Our story
Two generations of Maui kitchens.
It started in a restaurant in 1969 and ended up on shelves across the islands. Here is how.
1969
Maui's first Mexican restaurant
Tiffany’s parents, Polli and Kent Smith, open LaFamilia — the first Mexican restaurant on Maui. Tiffany grows up in it, and later in Makawao’s celebrated Polli’s Mexican Restaurant, which they go on to create.
By the time she has a kitchen of her own, the family reputation for Mexican food on this island is already two restaurants deep.
2004
A Christmas gift gets out of hand
Tiffany makes her first batch of salsa as Christmas presents for family and friends. It is such a hit that they tell her to put it on the shelves. She listens.
“Two of my best friends suggested ‘Sassy’, and we all laughed about it. I was quite embarrassed at first. But it hit the market and everyone said it was great.”
Prepping the first batches. The early years
Small batches, every week
Everything prepared fresh — tomatoes, green onion and cilantro chopped by hand back then, batch after batch, in a small commercial kitchen with a Mexican flag on the wall. No artificial preservatives then, none now. The salsa is still made in small batches, still fresh every week.
Bottling day. In the press
The Maui News takes notice
Carla Tracy’s Side Orders column runs the story: a local girl born into the Mexican restaurant industry, with a salsa line getting raves for its taste and texture.
“Tiffany Smith is a ‘Maui girl’ who was born into the Mexican restaurant industry.”
The Maui News · Side Orders by Carla Tracy Today
70 shops across the islands
Four flavors, still made fresh weekly in Hawaiʻi, now stocked in 70 shops across Hawaiʻi — with the longest-running retail relationship 18 years deep, and a mango salsa in development.
Tiffany, with all four.