LocoPops
LocoPops are paletas – Mexican frozen treats. Some folks would just call them popsicles. Regardless, they’re delicious. And they are sweeping the Triangle. The paleteria began in a small Durham storefront several years ago, on the outer fringes of the 9th street scene. Before long, it branched out to Chapel Hill and to Hillsborough, moved to new digs in downtown Durham, and, most recently, arrived in Raleigh.
LocoPops is the ideal stop for a quick and inexpensive dessert, or for a tasty snack on a warm day. And I do mean inexpensive – the small pops cost just $1.50 each, and the larger ones are $2.25. It’s tempting to try several flavors, and, for that price, what’s stopping you? The two main types are cream-based or water-based. The flavors range from classic (cookies-n-cream) to fruity (strawberry kiwi) to exotic (tamarind), with some quirky twists thrown in for fun (mojito, pineapple basil, mango-chile). If all that weren’t great enough, LocoPops sources their herbs from sEEDS, a community garden in downtown Durham. My personal favorite is the Mexican chocolate – creamy and subtly, but perfectly, spiced. To be fair though, I have a lot of flavors still to try. Hey, that sounds like a good idea.
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I finally said “blood sugar be darned!” and so my husband and our 3 year old took the plunge this weekend. We sampled about 8 flavors between the three of us. After all that joy on a stick, we were tempted to sample the pupsicles, but decided that chicken and beef just weren’t really good palate cleansers to follow Mexican Chocolate, Lemon Oil, Coconut Lime, Strawberries n’ Cream, Banana Cinnamon and chocolate brownie.
Anyway, what I took away from all this, besides an awesome happy feeling, is that there is some serious chef artistry going on behind the scenes! And I definitely felt like I should have brought my passport to go through all those flavors - from Italy (lemon oil) to Thailand (coconut lime).
And then, we brought our pup his pupsicles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him sit down and eat anything while wagging his tail the whole time. The nice thing is every single penny we spent on those pup pops goes straight to the animal shelter! They don’t even keep the money to pay for materials.
My niece LOVES that place! Every time I come into Raleigh she knows we’re heading there.
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