Often the best business ideas arise from seeing a need. For Natalia Cardona, owner of Azúcar Jams, opportunity was hiding in an unlikely place: the jam aisle. Other sections of American supermarkets feature ingredients that generations of immigrants brought to the United States. But Cardona, the Guatemalan daughter of a woman who ran a juicery and made jams from surplus fruit, saw nothing on the jam shelves that offered the tropical tastes she grew up enjoying.
Cardona, one of 12 children in a blended family, grew up in a Guatemala City shanty town near a vast seasonal food market. Her family cooked adventurously, and Cardona spent much of her childhood savoring the market’s delicious array of foods. “I love cooking and eating and I will try pretty much anything,” she says.
When she was 10 years old, with help from a Rhode Island-based Quaker group, she and her father immigrated to Canada. Cardona graduated from college in New Brunswick with a degree in international relations and landed an internship with the United Nations in Latin America. In 2000, the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia hired her as an administrative assistant. Several promotions later, Cardona’s expanded responsibilities took her around the world, tasting as she went, and doing work she loved.
When her nonprofit job was eliminated in 2025, friends and family urged her to start retailing the small-batch Caribbean- and Latin American-influenced jams she had been giving away. Inspired by her dad’s example as an entrepreneur and by the stories of many founders from the podcast “How I Built This,” Cardona acquired the necessary licenses and launched Azúcar Jams in October 2025.
I want to bridge the gap between what people know, like a strawberry, and what they haven’t been exposed to, like guava with ginger.”
— Natalia Cardona, Azúcar Jams
“Food, for me, is like art to an artist,” Cardona explains. To develop her jams, she starts with her mother’s recipes and the tropical foods she ate as a child. Layered onto that foundation are flavors from her global travels as an immigrant and as a nonprofit executive — inspiring her unique flavor combinations such as berry guava ginger, pineapple sweet potato and lulo blueberry. For Cardona’s palate, traditional blueberry preserves are “too one-note.” She adds lulo, a tart South American fruit similar to yuzu, to deepen the fruit flavor. Rosewater, an ingredient she first encountered in Turkey, finds its way into her mango-passion fruit blend. “I want to bridge the gap between what people know, like a strawberry, and what they haven’t been exposed to, like guava with ginger,” she says.
Selling her jams at farmers markets enables Cardona to interact with her customers. Often she finds that the people who have traveled extensively tend to have more adventurous palates. They are excited by the combinations she offers, products Cardona describes as traditional jams “upscaled with international flavors.”
The business side of Azúcar Jams also reflects Cardona’s immigrant experience and decades of work on behalf of underserved people. Her company’s mission is “to bring the taste of sunshine, heritage and joy to your table — one jar at a time.” But Cardona’s personal mission goes further with a pledge to “center diversity, inclusion and equity not just in the flavors we bring to our products. But also in our hiring and the people we collaborate with, ensuring our work reflects the vibrant communities that inspire us.”
Piña Camote Ember Cocktail
A tropical-meets-autumn Old Fashioned. Pineapple brightness, sweet potato warmth and spice depth — a rich, cozy and golden sipping delight.
Makes one cocktail.
2 ounces aged rum (or bourbon)
1 heaping teaspoon Azúcar Pineapple Sweet Potato Jam
2 dashes Angostura or orange bitters
Splash of warm water
Ice
Orange peel or cinnamon stick, for garnish
- In a mixing glass, stir jam, bitters and a splash of warm water until the jam thins and blends.
- Add the rum and ice; stir for 20 to 30 seconds until silky and chilled.
- Strain into a rocks glass over a single large ice cube.
- Garnish with a curl of orange peel or a cinnamon stick.
