Innovation Spotlight: Cholula’s Cooking Sauces

Welcome to Innovation Spotlight! Each month we’ll spotlight a brand that’s capitalizing on a current consumer trend with a new product innovation.

This month we researched Cholula Cooking Sauces, which are part of the brand’s latest expansion beyond traditional hot sauces. Read on to get our analysis of the product's in-market potential, the audiences it appeals to, as well as what you can learn from it to innovate smarter.

Earlier this year, Cholula announced its biggest product launch ever, releasing 11 new products. Historically known for its hot sauces with authentic Mexican flavors, this launch marks the brand’s expansion further into the Mexican aisle of American grocery stores. 

The 11 products include cooking sauces, cremosas, toppings like chamoy and chili crisp, salsas and seasoning mixes. 

Valda Coryat, North America Vice President of Marketing for McCormick & Company, said of the launch, "Today's consumers are craving more adventurous taste experiences, and Mexican cuisine is leading the way. With these new product innovations, we're enabling consumers to explore the distinctiveness of Mexican cooking in their everyday lives by opening the door to new, flavorful ways to experience Cholula." 

There are four flavors in the new cooking sauce line: 

• Original Taco topping & cooking sauce

• Fajita cooking & simmer sauce

• Birria cooking & simmer sauce

• Carne Asada marinade & cooking sauce

According to the Cholula press release, “The debut of cooking and simmer sauces encourage fans to go beyond Taco Tuesday and recreate a broader spectrum of Mexican cuisine in their own kitchen. Birria, a dish known for its rich, slow-cooked flavors and hours-long preparation, can now be easily recreated at home – bringing mouthwatering, complex tastes without the time-consuming process.”

With increased pressure on consumers’ wallets from tariffs and inflation, consumers are looking for areas to cut costs. Some are opting to dine out less often and cook at home more. This new line of products — meant to help consumers cook Mexican-style food at home — is nicely timed to help consumers make the food they love to eat out at home. 

Plus, Cholula has a strong and recognizable brand in the hot sauce category. The brand’s hot sauces are produced in Mexico, and everything about the brand is focused on conveying authenticity, quality and tradition. 

Extending this brand name into other categories of Mexican food is a smart move. But do consumers think these new products make sense? That’s what we set out to uncover!

1. Relying on the strength and recognition of an existing brand: Cholula is a recognizable brand in the Mexican aisle already, and all those associations consumers have with the brand are transferred onto this new line — because the new products are authentic to Cholula brand, as we see from high brand believability (Brand Believability: 83.5% vs. 78.7%). It’s a smart move to take a brand that is known for hot sauce and extend it into related categories. 

2. Leaning into consumer trends at the right time: Mexican is the second-most popular type of cuisine in the US, and as consumers look to cook more at home, many may be looking for ways to make their favorite takeout foods. Now is a great time for Cholula to expand beyond hot sauce into categories that cater to home cooking.  

3. The importance of advantage: Establishing an advantage with a new product is critical. Getting consumers to try something new means they have to see that new product as clearly better than the alternatives. Cholula cooking sauces aren’t viewed as significantly different from alternatives, but they are seen as better than alternatives — and that comes from the strength of the Cholula brand. That advantage is driving the concept’s high breakthrough potential.

Cholula Cooking Sauces fall in the top third of food innovations in the US on both breakthrough potential and trial potential — putting them in the “scale and sustain” section of our concept potential assessment framework.

That’s a great result for this new line of products!

Let’s unpack more about why this innovation scores this way.

We use two key measures to determine breakthrough potential:

1. How different a product is (distinctiveness)

2. How superior a product is compared to what’s already available in market (advantage)

Cholula Cooking Sauces score in line with the food category in distinctiveness (Distinctiveness T2B: 70.3% vs 70.2% norm) overall — and that holds pretty consistent across consumer groups. However, those who buy Cholula hot sauce at least once every 2-3 months see it as significantly more distinctive than the norm (Distinctiveness T2B: 80.5% vs. 70.2% norm). 

Cholula Cooking Sauces offer common Mexican flavors most shoppers are used to seeing, so it’s no surprise they aren’t viewed as extraordinarily distinctive. But people who are more familiar with Cholula hot sauce do view the cooking sauces as more distinctive due to their increased familiarity with the brand portfolio. 

But Cholula Cooking Sauces are seen as significantly better than other options on the market. It means that the Cholula brand is strong and already has good ties to Mexican flavors, so consumers expect the brand’s Mexican cooking sauces to be better than alternatives. 

Also importantly, people believe that Cholula can credibly deliver cooking sauces (Brand Believability: 83.5% vs. 78.7%) — which is great news for the brand looking to expand outside its traditional category! 

Two-thirds of respondents would buy Cholula Cooking Sauces if available at a reasonable price (Purchase Likelihood T2B: 66.8% vs. 60.8%), which is significantly higher than the average US food innovation. 

Adults under 45 and men have higher purchase likelihood than adults 46 and over and women. Parents with children living in the household also have a higher than average purchase likelihood. But it’s those who buy Cholula at least once every 2-3 months that have the highest purchase likelihood at 89.9%!

This is particularly impressive because spicy food isn’t universally appealing — as noted by many respondents in our research. So two-thirds of people saying they would buy a spicy food product is notable. 

What about the individual flavors of cooking sauces? The Original Taco topping and cooking sauce is the most appealing, with the percentage of people who said they would purchase (65%) and the lowest percentage of people saying they definitely would not (16%). The remaining three flavors were similarly preferred.

The most common reasons respondents liked the product were its specific flavors (25%), overall sensory experience (15%), and taste profile (9%), with additional appreciation for the design and branding. 

Here’s what people had to say: 

• "I like the brand of Cholula and I really like how they’re coming out with different sauces. I love tacos so the taco sauce is something that I would buy."

• "It appears to be authentic, the old-style taco sauce taste with a little zing"

• It looks like it will be flavorful and have a good kick to it"

• "I like the look of the bottle. I like the way cholula tastes from the restaurants I've tried it at. I have not tried the cooking sauces, but if they are like their other products I would like it."

• "Mexican is my favorite kind of food, these sauces would help a lot in the kitchen at home when i really crave authentic flavor"

• "I wouldn't have to do the sauces from scratch, so it's perfect during the busy work week"

• "I like that they are for topping and also cooking sauces. I like their hot sauce so I think that I would like their taco sauce."

• "I make homemade Mexican food all of the time. If these sauces are good and really authentic I could incorporate them into my dishes."

Consumers most often identified attributes such as “easy and quick to use” (51%), “authentic Mexican flavor” (50%), and “convenient” (41%). Other common themes include restaurant-quality taste, versatility, and appealing aroma, with some also valuing trusted brands and family-friendly flavors.

Cholula’s expansion beyond hot sauces into other Mexican sauces, toppings and condiments is clearly appealing to consumers! 

Are there related categories you’re looking to expand into? Zappi’s connected Innovation System makes identification, assessment and testing of such cases much easier. Get a demo to learn more. 

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