition. Initially, Mendoza was going to take the prize money to purchase an air conditioning unit for her facility, but H-E-B elected to provide one in order for her to use the funds to fully invest it back into the business.

Ensuring that the products remain authentic and true are an important component of Mendoza’s business model. She explained that they store the chiles from actual, real vendors who are getting Grade A products and because she is her own manufacturer — as her manufacturing facility is in Buda — she is able to make sure that her customers are getting authentic dishes whether they are the birria, chile or pozole bombs.

“I could have easily given another third party company the ability to make the product for me and kind of let somebody else do it,” Mendoza explained, “but I think that it’s important that I make sure that the recipe doesn’t change and it’s still going to be that family recipe when I was working from my apartment.”

Knowing that she has had an overwhelming amount of support from the beginning of her creating dishes in her home kitchen to now, when she has been recognized statewide, Mendoza encourages other people who want to own their own business to keep one phrase in mind: sí, se puede (yes, you can).

“Everyone can do it. Just don’t doubt yourself, even if other people are like, ‘Why are you doing that?’ and questioning you.

Forget everybody else.

Do you,” she said. “Sí, se puede and just don’t stop.

Even when, you know, times get hard and you’re like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Just remember that you have a passion and don’t let it [go].”

Those who may have been asking for the Birria Queen to open up her own taco shop are in luck, as Mendoza said that she is planning on doing that in the future.

While there is no timeline at this time because her current products have been keeping her busy, she is looking at different potential locations, including Buda, Kyle, Austin, Manor, Round Rock and Georgetown to accomodate the vast expanse of her customer base.

Currently, the birria bombs can be found at in-store at Sol Meat Market at 900 East Braker Lane #180, Austin, and La Mexicana Supermercado at 2004 East William Cannon Drive, Austin.

They can also be purchased online at www. seasoningbombs.org.

Mendoza said that her birria bombs will be launching at H-E-B stores in the beginning of December, right before the holiday season.

To keep up-to-date on Mendoza’s business plans, follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ birriaqueenoftexas, Instagram at bit. ly/47nEnRC or on Tiktok at @birriaqueen.