A Houston Guide to Refresquerias
This weekend, celebrate the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month and escape the Houston heat by grabbing an icy treat from these local refresqueria dishing out popular Mexican snacks and desserts.
Tarascos Ice Cream
13932 Westheimer Rd.
Goodbye avocado toast, hello avocado paletas. Tarascos Ice Cream boasts over 50 flavors of handcrafted paletas as well as mangonadas with up to 3 layers of flavor. In addition to its sweet treats, Tarascos also satisfies savory cravings with chicharrones, which are fried pork skins usually topped with lettuce, Mexican cream, cotija cheese, hot sauce and avocado.
Flamingo Chill
6404 Airline Drive
This Northside refresqueria specializes in towering raspas, Mexican-style snow cones. They also offer smoothie-like drinks known as licuados and aguas frescas, light and refreshing fruit flavored water. Feeling heroic? Try the mysterious, superhero-themed “fun flavors” and enlighten me as to what a Godzilla flavored raspa tastes like.
House of Mango
1506 Gessner Drive
Passionate about mangos? Look no further for a refresqueria to satisfy your needs. House of Mango offers a wide selection of traditional Mexican snacks and treats, including mangonadas, aguas frescas, raspas and more. For an icy treat made with real fruit juice, try a mangonada, pina colada or rusa from their menu of raspas natural. House of Mango also serves up classic snow cones and licuados.
Tampico Refresqueria
4520 North Main St.
A Houston favorite, don’t be surprised to find long lines outside this refresqueria. Tampico serves up the works: chamoyadas and raspas as well as savory snacks like nachos and elote, Mexican style corn topped with mayo, cheese, lime juice and spicy chile powder. NOTE: This restaurant has multiple locations.
Treats of Mexico
724 Telephone Rd
Owners Francisco and Sonia Campos bring an authentic taste of Mexico to Houston with their eastside dessert shop, Treats of Mexico. According to Houston Press, the dessert shop sources its authentic Mexican style ice cream from an artisan ice cream maker from Michoacan, Mexico. Less sweet and creamier than American ice cream, Campos' soft serve most frequently tops their famous concha ice cream sandwich, which earned the restaurant recognition on Buzzfeed’s 2017 roundup of the best ice cream sandwiches in America. Staying true to its name, Treats of Mexico offers not just ice cream but a variety of Mexican candy, snacks and toys.
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