Sabroso Foods

Sabroso Foods celebrates 35 years in business this year, serving up authentic tortillas just like generations of New Mexico grandmothers – limited ingredients, no preservatives, made fresh daily with a pinch of pride.

The retail and wholesale business, family-owned and operated for more than three decades, still works out of the same nondescript building in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Its success continues to support about 10 local families. Its primary customers remain small mom-and-pop groceries and local restaurants, such as Church Street Café and Burritos Alinstante.

The only change for the stalwart business has been ownership. Past president and company matriarch Rosemary Sanchez sold it in 2020, just a month before the pandemic and two years before her death at age 84, to two delivery men, Oswaldo Medina and Mario Guzman. Both worked steadily for the Sanchez family for years.

“Sometimes I helped the owner in the office by doing paperwork or tending to customers, “Medina said. “That’s how I learned how they were working the business.”

Medina and Guzman kept all nine employees through Covid-19 and intend to stay true to tradition in other respects as well. Unlike most competitors, Sabroso’s tortillas are made with only the necessary ingredients - flour, shortening, baking powder, and water.

“We try to make our products homemade and not add anything that our mother or grandmother wouldn’t have added in the kitchen at home,” Medina said.

The same goes for all Sabroso products, he said, such as the tamales, taquitos, and red and green chile.

Having survived the pandemic well, the company is only now facing challenges between skyrocketing ingredients and some unforeseeable equipment failures. Medina and Guzman are very thankful to the community that consistently supports Sabroso Foods.

“We trust in these products and that we can make the business work,” Medina said. “Sabroso can provide a better life for our families, our employees’ families, and our community.”