# Vermont Tortilla Company Is Back in Production in Essex
Some good news is worth the wait — and Vermont Tortilla Company has waited long enough. After a year of searching, permitting, and problem-solving, the makers of Vermont's stone-ground organic corn tortillas are back in production in a new home at 30 Boston Court in Essex, with fresh tortillas rolling off the line again and frozen boxes shipping to doorsteps nationwide.
It has been a whirlwind first year for co-owners Leyland Papa and Lindsey West, who bought the 10-year-old business from founders April and Azur Moulaert in June 2025. They knew from the start that they would have to leave the company's longtime Shelburne space when the lease ended that August. What they could not have known was how hard it would be to find a new one. A promising plan in Hinesburg fell apart over the town's water allocation limits — making tortillas the traditional way takes water, about 500 gallons a day in their case — and their eventual Essex home needed its own long permitting process to raise its allocation from 200 to 450 gallons a day. They had hoped to be running by July 1. Instead, their small team of three returned to production at the end of August, tired but finally home.
## Tastes Like Corn
The product that carried them through all of it is a simple one, and that is the point. Vermont Tortilla makes its tortillas from just three ingredients — organic corn, water, and slaked lime — plus a little turmeric in the golden Turmeric variety. The corn, sourced from Adirondack Organic Grains just across the lake in Essex, New York, is cooked with lime and steeped overnight in the ancient process called nixtamalization, then stone-ground into fresh masa at dawn and cooked hot and fast. No preservatives, no conditioners, nothing you cannot pronounce. The result is a tortilla that tastes like what it is: real corn.
The lineup is short and focused. The classic 6-inch Original comes in a 10-pack, the smaller 4-inch Street Taco in a 14-pack, and the Turmeric in a golden 10-pack, each around five dollars. A Three-Variety Box bundles all three — 54 tortillas in all — with two-day ground shipping included, so a taste of Essex can land on a taco night table just about anywhere in the country. The tortillas keep 21 days in the fridge or a full year in the freezer, and they carry USDA Organic and Vermont Organic Farmers certification, plus kosher certification, and they are naturally gluten free.
## Rebuilding, One Taco at a Time
The move cost the company time and momentum — Papa estimates the business is currently running at about half the annual sales it had when they bought it — and the owners are rebuilding the direct way: selling straight to customers online, including the new frozen boxes, alongside their longtime distribution to area stores and restaurants. Chefs have long prized these tortillas because they hold their fold under heavy service without cracking, and home cooks who warm one up and catch that fresh-corn aroma tend to become repeat customers.
The Essex facility is a production space rather than a shop, so there are no walk-in sales — but local fans can order ahead and pick up preordered tortillas by appointment, which is about as fresh as a tortilla gets this side of the griddle.
## Why It Matters
Vermont talks a lot about wanting small food makers to stay and grow here. Vermont Tortilla's year is what that actually looks like on the ground: two local owners who bought a beloved little brand, refused to move production out of state when the easy options ran dry, and spent months working through water permits until the stones could turn again. Every pack they sell also carries organic corn from a regional farm, jobs for a small Vermont crew, and a food tradition thousands of years old, kept alive one batch of masa at a time.
You can order tortillas, read the full story of their process, and plan a pickup at <a href="https://www.vttortillaco.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vttortillaco.com</a>. Welcome back, Vermont Tortilla Company — Vermont's taco nights are better with you in them. (News source: <a href="https://www.sevendaysvt.com/food-drink/foodnews/vermont-tortilla-is-back-open-in-a-new-essex-production-facility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seven Days</a>.)