Tony's Tamales
Haz clic aquí para leer esto en español
By Kathleen Furore
How does someone from a small Mississippi Delta town become not only a tamale maker, but one whose tamales become so beloved that they’re sold not just in his small brick-and-mortar restaurant but to local restaurants, in retail outlets including Kroger and Walmart, and to distributors, too?
For Robert Mosely, founder of Tony’s Tamales, it was a matter of trial and error, according to Robert’s son and current owner Reginald Mosely, who notes his dad remains involved today.
“He lived in an area known for tamales. And when he lost his job, he just started making tamales using a basic recipe that he continued to tweak over the years,” Reginald explains. “As more and more people started trying tamales, he wanted to create a flavor profile that would stand out.”
The Back Story
Tony’s Tamales was born in 1982, when Robert took the plunge and opened a small restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi. There, in the state capitol, he introduced customers to the tamales destined to become a favorite in Jackson and beyond.
The business soon outgrew its small home and moved into a larger space nearby. And in 1984, just two years after Robert first brought his tamales to Jackson, he added a wholesale component and started supplying restaurants in the Jackson metropolitan area.
Fast forward to 2007. With demand for the company’s products, both retail and wholesale, growing, Tony’s Tamales relocated once again to a larger facility in Jackson. And in 2011, one year after Reginald had taken the helm of the company his father had founded, Tony’s launched its parent company T & LT Tamales, LLC. Soon after, the business was granted USDA approval and moved its retail operation to Ridgeland and its wholesale operation to Bentonia, Mississippi.
Changing Times Means Changing Tamales
When Robert Mosely started making his tamales more than four decades ago, there wasn’t much talk (if any) of better- for-you products and gluten-free diets. But as times changed, so did this tamale maker’s approach to recipe development.
In fact, it was the mid-1990s health scare that prompted Robert to rework the recipe.
“When ‘Mad Cow Disease’ came along, we changed our reci- pe and started using turkey instead of beef,” Reginald explains. Back then, the change went under the radar; today, it is a selling point. While the company still offers beef, pork and black bean tamales, “Our turkey tamales are our #1 sellers,” he reports.
The 1990s ushered in other changes, too. “Our tamales became healthier products because we stopped using lard and started using vegetable oil,” Reginald says. “All of our tamales are now also gluten-free, and we’re in the process of getting our GMO- free certification.”
The changes have paid off in ways that go beyond the bottom line. Tony’s Tamales was bestowed a 2024 American Masters of Taste Award of Excellence by “Chefs In America,” an organization whose mission is “guiding consumers to America’s superior food and beverage products.”
And what is the secret behind these tamales, which Tony’s tagline describes as “A Taste of the Mississippi Delta”? Reginald reveals only this: “The secret is that we cook our tamales with love.”
Sidebar: ¡Buena Idea! Macayo’s Celebrate the Season with Tamale Making Classes
For the third year in a row, Tempe, Arizona-based Macayo’s Mexican Food is offering tamale-making classes at five of its 14 locations in Arizona. The classes, which launched November 16, are scheduled every Saturday through December 21.
The approximately two-hour, hands-on experience — priced at $60 per person — starts with a top shelf Margarita made with Don Julio Blanco tequila, then walks participants through the process of making beef and green corn tamales. A three-course luncheon also is included, and participants can take home the 12 to 20 tamales they’ve made during the workshop.
“It’s about bringing people together, especially during the holiday season,” Ashley Negron, Macayo’s vice president of marketing and brand management, told The Phoenix New Times. “These are all handcrafted ingredients. Everything’s made by hand.”
Sidebar: Did you know...
.....that there are more than 500 varieties of tamales — everything from the corn husk-wrapped beef, chicken and pork tamales most diners would recognize to triangular shaped corundas, to banana leaf-wrapped Oaxacan tamales, to dumpling-like Chanchamitos, to what travel website Luxurious Trails calls “the most unknown type of tamale in Mexico” (the vegetarian Brazo de Reina/“Queen’s Arm” that dates to colonial times and is accented with a red sauce made with ripe tomatoes, habanero peppers, epazote, salt and pepper).
We don’t have room to list them all, but this list from Luxurious Trails covers the top 15 varieties.
Green tamales/ Tamales Verde
Chaya tamale
Corundas
Uchepos
Zacahuil
Oaxacan Tamales
Sweet Tamales
Ayocote Tamales
Chanchamitos
Tamales Veracruzanos/ Tamal Ranchero
Chicken Mukbil/Day of the Dead’s favorite tamale
Mole Tamales
VaporcitosBrazo de Reina
Rajas con queso/ poblano peppers and cheese
Sidebar 3: TAMALE SOURCE GUIDE
BE&SCO. Manual and electric tamale machines (the equipment Tony’s Tamales uses). The manual machine makes up to 35 dozen tamales per hour; the electric machine makes up to 200 dozen tamales per hour
CT BEAVERS/TAMALEKING. Tamale machines in 3 sizes plus corn husks, spices and tamale pots
MINSA. Instant Corn Masa Mix for tamales
PERFORMANCE FOODSERVICE. Contigo® Tamales — fully cooked frozen tamales in pork, beef and chicken varieties