Latina 'mompreneur' turns her cotton candy side hustle into a sweet success

Lucia Rios had a big dream: to transform plain old cotton candy into a Latinx-inspired taste sensation. That’s how Twisted for Sugar was born.

Rios’s childhood was filled with memories of traditional Mexican sabores (flavors) like horchata, churro, mango con chile, and sandia con tajin (watermelon). She pulled from these culinary roots when she created her business. “The concept of Latino flavors was somewhat on accident. Once I discovered I needed to make my own sugars and create my own flavors, that’s sort of where all that inspiration kicked in from my upbringing, from childhood, and from flavors that I enjoyed, and then just re-creating those into a cotton candy form,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.

Starting out as a way for Rios to heal after her postpartum depression, Twisted for Sugar quickly turned into a booming business. It’s no surprise, considering the huge financial impact of Latinos. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Latinos wield an estimated $1.3 trillion in buying power.”

The Twisted brand is right on track to keep growing. For Rios, the sky’s the limit: “I know it sounds a little crazy to want to have, like, this multimillion-dollar cotton candy business, but I really believe there’s a huge audience for it. … The Latino community is so big and so under-serviced, and I think just little businesses like myself, we really have a huge market.”

Rios has taken her side hustle and made it a sweet full-time gig. She now has 32 flavors, including the popular Flamin’ Hot Cheeto. “The Flamin’ Hot Cheeto one was a fan request for a really long time, and I was finally like, ‘OK, let’s make it happen,’ and it’s taken off,” she said.

The “mompreneur” handcrafts her own sugars and twists with unique Latinx-inspired toppings, like tajin and chamoy (yum!). She and her decked-out cotton candy cart cater events. Rios also ships the fluffy treats to you, through her online shop. She’s working on a monthly subscription service and a new flan flavor for the holidays — talk about sweet!

“It’s totally possible for Twisted to be in stadiums all across the country and in movie theaters all across the country, so that is a huge goal of mine.”

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