I can personally vouch for at least two Dancing Peppers Salsa flavors.
I took a jar of Memphis style, a barbecue sauce-flavored salsa, to a dinner party. It was a huge hit. The hostess couldn’t get enough.
The next day, I took a jar of the mild chili lime to a kindergarten graduation reception. A friend loved a particular taste, which she couldn’t identify. It sets the salsa apart, she says. (I later found out it’s the fresh poblano peppers.)
This is all probably great news to native Memphians David and Tracy Murrell, Dancing Peppers Salsa owners and founders.
David, 66, who was an engineer at Sharp Manufacturing Company, retired as a lab technician at ABB. Tracy, 59, was at International Paper for 11 years.
Dancing Peppers Salsa “is a hobby that we turned into a side business,” Tracy says. Their son, Sidney, 26, handles the social media and deliveries.
David got the salsa bug in the 1980s after trying Pace salsa for the first time during a trip to Texas. “I had never had salsa before,” he says.
He began to make his own salsa by looking at the ingredients on the jar. “The main ingredient was canned tomatoes. I also used tomato sauce, a little tomato paste. I heated it up and put in onions and garlic. It started with that. My main spice probably at that time was cumin. And chili powder and salt and pepper. No cilantro or anything. Just a basic type of salsa.”
David didn’t get his salsa to taste like Pace’s until he added bell peppers. But he discovered new spices, including Mexican oregano, on a business trip to Monterrey, Mexico. He began adding those to his salsa.
Tracy was a fan of David’s salsa. “I loved it,” she says. “I’d rather have chips and salsa than popcorn and Coke.”
David kept tweaking. And he acquired a name for himself. “I was kind of just ‘the salsa guy.’ That’s what I did.”
In late 2010, he dropped off a jar of his salsa at the old Easy Way produce distribution office on Mendenhall. He also left a note with the secretary that read, “If you’re interested in putting this in your stores, give me a call.”
A month later, he got a call from the owner of Easy Way. He said he wanted 50 cases. He asked David, “How far along are you with this? Have you got a label? Have you got a co-packer?”
David replied: “I have nothing but a recipe.”
But David eventually got his ducks in a row and began selling his salsa under the brand name Rojo Gold in 2011. But he later rebranded because the name was too close to another company.
The Murrells’ medium salsa, which has a pepper blend to give it a little kick, was the first flavor. “It took me forever to get the first one made. The medium hot recipe came out in about a week. I added some habanero and some chipotle powder.”
The Memphis style flavor originated after David and Tracy visited Memphis Italian Festival. They were still hungry when they got home, so David pureed some commercial barbecue sauce with some of their salsa. They loved it.
The barbecue sauce recipe he now uses is based on one from his friend’s mother. “I always loved her barbecue sauce. It’s like our Memphis style. Sweet and spicy.”
His recipe includes tomatoes, jalapeños, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, onions, garlic, and then the barbecue spices.
Mild chili lime is the latest Dancing Peppers Salsa flavor. In addition to fresh poblano peppers, the salsa includes fresh onion, garlic, and lime juice. It also includes ancho chili pepper.
Naomi’s homestyle marinara, which uses San Marzano tomatoes, is just the latest salsa idea from the Murrells. And the blend is based on one of David’s mother’s Italian recipes.
Dancing Peppers Salsa is now in about 175 stores, including selected Kroger stores.
David has other Dancing Peppers Salsa business ideas dancing around in his head. But he’s not ready to reveal all of them just yet. For now, he’d like to get Dancing Peppers Salsa into more states. But, he says, “I don’t want to get stressed out. I like low stress. I want to keep it manageable.”