The Emergence of Paletas

Paleta options can vary from a milk base to a water base; from fruit and vegetable mix-ins to cookie bits. Photo credit: Ari Nordhagen

Story by Jonathan LaFerrara

Photography by Richard Fusillo and Ari Nordhagen

What’s better than taking it easy in a poolside lounge chair basking in the warmth of the waning sun? Nothing – except all of this with a paleta in hand. Summer has officially started, so put on your best sunglasses (Specs by Kyla are our choice), grab these frozen treats from the local paleteria and do summer right.

Paletas were first created in the 1940’s in Tocumbo, a municipality in Mexico’s state of Michoacánin, when a community of local families led by villager Ignacio Alcazar started to make frozen ice cream treats using what they had on hand – a variety of fresh fruits, nuts and milk. The desserts were sold throughout the neighborhoods in Tocumbo via colorful ice cream carts, eventually being produced in what are now called ‘paleterias’, or colorful snack shops – the first one called La Michoacana.

The handcrafted Mexican treats are a combination of ice cream and popsicles using a wide range of ingredients; traditional paleta flavors include pineapple, coconut, mango, cookies and cream or strawberry yogurt. Rather than being one flavor and texture all the way through, paletas are made using chunks of fruit, vegetables and sometimes herbs. This mix is then frozen around a wooden stick, or a ‘paleta’, Spanish for ‘little stick’. Once frozen they can be enjoyed as-is, or can be sprinkled with toppings such as a chocolate shell and nuts, tamarind or candy.

There are now more than a thousand La Michoacana storefronts in Mexico City alone, and over ten thousand across the entire country of Mexico, and that has extended into the United States. La Michoacana is currently one of the largest Mexican franchises, and most of its stores are owned by people from Tocumbo.

The town is unofficially Mexico’s capital of ice cream and icicle (the local word for ‘popsicle’); the townspeople have even errected a large monument called the Monumento al Helado y la Paleta in celebration of these treats. Seventy percent of Tocumbo residents work in the ice cream and icicle business, with many of them migrating to every town or city within the country to open icicle stores. And in Tocumbo, residents elect the Icicle Queen for the year.