About Dyana's Aji

We are a family from Colombia who immigrated to Canada back in October of 1999. As it is our culture, I (mom) continued to make the traditional condiment called Aji for our family to put on all of our food. Aji is the name of the typical mixture of tomatoes, onions and cilantro. I did this to keep a little slice of home in our fridge. When the kids began playing sports (hockey/soccer), Carlos (dad) and I were invited to a potluck dinner, and being South American, were asked to bring the guacamole. I had never made guacamole but I knew I could figure something out. In the last minute, I simply mashed some avocados and added some Aji. Well the guacamole was a HUGE hit! People were even using their fingers to clean out the bowl. At all dinners moving forward, I volunteered to bring the guacamole and was continually told to make it and sell it. I became “the guacamole lady”. I later got the contact of a lady who dealt with specialty foods so I reached out to see what she thought. Right after a meeting and letting her try my Aji, I received a call from a distributor telling me that if I made it, he would sell it. I did my homework and got everything set up when I was contacted by a local store owner who wanted to carry my Aji! We then had an assembly line at the production facility with Allison (daughter) filling the jars, Carlos putting on lids and Nicholas (son), Augusto (grandpa) and I putting on shrink wraps. That is how we got started!Read their story