{"id":376822,"date":"2026-07-17T13:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/376822\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:36:17","slug":"paleterias-bring-flavors-of-home-to-austins-ice-cream-scene-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/376822\/","title":{"rendered":"Paleter\u00edas Bring Flavors of Home to Austin\u2019s Ice Cream Scene \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Carlos Nu\u00f1ez opened the doors of his brick-and-mortar, Las Delicias Paleter\u00eda<\/a>, off Highway 183 more than a decade ago, he didn\u2019t know of any other paleter\u00edas \u2013 ice cream shops (las never\u00edas) that specifically sell paletas, or ice pop bars \u2013 in Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMexican ones, you understand,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez told me in Spanish. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who like flavors that are traditional in Mexico \u2013 [fruits like] nanches, mamey, guayaba \u2013 so I thought it would be a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez took me back into his small kitchen, where he makes the paletas himself. \u201cOur paletas are always made in-house,\u201d he said proudly, continuing to list flavors inspired by his family\u2019s roots in Guerrero, Mexico \u2013 like camote morado, a species of potato that has very sweet, violet-purple flesh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I walked back across the scorching parking lot in mid-June, as a camote enthusiast myself, I took my first bite of the paleta version. It was just like eating one: boiled, peeled, and dunked into a bowl of milk and sugar. Even the texture of the potato came through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also immediately started dripping purple onto my hand, which is kind of the beauty of a paleta. Once you\u2019ve taken it out of the freezer, it\u2019s a race against the Texas heat \u2013\u00a0lest you lose half of it on your shirt. You can walk in and out of a paleter\u00eda with a frozen treat in about 60 seconds, and it will likely be eaten in another 60.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cTo<\/p>\n

I spoke to the owners of three family-run Mexican paleter\u00edas around Austin. They all echoed what makes a paleter\u00eda distinct from American ice cream shops: Paletas are often made by hand, with actual fruit, rice, vegetables, nuts, potatoes, or whatever the flavor calls for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use less sugar and a lot more fruit. We really value the quality of the fruit because that\u2019s what gives them flavor, that\u2019s what gives them a creamy texture,\u201d Claudia Garc\u00eda, owner of Las Mangonadas<\/a> on Airport in East Austin, told me in Spanish. \u201cFor instance, the pecan flavor is really popular \u2013 the pecan needs to be very good quality, very fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Las Mangonadas owner Claudia Garci\u0301a Credit: Sammie Seamon<\/p>\n

\"\"Paletas at Las Mangonadas Credit: Sammie Seamon<\/p>\n

Paleter\u00edas also offer flavors otherwise hard to find in the U.S., ingredients that Garc\u00eda says her loyal customers seek out. Garc\u00eda and her family have crafted over 60 paleta flavors \u2013 including guan\u00e1bana (soursop) and maracuy\u00e1\u00a0(passion fruit) \u2013 with both milk and water bases. Their mango flavor tastes exactly like perfectly ripe mango.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent many years learning this style of business from Mexico. My father makes the ice cream himself,\u201d Garc\u00eda continued. \u201cI believe it\u2019s a noble kind of business \u2026 las never\u00edas are part of our culture, it\u2019s something familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Los Mangos Ice Cream<\/a>, which has two locations on South Congress and East Riverside, Elizabeth Luviano and her family follow recipes from Mexico. \u201cWe were able to learn from them,\u201d Luviano said. \u201cNanche is a bestseller, mango con chile, aguachile, agua de mel\u00f3n, strawberry with coconut, Gansito, Ferrero.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Mangos mamey paleta is super thick and creamy \u2013 just like the red-orange fruit it\u2019s made out of \u2013 while the mango con chile is mostly sweet chunks of mango smothered in chamoy. \u201cEverything is homemade [in Mexico], and we do the same here,\u201d Luviano said.<\/p>\n

Whenever Luviano visits Mexico, she told us, she is always looking for paletas \u2013 hoping to bring even more flavors back to her Austin kitchens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo bring a piece of Mexico to Texas \u2013 I want to bring those flavors here,\u201d Luviano said fondly. \u201cI want to have a bit of something from home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This article appears in July 17 \u2022 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Carlos Nu\u00f1ez opened the doors of his brick-and-mortar, Las Delicias Paleter\u00eda, off Highway 183 more than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,133214,133215,133216,133217,133218,133219,133053],"class_list":["post-376822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-carlos-nunez","tag-claudia-garcia","tag-elizabeth-luviano","tag-las-delicias-paleteria","tag-las-mangonadas","tag-los-mangos-ice-cream","tag-sweet-treat-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}