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If you've ever done your groceries, chances are you've spotted the famous Lao Gan Ma jar, complete with a serious-looking woman staring right back at you
Few condiments have achieved cult status quite like Lao Gan Ma. This chilli crisp has a loyal following, with fans putting it on almost everything, from noodles and rice to eggs, pizza, and even ice cream.
But who exactly is the woman on the bottle?
The woman behind the iconic label is Tao Huabi, a self-made entrepreneur from Guizhou, China, who turned her homemade chilli sauce into a billion-dollar empire
Today, Lao Gan Ma is one of China's most recognisable food brands and has fans all over the world.
But Tao's story actually began from extremely humble beginnings.
Born in 1947 in a poor mountain village in Guizhou, she grew up in poverty and never had the chance to attend school, which meant she never learned how to read or write.
According to What's on Weibo, she also lost her husband at a young age and was left to raise two sons on her own while taking on multiple jobs to survive.
In 1989, Tao opened a small noodle shop in Guiyang, where she served noodles with her homemade chilli sauce made with fermented soybeans and chilli oil
Customers quickly became obsessed with the condiment.
Some would apparently come to her shop just for the sauce, and on days when it sold out, customers didn't even want the noodles anymore.
That's when Tao realised her chilli sauce might actually be the real star.
In the early 1990s, a new highway brought more truck drivers through Guiyang, and Tao cleverly started giving them free jars of her sauce to take on the road
In a way, she was doing word-of-mouth marketing long before social media existed.
The drivers helped spread the sauce to different cities, and demand grew so quickly that Tao eventually stopped selling noodles altogether to focus on chilli sauce production.
At 49 years old, she rented a space, hired workers, and officially launched Lao Gan Ma in 1997.
The name translates to 'Old Godmother', a nickname people gave Tao because she was known for helping struggling students and customers in her neighbourhood.
Fast forward to today, Lao Gan Ma produces over a million bottles daily that are sold worldwide
The crunchy, spicy condiment has become so iconic that it inspired merch, memes, phone cases, and countless Internet debates about which flavour is best.
But where is Tao now?
According to Chinese reports, she stepped back from the company and quietly retired in 2014, though her portrait still remains on every bottle.
Over the years, she became known as one of China's most successful self-made entrepreneurs, with Forbes once estimating her fortune at over USD1 billion (RM3.9 billion), according to The Guardian.
She and her youngest son, Li Hui, are reportedly no longer shareholders. However, her oldest son, Li Guishan, is still a company shareholder.
Not bad for someone who started with a tiny noodle shop and a homemade chilli recipe.
