How we make our tortillas
Our tortilla-making processes begins by selecting the best quality corn. The corn we use is organic, non-GMO, planted and harvested by environmentally-conscious farmers in Illinois and brought to New York City on a weekly basis. The process involves five key steps:
Cooking
Cooking the corn in water and lime is the most critical step of the tortilla-making process because of its impact on the quality of the finished product. This process is called “nixtamalization” and has been practiced in Meso America for thousands of years. After cooking it, the corn sits from 8-12 hours to allow full absorption of the lime and water into the corn.
Cleaning
We placed the nixtamalized corn in a special washer which enables the cleaning process. The corn is washed at different rates, depending on the desired consistency.
Grinding
The cleaned corn is placed into a stone grinder and carefully monitored by trained staff to ensure that the ground corn is finely ground, moist and possess a perfect texture. The ground corn is called masa.
Kneading
Corn masa requires kneading so that it develops the perfect texture needed to make good-quality tortillas. We place our masa in a particular mixer, adding water as necessary, and carefully monitoring the process.
Production
We feed the masa into a tortilla-making machine. The machine cuts the masa and funnels it through a conveyor belt that flattens into a tortilla. The tortilla winds through an enclosed oven that cooks it. Our staff packages the tortillas before delivering to our customers.
