In the middle of the Menlo Plaza Shopping Center sits a bright orange building, covered in vibrant paintings of cacti and sweet treats.
This is Tucson’s Candyland Castle.
Thankfully, the journey there doesn’t include enduring the Candy Cane Forest or Gumdrop Mountain, but as you step into the building, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported into the Candyland board game.
Cotton candy-covered Gushers, apples smothered in a deep-red coating that combines sweet, sour and spicy flavors all in one, strips of rainbow Airhead belts that make your mouth tingle every time you shovel a fistful into your mouth and crispy pickles doused in the same delicious red coating and topped with saladitos — all of these treats cover every inch of our own southwestern Candyland Castle, or what we know as .
The red coating found on these treats is Alana Solis' specialty. Better known as chamoy, the red coating is a rich, red paste that’s made with various fruits and chiles to create a flavor unlike any other.
Dirty T Tamarindo can be found at events around town, including the Tanque Verde Market pictured here.
Her coveted chamoy has been her family’s pride and joy for decades, coming straight from her tía in Hermosillo, Sonora. It’s this addicting, mouth-watering recipe that has built Solis’ candy empire in Tucson.
In the few years since Dirty T Tamarindo opened, it’s reached crazy heights, with Solis outdoing herself with every new announcement.
Dirty T bags can be found at over 80 stores, they’ve opened their first brick-and-mortar at , they are set up at every major local market and they have two vending machines, one at their storefront and the other at the , located at .
Lucky for us, Solis creates new and inventive treats as fast as you can finish a bag of spicy peach rings.
Solis has had an appreciation for chamoy ever since she was little. During summers, she’d visit her family in Mexico and learn how to make the paste from her tía. Tamarinds, hibiscus, mangoes and apples would be transformed into a silky, thick red syrup that could be drizzled on whatever you could dream of. The addicting sweet and spicy flavors could elevate any treat, transforming bland food into an explosion of deliciousness.
“That's how my nana and my family over there got by. They sold my tía’s chamoy, and then my nana sold Coca-Cola out of her house,” Solis said.
Over the years, Solis has held numerous positions, from line cooking to baking pastries to bartending. After spending a little over a decade in the food industry, she started to notice a growing trend.
During the pandemic, chamoy-covered candies went viral on social media as different businesses started to pop up in cities around the country. She couldn’t understand. Why now? Chamoy has been around for centuries and hadn’t been this viral before.
That’s when she realized: not everyone had the opportunity to grow up surrounded by the tasty paste. With her authentic family recipe, the wheels in her head started to turn: what if she threw her hat into the ring?
Dirty T Tamarindo made its official debut in Tucson in 2022.
“I was just really tired of working in the kitchens. I was desperate for another way to support my family, and I was like, I feel like this could be the way out,” Solis said.
Dirty T Tamarindo coats candy, dried fruit, freeze-dried treats and more with her coveted chamoy recipe.
This isn’t a bright red, watery sauce that you might douse your Hot Cheetos in. This is the real deal.
With dried chiles, a fruit of choice, sugar, salt and water, Solis is able to create the chamoy she grew up with. She even sells bottles of chamoy that come straight from her tía’s kitchen in Hermosillo.
Once the chamoy is made, Solis tosses the paste in the candy she chooses, mixing the sweet treats with the spicy mixture. Then she lets the candy sit for a while, letting it soak in all the sweet, spicy and slightly sour goodness. It’s then ready to be packaged up and sent off to hungry customers.
It seems like the menu grows by the second. Peach rings, crystallized chunks of pineapple, Gushers, Airhead belts, Nerd Gummy Clusters, freeze-dried Starbursts, apples, gummy worms and gummy bears are just a few of the treats that get the pleasure of being covered in Solis’ chamoy.
She even makes chamoy dip that you can use to rim the glass of an icy margarita. It will have you licking the glass clean before even taking a sip of your drink.
Alana Solis hopes to launch four more rim dip flavors.
It didn’t take long for Dirty T Tamarindo to gain popularity. Once you get a taste, you just can’t get enough. I picked up a bag of spicy Gushers to come home with me recently, ripping the bag open as soon as I sat in my car.
The sweetness of the Gushers pairs perfectly with the spicy and sour flavors of the chamoy, leaving your mouth slightly tingly from the heat. I had a few more before I put them away in my cabinet, sternly telling myself I could have a few more later for dessert.
I found myself going to the cabinet and sneaking a few every couple of hours. About a day and a half later, my bag was empty and I was dreaming of the day it was still full of the chamoy-covered gummies.
If her candy isn't enough, Solis is also busy making hilarious in Hot Cheetos costumes and hosting her own market that’s held every third Saturday.
“I really want small businesses from all of Tucson to be offered here in the barrio, for people to come and check out,” Solis said.
Whether it’s driving around the state to make candy deliveries to being sprayed with soap for a Reel, Solis puts 110% of everything she has into making sure her candy empire continues to dominate.
All it takes is one taste and before you know it, you’re taking a daily trip to Dirty T Tamarindo, aka our own Candyland Castle in Menlo Park.