Diamonds In The Rough

We all scream for ice cream, but paletas are the star of the show at Diamonds Ice Cream, which offers more than 50 varieties

By Laura Hennigan / Photos by Sarah Pfeifer / Story Design by Bryce Patterson

There are still plenty of warm days left to enjoy cold, refreshing treats, and one of the best places to grab a few is in a plaza at the intersection of Sawmill and Bethel roads.

Walking into Diamonds Ice Cream is an entire experience, with a massive freezer featuring over 30 flavors of ice cream, another counter for ordering street food snacks, plus an entire corner that functions as a souvenir shop, selling everything from piñatas to baseball caps.

But the star of the show is the case housing dozens and dozens of las paletas: Mexican frozen treats that look like popsicles, but are infinitely more delicious.

Fabian Torres runs the daily store operations and is co-owner with his father, who originally opened the shop in 2015. “My cousin owns several ice cream shops in Mexico, and when we were visiting, we really loved the las paletas he sold,” Torres said. “No one in Columbus had them at the time, and we thought they needed to be introduced here.”

Paletas are uniquely made almost entirely from fresh fruit, with just a little water and sugar added. Rows of the brightly colored treats are stacked, and it’s easy to see large slices of strawberry, kiwi, and mango in many of them. Unlike American popsicles, which are usually filled with additives and dyes, Diamonds makes their paletas with only real ingredients, crafted weekly in-house, and in small batches.

“When my cousin taught us how to make these, he told us to never downgrade your quality. Quality is what makes us stand out,” said Torres. “We’re different because we make everything here, we don’t outsource any of our products. We use at least 80% fresh fruit, so when you are eating a paleta you are basically eating straight fruit, with no artificial stuff.”

They offer at least 50 different varieties at any given time, many traditional like papaya, avocado and watermelon, along with more adventurous selections such as chili powder, pine nuts and pico de gallo. There are also paletas to tackle sweet cravings, including Oreo, brownie and cookie dough.

Not in the mood for a popsicle? There are plenty of other choices available at Diamonds. Choose from savory snacks like corn on the cob topped with mayo, cheese, chili powder and lime (known as elote), or nacho-inspired Botes Locos, which are pork rinds topped with jicama, cucumber, peanuts, tamarind candies, chili powder and sauce. Torres recommends grabbing an agua fresca drink to-go as well, especially the horchata flavor, a traditional Mexican drink made from rice, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

No matter what you decide to try, Diamonds is worth a stop (or three) to taste all the offerings and check out the gift shop area, which over the past few years has grown from a small table of merchandise to a whole gift shop area.

“I see a lot of new faces everyday… people love coming in to get ice cream and explore the store,” said Torres. “Diamonds is unique and all kinds of different people come in, and I want to share our culture with everyone.”