The Biz Beat: Paleta Planeta brings sweet treats to downtown San Jose

Paleta Planeta would not exist without the parents of Mauricio, Luis and Gabriel Salazar, who allowed their three sons to turn the family’s San Jose home into their first Mexican popsicle factory.

“It is very Silicon Valley to start a company out of a garage,” Luis told San José Spotlight. “We just constantly made batches until we had four 12-cubic-foot freezers in their living room. That’s about when our mom said, ‘What’s going on here?'”

Now celebrating its fourth year and the opening of a downtown storefront adjacent to San Jose City Hall, Paleta Planeta, like many home businesses, was born out of necessity during the early stages of the pandemic when Mauricio’s work at the airport tapered down.

“Ideas started popping into my head,” Mauricio said. “I thought, ‘If you’re going to lose it all, you might as well bet on yourself.”’

He shared some of his ideas with his cousin, Alejandro Guerrero, who had come to America with help from the Salazar family. He was a third-generation ice cream maker from Tocumbo Michoacán, the Mecca of paletas, and invited Luis to Texas to learn the trade.

“They opened the doors to me,” Luis said. “They told me, ‘This is how you make everything. These are the distributors you need.’ When I got home, I told Mauricio, ‘This makes sense, let’s do it.'”

According to Luis, the secret to Mexican ice cream and paletas is the freshness and quality of the ingredients, as opposed to more commercial products.

“Other places skip steps and use concentrates,” he said. “But ours are made with all-natural fruits and fresh ingredients, and you can taste them. In a mango paleta, for example, you can feel the texture of the actual mango, and that makes all the difference.”

Our next Biz Beat article features Paleta Planeta in dowtown San Jose! Check out the team’s favorite flavors — story to come at SanJoseSpotlight.com. #bayareafoodies #paletas #icecream #popsicle #sanjose #sanjosefoodie

After reviewing the process and finances, Luis decided he liked what he saw. They imported the first machine from Brazil and brought on their brother Gabriel, who was studying to be a CPA.

The brothers sold their first popsicle on Oct. 5, 2021, relying on social media, particularly Instagram, for customers. Their four freezers could hold as many as 600 paletas apiece, giving the brothers full rein on their creativity. So far, they have created close to 200 flavors, both traditional and wildly experimental.

“It’s like being Dexter in the lab,” Luis said. “We named it Paleta Planeta, ‘popsicle planet,’ because we wanted to incorporate flavors from all over the world with the Mexican culture, like Japanese matcha tea mixed with the classic Mexican rice water horchata — it really works.”

One of the most popular flavors they’ve created is the Cookie Monster, a mix of crushed Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies in a bright blue ice cream base. If that doesn’t bring you back to your childhood, there are always bubble gum, Gansito and Fruity Pebbles flavors.

With an avid online following, the brothers initially relied on catering and working roughly 100 special events and festivals a year, where they sold their paletas from push carts. They opened their brick and mortar location on Sept. 21 in the former 4th Street Pizza location, with about 25 flavors in stock.

The colorful paletas are displayed in standing rows in a case specifically intended to be eye-level for most children. The labels read like a contest of flavors vying for your attention and trying to outdo each other by being the brightest and most refreshing, such as Mango Lemonade and Kiwi Strawberry.

One of the newest flavors is Watermelon Cantelope, which first appeared last week.

“Nobody does that one,” Luis said. “We had both fruits, and I thought, ‘Why don’t we just blend them?’ It is all trial and error. People told me it would not work, but they could tell it just goes (together) once they tried it.”

Having a storefront allows the brothers to be more creative with add-ons. For example, if you ask for your cup of ice cream to be served campfire style, they will add graham crackers, chocolate drizzle and a torched marshmallow fluff topping.

You can also have them add chamoy and Tajin to Mauricio’s favorite, the water-based Watermelon Mango Pineapple Cucumber paleta.

“That one really has everything in it,” he told San José Spotlight. “I also like the Jamaica Fresca. You get the tartness and the freshness, and if you add a little Tajin, it makes your mouth explode.”

Each of the three brothers still has a day job while waiting for Paleta Planeta to take off, but they are all fully committed to the project.

“We have always wanted to do everything as a family as much as we can,” Luis told San José Spotlight. “If we win, then we all win. If we lose, we lose together.”

Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].

Paleta Planeta

Paleta Planeta

Located at 150 E. Santa Clara St. in San Jose

408-647-5847