San Diablo Artisan Churros
San Diablo Artisan Churros

Churros are everywhere and nowhere. They are one of the most recognized foods in the world, tied to memories of vacations, theme parks, ballgames, and street corners. Yet for most people in the United States, and most of the world, finding a genuinely good one outside of those specific occasions is nearly impossible.

That is the contradiction Scott Porter has spent the last decade trying to solve.

Porter is the founder of San Diablo Artisan Churros. The company's premise is simple. Churros do not have a demand problem. They have an access problem. The question he kept asking was what it would take to bring an artisan-quality churro out of the theme park and into the home, the lunchbox, and the everyday routine.

The broader food market suggests the timing is right. Consumers are showing growing interest in globally inspired foods and familiar flavors appearing in new formats. The global churros market was valued at USD 3.3 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 11.88 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15.3%, according to SkyQuest market research. Much of that growth is driven by product innovation, moving the food from street carts and fairs into retail freezers. Food Business News reported that demand for churros and frozen novelties helped drive a 23.7% increase in J&J Snack Foods' second-quarter sales.

The insight behind San Diablo came long before the market data. Porter discovered fresh, filled churros while living in Mexico City as an intern. The experience was a shock. The churros he knew at home were dry, simple, and relegated to special events. The ones he found in Mexico were warm, filled, and extraordinary. "I didn't know they could be filled and made fresh," he says. "I didn't know how good they could be."

He sat on the idea for years. When he finally started building the company, he realized the barrier to entry was not popularity. It was the challenge of producing a handcrafted churro. Churros are notoriously difficult to make at scale without losing the texture and quality of a freshly-made pastry. "It's hard to do a really delicious churro en masse," Porter says. "A bad churro is far worse than no churro at all."

Solving that production challenge became the business. After 10 years and millions of churros served at events, Porter's company developed frozen churros designed to be baked or air-fried at home, bringing fresh-style quality to the freezer aisle. Target was the company's first retail partner, an unusual launch for a brand that had never been in a store before. He followed that with Itty Bitty Churros, a bite-sized, shelf-stable format built for portability. "Snack anytime, take it everywhere," he says. The goal is to empower consumers to "churrify everything," whether that is adding the bites to ice cream, yogurt, or a bowl of cereal, or "churrifying" the moment.

The strategy is not just about selling more products. It is about changing when and how people think about the food. Porter says, "It's always churro'clock." The phrase is a permission slip. It tells consumers they do not have to wait for a vacation to eat one. "Our job isn't simply to capture existing churro demand," he says. "Our job is to create more reasons for churro demand to exist."

The emotional connection is what makes that possible. For many consumers, a churro is tied to a specific memory. A trip to a theme park. A family celebration. A holiday. Porter's argument is that innovation should not erase those memories but provide new ways to experience them. Pouring Itty Bitty Churros into milk and eating them as cereal creates a new moment, not a replacement for the old one.

That is the broader lesson for food entrepreneurs. In almost every category, there is a product that consumers already love but can only access on specific occasions. The opportunity is to identify where the availability gap is, solve the production problem that prevents everyday access, and educate the consumer on the new format. Porter's experience is not a story about selling churros. It is a case study in category development.

He is now planning for a Series A fundraise in 2027, a move that will take the company beyond the retail launch phase and into a broader national and global footprint.

Churros have survived for centuries because they are beloved. The next chapter is about making them extraordinarily accessible and unexpectedly delightful. And if a beloved food can make the leap from a vacation treat to an everyday staple, the question for other founders is which iconic food is being left on the shelf.