No.7 Hot Sauce Inc. was founded in March of 2013 by husband & wife team Carlos & Sandra Flores.
At that time Sandra suggested we share our sauce with customers at our coffee shop “Cafe Con Leche” in the Junction Triangle.
We would bottle sauce during quiet moments, after hours & everything in between. Storing all our glass bottles under the cafe benches & basement, this meant a lot of up and down to function as 2 businesses in one. While still meeting the needs of coffee drinking clients.
Not long after we got asked to do trade shows, in store demos & different festivals, Fall Fairs across Ontario, & even the CNE, with all that buzz plenty of interest followed.
Fast forward 9 years you can find our products in independent shops & restaurants, as well as online.
We have been blessed to work with a Canadian Burrito chain “ Quesada Burritos & Tacos” across Canada who we supply through Gordon Food. As well as a few independent distributors.
No.7 Hot Sauces also known as “salsas” they are vegan, gluten free, all natural with no added salt or sugar.
Our Journey: Highlights
There have been lots of small steps during our journey from early days in Cafe Con Leche, to our first small space on St.Clair ave west, even a storage unit, with ties that moved us into a grand warehouse studio in the “Ubisoft” building until our space and all the other tenants were given notice to move out as Ubisoft grew to expand into the entire building. With challenges came great plans and goals. In the winter of 2019 we moved into a 900sq/ft industrial space to continue our production but still very much hands on!
Throughout our journey we have worked with a copacker off and on but found that costs to do so would never be doable. So we planned to save up for a filling line to bottle our sauces.
During COVID we worked long hours to run both the cafe full time without any staff & continued to grow our brand.
This year in February we moved into a new 2,400 sq/ft manufacturing facility with a brand new bottling line right here in Toronto. Who knew we could achieve so much & grow a brand out of a small coffee shop & still be based in the city.
“Blending a Mexican tradition here in Canada”