Expand / Collapse search
☰

Bay Area hairdresser turns salsa into side-hustle

By and Corey Beckman
Updated  February 12, 2025 4:33pm EST
Made in Tampa Bay
FOX 13 News

Bay Area hairdresser turns salsa into side-hustle

A full-time hairdresser is chopping up more than just hair after opening a side-hustle salsa shop in Riverview.

The Brief

    • A full-time hairdresser is chopping up more than just hair after opening a side-hustle salsa shop in Riverview.
    • Missey says what sets her salsa apart from others is freshness. Nothing is canned or stewed and there are no preservatives.
    • Her salsa comes in three flavors; mild, spicy and inferno. Inferno has fresh habanero peppers, but she says it isn’t too hot.

RIVERVIEW, Fla. - A full-time hairdresser is chopping up more than just hair after opening a side-hustle salsa shop in Riverview.

Missey Rodriguez' journey to launch Aunt Missey’s Sassy Salsa began in 1994 while living in Senegal and serving as a U.S. diplomat.

A full-time hairdresser is chopping up more than just hair after opening a side-hustle salsa shop in Riverview.

She says she couldn’t find anything like American salsa, so she started making her own.

"We couldn't get salsa there that tasted like American salsa, so I would go to the vegetable stand with my housekeeper," Rodriguez said. "I started buying vegetables and cutting them up, adding different ingredients. I started getting the flavors that finally tasted a little more like home."

READ: Wing-focused best friends bring the vibes to Tampa with a popping new event space

Decades later, a friend put some of her salsa on Facebook to sell, and it blew up immediately.

At her first marketplace last year, Rodriguez said she was shocked to sell 97 jars of salsa.

Fresh local vegetables blend together to create Aunt Missey’s Sassy Salsa.

Missey says what sets her salsa apart from others is freshness. Nothing is canned or stewed and there are no preservatives.

"I buy all the vegetables fresh at a farm in Plant City," she says.

READ: ‘Book Art and Other Oddities’ transforms pages from damaged books into works of art

Fresh local vegetables blend together to create Aunt Missey’s Sassy Salsa.

Her salsa comes in three flavors; mild, spicy and inferno. Inferno has fresh habanero peppers, but she says it isn’t too hot.

With only 80 calories in a jar, Aunt Missey’s Sassy Salsa is also keto-friendly and gluten-free.

You can find Aunt Missey’s Sassy Salsa on her website, and a schedule of the markets she will be at.

CLICK HERE:>>> Follow FOX 13 on YouTube

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Corey Beckman.

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:

Made in Tampa BayTampa