Las Paletas Gourmet Popsicles

Image courtesy of Tennessee Home & Farm

An American original goes to Latin America, then comes back as something unique and exciting. No, this isn't the story of a Nashville band who found their Mecca south of the border and came back transformed.

I'm talking about popsicles.

Ice pops. Popsicles. Freeze pops. No matter what term we in America give these frozen treats, they're all the same in Latin America. There, they're known as "paletas," which comes from "palo," or "stick," and "-eta," which is a diminutive ending that indicates its size. Put frozen juice on the other end, and you have yourself a great way to cool off -- and maybe get a serving of fruit while you're at it.

As seems to be the trend in Nashville -- of taking something simple and timeless, and turning it into something unique, personalized, and somehow new -- someone decided to bring the tradition of the paletas from Latin America and see if there was a market for it here in middle Tennessee. That someone was -- actually, two someones were -- sisters Irma and Norma Paz, and from the looks of it, the market exists. In fact, maybe it says something about the notoriety of Las Paletas -- located in the 12 South neighborhood of south Nashville -- but we actually heard about it before we even got into town.

The Las Paletas tradition is not far removed from the kind of frozen forms of fruit and juice that we're already familiar with. The difference is in the quality of the juice. At Las Paletas, the flavors don't just stop at cherry, blueberry, grape, and watermelon. With more than two dozen flavors (that change seasonally) and two different varieties -- one fruit-based and the other cream-based -- these go far beyond the taste options at the local grocery store freezer aisle.

And they're good. Very good. Now, maybe I wouldn't necessarily say that they're worth spending $2.99 every night for, but I can see the draw in ending a date in 12 South and walking a couple blocks for a cold, sweet, fruity cap to the evening. As with most things good, the value lies in the experience you leave with. And like most summer-related experiences, you're likely to remember going to a place like Las Paletas, if only for the novelty.

Personally, I remember sitting on the back porch of my childhood home,  eating three or four of those long, thin, cheap freeze-pops at a time, getting bite by bite out of that plastic, frozen-juice-filled tube, every once in a while cutting the sides of my mouth, but hardly noticing because by that time my mouth was nearly in hyperthermia. Of course, those didn't come with a stick, and they certainly weren't filled with real "juice," so the comparison to the fresh-fruit-filled, hand-made paletas ends there. Still, though, if something here, in this new town, can bring to mind something so magical and important from my past, then I have to say that there's some value there. Even if just for once, and for the short time it takes me to eat anything cold (Sarah can attest to the speed), it was worth it.