Mexico's Finest Treats
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Flor de Michoacan
Mexico's Finest Treats
(915) 702-0038
Our mission,
the
Flor de Michoacan
familia
For years, the recipes for these treats had been the closely guarded secret of a select few families from the Mexican state of Michoacan, where this entire movement began over 70 years ago.
We approached the patriarch of one of those families: Don Manuel Calderón, who first brought paletas to our area when he moved 1000 miles north from Michoacan to open the first "paletería" (popsicle shop) in the region. We told him of our plan to introduce Michoacan's treats to the Valley of the Sun and asked him if he would teach us the secrets of the trade.
He responded by inviting us to apprentice at his shop! In return, he only asked that we keep in touch to let him know how it turned out.
Our family enjoyed a fun, care-free upbringing in the quaint little town of Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. There, as throughout Mexico, Aguas Frescas (natural fruit drinks), Paletas (frozen fruit bars and ice cream bars) and Helados (ice cream) were plentiful! But after we moved north and began working back-breaking hours of construction in the hot Phoenix sun, those refreshing treats were nearly impossible to find. That was when the idea began to form...
from the beginning, has been to recreate the delicious, refreshing and natural flavors from our childhood.
Our first shop opened its doors May 10th, 2000 near dowtown Mesa, Arizona. We began selling our gourmet, Mexican style ice cream, refreshing aguas frescas and, of course, our classic paletas.
Everything was made by hand, onsite, and with the freshest fruit available. It was an instant local sensation and soon we were considered the best ice cream parlor in the Valley of the Sun, earning such accolades as: Best Paletería, Best Ice Cream Shop, and Best Paletas. One columnist wrote, "their ice cream novelties make Baskin Robbins look like amateurs."
One shop quickly became two and two quickly became four and 15 years later our family business has developed into a household product. We now service dozens of ice cream shops and grocery stores throughout the western United States.
Through it all, our greatest strength has been our refusal to compromise. To this day, our products are made exactly as Don Manuel taught us: by hand, using the freshest fruit and highest quality ingredients we can find. And we take pride in keeping our methods as natural and environmentally friendly as our products. Every effort is made to cut down on useless waste, from limiting the energy consumed to produce our raw materials by purchasing unbleached and minimally refined sugar in bulk-size sacks, to re-engineering the cooling system on our ice cream machines in order to cut water usage by 98%. After all, we understand that we owe our success to the rich, natural flavors found in the fruit we use—the fruit that Mother Nature gives us ...we're just trying to give a little back.