Commercial chili-lime-salt powder — a blend of chiles (chile de árbol, guajillo, pasilla) + dehydrated lime + salt. Launched 1985, now the global default fruit dust.
Founded by Horacio Fernández in Guadalajara, Jalisco in 1985 — the company name Empresas Tajín references Tajín, the Totonac archaeological site in Veracruz. Built on an older home tradition called pico de loro or chilito, where chile salt was sprinkled on jícama, mango, cucumber. Fernández industrialized the recipe and added dehydrated lime.
Tajín now sells in 35+ countries and the U.S. is the largest export market — Costco moved an estimated 24 million bottles in 2022. The Clásico is the red label; the Habanero (green) and Fruity Chamoy (purple-pink) are line extensions, not the original.
Brick-red coarse powder, salty-sour-spicy in that order. Heat is mild (~700 SHU), the lime tang is forward, salt closes. Sticks to wet fruit surfaces, crystallizes with humidity. The original Clásico has 1.4g sodium per 100g — read the label if you reach for it daily.
The dehydrated-lime acid is what makes it work where straight chile salt fails — citric acid plus sodium plus capsaicin hits all three salivary triggers at once. The grain size is calibrated to stick to wet fruit; finer powder washes off, coarser falls.
Variations
Tajín Clásico (red, the original 1985 recipe). Tajín Habanero (green, hotter — added 2017). Trechas, Lucas Limón, and Miguelito are competing Mexican brands; Trechas is preferred by some Mexico City vendors for fruit carts because it's less salty.
On the Palate
Where Tajín sits in the Mexican flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
4 steps · 10 min
- 15 min
Grind 100 g dried chiles de árbol + 50 g dried lime peel + 50 g salt + 1 tsp citric acid in spice grinder.
- 22 min
Pulse to coarse texture (not fine powder).
Watch outStop at a coarse, sandy grind — pinch a bit and it should feel gritty; grind it to fine powder and it slides right off wet fruit instead of clinging.
- 32 min
Sift through medium mesh; discard fines or use for cooking.
Watch outSift out the flour-fine dust and keep the sandy grains — that grit is exactly what sticks to a slice of mango or a wet glass rim.
- 41 min
Store airtight; sprinkle on fruit, jicama, mangos, tequila rims.
