In the refrigerated shelves at Starbucks, a handful of companies have been hand chosen by the coffee and snack behemoth to sell their creations. Kind brand granola and nut bars. Fruit bars from That’s It. Organic Valley’s string cheese.

Now a San Diego product joins those ranks: Bitchin’ Sauce’s Chipotle Almond Dip.

Ketchup, watch out. This saucy sauce, created in Carlsbad, wants to be The Great American Condiment.

Starbucks ordered the dip after Starr Edwards, the CEO and co-founder of Bitchin’ Sauce, and her team pitched executives in meetings and trade shows. The company announced its placement of products in Starbucks and the introduction of the Chipotle single-serve portions last week.

Edwards spoke with The San Diego Union-Tribune about how she landed this major client, how the company ramped up production and what is next.

Bitchin’ Sauce: by the numbers

The company was co-founded in Carlsbad in 2010 by Edwards, who had developed the idea for the vegan, gluten-free, almond-based sauce as a teenager. Her co-founder is her husband, L.A. Edwards. Today they have 64 full-time employees and have hit $55 million in annual sales.

“That’s crazy. That’s so much sauce!” Edwards said in a phone interview.

Their PR representative said they have more than 16 flavors. Its website names 29, including creamy garlic, dill pickle, caramelized onion, Bombay (with mild Indian spicing) and cilantro chili.

This is how Starbucks describes the chipotle dip on its website: “A creamy texture with a smoky heat that’s just right, addictive in taste and a simple blend of almonds, herbs and spices. (Here the retro term “Bitchin’ ” means “wonderful, first rate, excellent and extremely bitchin’ good.”)”

More than 17,000 stores around the world carry their sauces. Locally, they can be found at Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Grocery Outlet, Albertsons, Ralphs, grocery stores and neighborhood markets.

At a San Diego Ralph’s on Thursday, tubs of sauce (7 or 8 ounces) were priced at $6.46, but discounted to $3.99 in a weekly promo. On the Starbucks app, the single-serve container is priced at $1.50. Vons sells the original sauce for $5.99.

Clinching the dream

Edwards called Starbucks “a dream company. I mean, the exposure. I think we got into 10,000 Starbucks. When you just think about the foot traffic — 4 million people a day — which was insane! So many people. We were so thankful and grateful for that opportunity.”

They almost flubbed the Starbucks pitch, Edwards added. “I actually think I blundered my way through it. I was so nervous cooking for them.” There was also a major tech glitch: “I made a great PowerPoint. But it wouldn’t open on their AV system, so I remember sweating my way through that.”

How, despite all this, did she succeed in selling to Starbucks? The sauce itself did the talking, but from a business standpoint, she used a classic sales strategy.

“The secret sauce is really just aligning goals,” she said.

She noted that Starbucks recently announced it expects in-store visitors to make a purchase and changed its policy to dissuade loitering.

“They got a new CEO,” Starr added. “They are trying to do some new things. Business is not stagnant, and companies, even big companies — even though they kind of seem stagnant, they’re really not. Everyone’s trying to be innovative. And when the stars align to actually do something together, that’s how we try to approach big businesses. What are you trying to do? What is your initiative? And then, how can we help you with that?”

In this case, Starbucks was looking for more customizable food options, and sauce turned out to be the answer.

“We launched our Chipotle flavor in a 1.7-ounce single serving size in 10,000 stores, and it’s already sold out,” Starr said.

The order was “a lot more than we had ever made before, so we did have to do some ramping up.”

She said the key there was tapping the company’s seasoned operations team.

The sauces are made in L.A. County, and the company recently shifted to being fully remote, but most of its employees are in the San Diego area. To keep the “family feel,” they hold quarterly meetings, she said.

“I think probably one of the most exciting things for me is really our team of people — growing and becoming so much smarter and savvier and,” here she chuckled, “saucier than I ever hoped I could be.”

Next dream: world domination

“It’s so crazy that it’s even grown this big. I don’t know. It’s a pinch-me thing every time I think about it, that people really like what we’re doing,” she said.

Bitchin’ Sauce is aiming even higher.

The company is building its international presence, with accounts in Australia, South Korea, China, Mexico and Canada, Starr said. Target markets include the U.K. and Sweden.

Another hope focuses closer to home.

“We want to be The Great American Condiment,” she said. “You know, mayonnaise and ketchup, these all have their roots in — they’re really foreign recipes. But we have almonds here in California! We could be the American condiment, and it would be called Bitchin’ Sauce. And that’s just funny.”