David Carter grew up a Kansas kid experiencing some of the more extreme weather fluctuations seen in the United States.

There are severe winter storms and blizzards to go with severe thunderstorms over the Midwest plains. Then there are the tornadoes. Kansas averages over 80 tornadoes a year and the big storms of the state became immortalized in “The Wizard of Oz.”

“I grew up in southwest Kansas and I know about blizzards and tornadoes,” Carter said. “I wanted out of there.”

For Carter, that meant joining the U.S. Army at 23 years of age and wanting “to see more.” He didn’t go that far, as it turned out, in that he would be stationed for four years at Fort Hood in Central Texas. His Kansas roots came in handy when he was assigned to being a meteorologist in analyzing weather data in support of military operations and air, land and sea missions.

Being in the military gave Carter a grounding that he has carried on to post-Army life. Being in the military, he says, “breaks you down and then builds up your confidence” in instilling discipline and focus to the challenge at hand. 

“You have to have that kind of focus in the military,” Carter said. “Every little detail is important to completing that mission. If you miss something, it can lead to casualties and catastrophes.” 

These days, living in Harlingen, Carter works for a large government contractor that provides security services for federal facilities, networks and data. A military background is helpful in those endeavors and has influenced an entirely different sort of product he has created with strong cultural connections to his adopted hometown region.

‘A Breakthrough’

Carter was making his case in 2024 to the judges of the Harlingen RISE Up Harlingen Business Pitch when questioned about his bonafides to make the product he was selling. 

The judge, in describing herself as a Latina, questioned why someone from Kansas thought he could make a salsa that someone like her would buy. Carter, with a deprecating style of humor, had the ready comeback.

“Don’t I look like the kind of guy who enjoys good food?” he responded, making light of his tall and sturdy frame. 

The presentation made its mark as did Carter’s SGT. SALSA brands. They’re handmade at this point in Carter’s home. He has ambitions to go bigger in contracting the manufacturing of his salsas to expand sales beyond street markets and a base of core customers he has cultivated in recent years. The Harlingen pitch competition gave SGT. SALSA wider exposure. Carter’s salsa brands finished second in the competition and earned him a generous $20,000 prize.

“It was a breakthrough,” he said of doing so well in a pitch competition organized by the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. 

Tasting All Ingredients

Carter draws upon military imagery and symbols in designating the potency of his salsas.

The mildest salsa has the single strip of a private on the top of its lid. From there, there are three other levels of SGT. SALSA products and each has an Army sergeant’s Chevron with three bars pointing down. There’s the medium hot salsa of a regular sergeant. Then comes the hot salsa of a first sergeant and the extra hot of command sergeant at the top level of spiciness. 

“The more people have heard about it, the more the demand has grown,” Carter said of his salsas. “The feedback I’ve always gotten is, ‘this is really good, you need to sell it.’ ’’

Salsa making is a longtime hobby for Carter that started because store-bought products weren’t doing it for him.

They didn’t have enough flavor and spice and what you could taste was dominated by one or two ingredients.  Carter envisioned a salsa product where when you taste it, all of the ingredients can make their presence known to a customer’s palate.

“When you take a bite of a chip with our salsa on it, I want you to taste the full variety of flavors in it,” he said. “I want you to taste the lime, cilantro and garlic in it, not just the tomato or onion, but the full blend of everything in it.”

Carter’s next step is securing an agreement with a manufacturer who can make his products in greater quantities but still in smaller batches. He would like to go beyond street markets and begin getting into meat markets and smaller area stores with the longer-term goal of getting SGT. SALSA on grocery store shelves. 

“I want to grow but I’m not going to put my family’s livelihood at stake,” he said, speaking of his wife, whose family has Rio Grande Valley roots, and his teenage son. 

The mission is defined and so is passion for a classic Mexican product made by a Midwesterner that’s appealing to an RGV clientele. For more information, go to the SGT. SALSA page on Facebook or sgt_salsa on Instagram.