After slow sales last December, Virginia Fernandez was ready to see her at-home tamale business bounce back this year.
When customers began placing orders in early November, Fernandez said, it was an early sign of what was to come. Just days from Christmas, with nearly 2,400 tamales sold thanks to word-of-mouth and her loyal customer base, she is now forced to turn away orders.
“The orders filled up quick this year and I’ve even had to tell people ‘no’,” Fernandez said Wednesday, Dec. 22. “People want to gather for Christmas, which means … lots of tamales.”
Fernandez runs her tamale business out of her Ontario home, and only during the holidays. For the past seven years, it’s been a way to make extra money for gifts. But with a pending move and recent car repairs, the tamale season couldn’t have come at a better time, she said.
“I’m trying to take care of my family and this (selling tamales) helps with that and more,” said Fernandez, who is a homemaker and lives with seven other family members, including four grandchildren. “This year it just became more of a survival thing for me more than anything else.”
With COVID-19 vaccines widely available and no gathering restrictions in place like Christmas 2020, Fernandez said she also expects tamaladas, tamale-making parties, to be in full swing this year.
But anyone making tamales — from home-based vendors to restaurants to families gathered for the holidays — is seeing the cost of the time-intensive process increase. Ingredients for tamales, like many other things, are higher-priced in 2021 as a result of inflation and supply chain issues.
The cost of masa, corn husks and protein, Fernandez said, all jumped more than 15% in the past year leading her to charge $2 more for a dozen tamales, now totaling $20.
“Sales are good but with everything else going up in price, it doesn’t make things any easier,” she said.
In La Verne, tamale orders at El Merendero have been coming all month long, manager Victoria Rojas said. More than 3,000 tamales are expected to be sold by the end of Christmas week, a record for the Mexican restaurant, she said.
“You have some people buying one dozen, then five dozen and then you have one person from the other day who ordered like 10 dozen tamales,” Rojas said. “That’s a lot of work and a lot of tamales.”
Like Fernandez, Rojas said the cost of tamale ingredients has increased significantly. A bulk purchase of corn husks was $85, now it’s about $150, making profits harder to come by, Rojas said.
While she would have liked to raise prices on tamales to recover some of the higher costs, she said, there wasn’t enough time to change the menus to adjust pricing.
“We kept our tamale prices the same this year but next year it’s something we’re definitely considering” changing, Rojas said.
An increase in pricing couldn’t be avoided at Tamale Street, according to general manager Luís Montenegro. The West Covina restaurant said he had to adjust tamale prices due to the increased cost of pork and beef.
While sales have stayed relatively the same as this time last year, Montenegro said he’s noticed many more customers buying in bulk for Christmas gatherings. That’s a dramatic shift from last year, he said, when families were more reluctant to gather as coronavirus cases surged in the region.
“One thing I know about Christmas is that when people have parties, tamales are naturally part of that,” Montenegro said Tuesday, Dec. 21. “You can’t have one without the other.”
In Rancho Cucamonga, customers came back in droves to Mary’s Tamales & Mexican Food after a slow holiday season in 2020, said employee Mariela Sanchez. With the higher volume of customers, the restaurant stopped accepting tamale orders in early December due to staffing shortages.
“The restaurant has been around for seven years but the tamales themselves have been sold since 1985, so we have a lot of old and loyal customers,” Sanchez said. “They come for our red tamales, which are very popular here.”
Notably, she said, there have been a slew of new customers this year. After tasting the restaurant’s tamales, many customers tell her how they are reminded of their families and those who have passed.
“One of the things that I usually hear is ‘These tamales taste just like my grandparent’s,’” Sanchez said. “It really sinks in how special this food is for so many people, it brings memories and it brings hope.”
It’s that sentiment that has customers willing to pay higher prices for tamales, which are just as “essential as the gifts” at Christmas, said Richard Ortiz, owner of To Die For Tamales.
For the past seven years, the small, family-run pop up business has operated year-round out of a San Dimas home. Its business footprint is across Southern California, making stops and deliveries in the Inland Empire, Orange County, Los Angeles and the high desert.
After a slow 2020 holiday season, Ortiz said, tamale sales rebounded this year. The business averaged 300 tamale orders a week last year — that’s now doubled to 600 a week, even with a $10-per-dozen increase in pricing.
“At the end of the day, if the food is good and the love is in there, people will always buy,” Ortiz said. “That will never change.”