Uber Eats campaign, ‘La que pica’ celebrates Mexico City’s spiciest salsas

In caller years — amidst the dispersed of wide tourism and gentrification successful Mexico City — determination person been rising instances of taquerias “de-spicing” their salsas successful bid to appease foreigners with tamer palates.

In 2024, The New York Times reported that astatine slightest a fewer taqueros person admitted to lessening the kick successful immoderate of their salsas — wholly removing serrano chiles from a look oregon adding little habaneros, for illustration — portion others person introduced caller salsas to the array arsenic a failsafe enactment for customers who “would sometimes nonstop tacos backmost due to the fact that the salsas had burned their mouths.” 

What spicy salsas are meant to be

If you emotion spicy salsa, effort the “La que pica” vessel presently being offered successful galore Mexico City taquerías. (Danny Hernandez/Wieden+Kennedy Mexico)

The New York Times nonfiction besides revealed that much taquerías person started to intelligibly statement the spice levels of each salsa, thing that is mostly unheard of successful Mexico, wherever you simply find retired the spiciness of thing by tasting it. You cognize it’s spicy erstwhile your chemoreceptor starts to tally oregon your eyes statesman to h2o up. If you made the incorrect choice, you unceremoniously rotate to the adjacent multicolored salsa connected the array and instrumentality different rotation of spice roulette.

Of course, this contented isn’t only astir salsas. It’s astir maintaining a definite pridefulness and individuality of determination Mexican cuisine, globally renowned for its analyzable vigor and wide-ranging varieties — a veritable creation signifier composed from an array of chiles that are autochthonal to the immense North American territory, prepared successful countless ways. 

If it’s spice-less nutrient foreigners are looking for successful Latin America, they should possibly cheque retired a state similar Costa Rica, Argentina or, ironically, Chile, wherever the ingredients are comparatively little explosive and obscurity adjacent arsenic spicy arsenic what you’ll brushwood astatine a taquería worthy its brackish (or, successful this case, its salsa) successful Mexico.

‘La que pica’

Removing the spice from Mexico’s salsas is, successful essence, equivalent to deadening its culinary magic. And for galore Mexico City locals, the warfare connected salsa has understandably go a root of ongoing vexation — peculiarly successful a shifting city that is already dealing with assertive changes astir rents, the outgo of surviving and transportation.

So successful effect to it all, Uber Eats, of each saviors — a nutrient transportation app which recently teamed up with FIFA arsenic an authoritative sponsor of the World Cup, and is besides a sponsor for the Mexican nationalist shot squad and Liga MX — has present announced the motorboat of their latest run successful Mexico: La que pica. Or, astir translated, “the spicy one.”

The effort involves bringing unneurotic 60 taquerías passim Mexico City, each agreed nether the aforesaid Uber Eats branding, to beforehand the spiciest salsa disposable astatine their peculiar eatery. Whatever in-house salsa that those taqueros person deemed their spiciest gets intelligibly demarcated successful a snazzy vessel that, rightfully, reads: La que pica.

Anti-spicers beware

60 taquerías successful Mexico City are taking portion successful the campaign. (Danny Hernandez/Wieden+Kennedy Mexico)

With messaging similar “unidos por el picante” (“united by the spice”) and a street-level billboard connected a partition successful Mexico City that invited the nationalist to motion their names if they hold that “salsas nunca dejen de picar” (“salsas should ne'er suffer their spice”) — accompanied with a cartoony mural of 2 taqueros carving a trompo (the classical tacos al pastor vertical spit ) that is aflame — Uber Eats seems to beryllium starring the complaint against immoderate anti-spicers.

“In Mexico, spice is not an extra; it is identity. With La que pica, we did thing bigger than launching salsas. We brought unneurotic much than 60 taquerías to support vigor the mode it deserves and springiness it backmost the spot it has ever had,” said Emiliano Cortez and Alejandro Rattenbach, Creative Directors astatine Wieden+Kennedy Mexico, the bureau that Uber Eats partnered with for the Mexican-centered campaign.

A spicy manifesto

In a uncommon enactment of citywide solidarity, the taqueros agreed to each usage the aforesaid vessel provided by Uber Eats that, connected the backmost side, extensively denotes its intent and unapologetically blistery manifesto.

Originally printed successful Spanish, it reads arsenic translated: “Here ‘the spicy one’ is really spicy. Not a small spicy oregon hardly spicy, but spicy arsenic it’s meant to be: to springiness it flavor. When you inquire for ‘the spicy one’ astatine this taquería, you are besides asking to sweat, to curse, to teardrop up. This is simply a salsa calved from taqueros who are bushed of herb sauces disguised arsenic salsas. From those who decided, ‘This needs to beryllium brainsick spicy.’ Now bask your salsa nevertheless you like, sweating oregon cursing, arsenic this salsa volition not disappoint you.”

Milenio reports that the 60 spouse taquerías see a premix of vicinity haunts — Las Cebollas and Bigos Tacos, for lawsuit — arsenic good arsenic famed attractions that celebrities similar Katy Perry person been spotted at — Atarantados, El Califa, Copacabana. They’re not confined to the brick-and-mortar locations, either: You tin person the peculiar salsas delivered arsenic portion of your Uber Eats order.

Marketing inaugural acceptable to coincide with the FIFA World Cup successful Mexico

The selling inaugural was primitively launched connected Jan. 16 — International Spicy Food Day, which honors spicy foods worldwide and besides Wilbur Scoville, a U.S. pharmacist and chemist who invented the Scoville Heat Test successful 1912 to measurement the unit of each pepper’s bite.

Every taquería’s spiciest offering is being relabeled arsenic “La que pica.” (Danny Hernandez/Wieden+Kennedy Mexico)

Perhaps much taquerías volition articulation the conflict arsenic clip goes on. With the World Cup slated for this summer, tourists volition apt flood Mexico’s streets in grounds numbers — with Jurgen Mainka, manager of the FIFA Office successful Mexico, reporting nary less than 500 cardinal summons requests to date. 

To beryllium sure, those visitors should each beryllium greeted successful the astir Mexican mode possible: with unrelenting vigor connected the tongue.

Alan Chazaro is the writer of “These Spaceships Weren’t Built For Us” (Tia Chucha Press, 2026), “Notes from the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge” (Ghost City Press, 2021), “Piñata Theory” (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), and “This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album” (Black Lawrence Press, 2019). He is simply a postgraduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People programme astatine UC Berkeley and was selected arsenic a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellow astatine the University of San Francisco. His enactment tin beryllium recovered successful NPR, The Guardian, SLAM, GQ, L.A. Times, and more. He is presently based successful Veracruz.