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La Michoacana Frozen Mix: Mexican Ice Cream, Agua Fresca, and the Diversity of Latino Tastes in Manassas, Virginia
MANASSAS, VA—Behind an unsuspecting storefront in a strip mall in Manassas, Virginia lies what is quickly becoming a popular Mexican establishment–La Michoacana. The little ice cream shop of La Michoacana Frozen Mix contains a Candyland interior with vibrant paint, outshined only by the even more vibrant treats it offers: forty flavors of handmade ice cream, an array of agua frescas, decadent fruit smoothies, and more. Here, sour citrus, bitter morro seeds, spicy tajin, and sweet fruit come together in foods, ice creams, and soft drinks.
Granddaughters, stupefied at the broad refrigerators of multi-colored sweets, are hurried along by their grandmothers. New parents delay the difficulties of an evening putting a sugar-high toddler to bed by enjoying an ice cream themselves. Young couples share a bag of Dorilocos and sip on cups of agua fresca as they blush over who will pay for whom. The colorful shop is brimming with daily indulgences, the confections of life, the desserts of youth and family.
Manassas’s La Michoacana Frozen Mix is one of the only Michoacana-style ice cream shops on the East Coast. Lidia Ayala and her husband, Juan Flores, opened the shop two and a half years ago after a little more than a year of planning. The timing of the pandemic was unfortunate, but the shop’s confections are now in high demand. They are always busy, selling ice cream from noon until close. Now, the couple is opening a second, larger location to satisfy the sweet tooth of Manassas’s large Latino community.
But what exactly is La Michoacana? And is La Michoacana Frozen Mix a typical example?
La Michoacana and Agua Fresca
Flores explains, “La Michoacana is big in all parts of northern Mexico–it’s like a franchise, but it isn’t.” This is a confusing statement, but he is entirely correct. There are many Michoacanas, yet they are not one franchise. Instead, they make up a kind of informal chain.
In Mexico, the idea of selling paletas, or popsicles, likely emerged in the city of Tocumbo in Michoacán state. The earliest versions of ice cream in Mexico would have been water-based, like slushes, mixing citrus juices with sugar. But milk was eventually added with sugar into the flavorings in artisanal wooden barrels or, barricas de nieve, and Mexican ice cream was born.
From Tocumbo, the paletería spread. A 2010 article by University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business students explains, “families from the region emigrated to other parts of Mexico, taking this business model with them. That gave rise to the ubiquity of paleterías in Mexico bearing the name La Michoacana or some variant thereof.”
Over the last three decades, businesses have set up shop across Mexico and spread around the United States under the name Michoacana. It has been reported that, under the direction of Alejandro Andrade, La Tocumbita S. A. was one of the earliest ice cream businesses to brand themselves with the name. But they have been unable to claim or enforce a copyright. Since then, many smaller shops have pirated both their logo and name with total impunity.
“From Mexico City north, that’s where the Michoacanas are. From Mexico City south, there are more ice cream pushcarts on the streets than in stores,” Flores says, “There are more opening up now. If you go to Mexico, you’ll find a Michoacana on every corner, because people want more Mexican ice cream than just soft serve ice cream. For me, Michoacanas are better. If you go to a regular place, you just have vanilla and chocolate. We want to have more flavors.”
At this point, La Michoacana has become an organic cultural signifier for all things sweet and Mexican. The shops invariably sell paletas, ice cream, and agua fresca–all refreshing sweets that are candy to both the eye and tongue.
While the story of Mexican ice cream is fascinating, agua fresca itself is an icon of Mexican drinking. It is a Mexican staple where soda or juice will not do. Literally translated as “fresh water,” agua fresca is juice, cut with water or cream, and sweetened with sugar. The flavors can be blended into fruit cocktails or more savory concoctions. Classic flavors include mango, horchata, and jamaica.
More than Mexican
While La Michoacana Frozen Mix in Manassas upholds the growing tradition of Michoacanas in Mexico and across Mexican communities in the United States, it also makes some unique changes thanks to its ownership and environment.
Flores sits in his Manassas shop and comments, “I felt like it would bring something from Mexico to the city, the state, I can say, the whole country. We can bring a little piece of Mexico to Manassas.” He has executed this vision well, but when you take a closer look, he has also pioneered something new.
For starters, the idea to open La Michoacana did not come from Flores, it came from his wife Ayala, who is Salvadorian not Mexican. Ayala did not know what the La Michoacana was until she was in Tennessee with her husband on work. Pregnant with their child, Ayala had a craving for a sour dessert.
Flores remembers, “I said, ‘I can give you a lime? Oh, wait. I think I know where I’ll take you.’ We went to a Michoacana, and she got mango with chamoy ice cream. Then we drove two hours away to another Michoacana because she wanted to. That’s when she got it into her head that she wanted a Michoacana in Manassas. I thought she was crazy, but she was for real.”
For a while, Flores had to satisfy his wife’s craving for uniquely Mexican ice cream flavors by bringing several liters back on dry ice when he was traveling for work, but it was clear that there were no good local options in Virginia. After having their child, Ayala reminded her husband about the business idea. Flores acquiesced.
The couple embarked on their entrepreneurial journey and connected with an equipment supplier in Mexico who agreed to fly out to Virginia and train them on how to use the equipment, make their own ice cream, and develop their own flavors.
From knowing nothing, the couple become ice cream experts. At their height, they carried 42 unique, homemade flavors, but have since had to downsize to 40 due to high demand for certain flavors and limited refrigerator space.
But not all of the flavors La Michoacana Frozen Mix are Mexican, Flores readily admits his Michoacana serves a Central American customer base.
“My wife is from El Salvador. We mix a little bit,” says Flores, “We tried to go with just Mexican products, but there are a lot of people from Central America here, and they come and they say, ‘We have horchata back at home.’ So we made it, even though we never thought we would see it here. Now it’s our number one seller.” It sells more than classic Mexican horchata.
Salvadorian horchata is an agua fresca made with rice, sesame, peanuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, coriander, and its defining ingredient morro seeds. It has no milk, while Mexican horchata uses rice, cinnamon, and evaporated milk. Both, of course, contain sugar to taste.
The overwhelming demand for Salvadorian horchata is partly demographic. Flores tells me that 90% of his customers are Latino, and 70% of those are Central American. There are other businesses in the area that make horchata de morro, but Flores tells me his customers rave about theirs.
Flores and Ayala have taken the Mexican Michoacana and catered it to their customers. It’s not just the Salvadorians either. Flores has started carrying Zambos, Honduran plantain chips, to satisfy his Catracho customers too.
When asked about what it means to bring the Mexican Michoacana to Central Americans in Manassas, Flores responds, “I’m proud. The Central American people have helped to make us successful in the Michoacana. There are more Central Americans here in Manassas than Mexicans. We have more Central American customers that come in.”
The Flavors
If you visit La Michoacana Frozen Mix and you’re hungry, you can get Dorilocos, a mixed bag with a variety of kinds of chips. You could also order Maruchan Preparada, a decadent nacho-like Mexican take on the classic cup of instant noodles that may include cheese, avocado, salsa, corn, and chips.
But the agua fresca refrigerator deserves special attention. The buckets of agua fresca are like chests of glittering jewels thanks to their brilliant colors and the generous layer of angular ice cubes. The chia strawberry is sweet, refreshing, and textured perfectly. There are constantly little chewy bites of the fruit–it is like Mexican boba tea.
Their horchata salvadorena, on the other hand, is creamy despite its lack of dairy. It has some qualities of creamy peanut butter blended into milk with darker undertones of chocolate and the bitterness of morro seeds. It has a nice grainy feel on the mouth which counterbalances the sweetness of the other flavors.
Then there is the Mangonado, an elaborate mango smoothie that marries the sour of lime, the spice of tajin, and the sweet of mango. It has the acquired taste of sour candy, but the combination keeps you coming back for sip after sip.
La Michoacana Frozen Mix also makes atole, sugar cane juice, and piña loca, a decorated and ornate pineapple treat. The options are so colorful and so diverse that the customer often needs help. “When we have new customers coming in, they’re looking at the menu. We ask them what they feel like. ‘Are you hungry? Or are you looking for a desert? Or something to drink?’” Flores laughs, ”We make them feel comfortable. They want to try everything. We say, ‘Take it easy.’”
As La Michoacana Frozen Mix is on the verge of opening their second location with frozen yogurt, expanded dining space, and a drive thru, Flores reflects on what he and his wife have brought to Manassas. It is multicolored, multi-flavored, and multicultural–a Mexican ice cream parlor serving a Central American clientele in Manassas, Virginia. “We see how people enjoy it, and that makes me feel proud.” He says, “I tell my wife, ‘I’m sorry I once told you that you were crazy with this idea.’ We make a lot of people happy. We have kids running around, having a popsicle, and smiling.”
With ice cold agua fresca and 40 flavors of homemade ice cream, it is hard not to keep everyone happy.
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