Sno Cones Sonora

What’s a Raspado? Was my first thought when my friends wanted to come here this past weekend. I’ve never even heard of it. Apparently it’s a Mexican dessert that I’ve been missing out on. =)
Their menu is huge! The Raspados come in many different flavors. Raspado is basically a mixture of ice cream and shaved ice topped with your choice of fruits and condensed milk. I got the Leche one which kind of tastes like a Horchata. It was ok. I think it needed more of that Horchata flavor to it. I also thought there was way too much ice. Next time I’d ask for more ice cream than ice because towards the end I felt like all I was eating was ice. You wouldn’t think it would mix well with condensed milk, but I think that’s what makes it so delicious. I tried my boyfriend’s Raspado, which was a mixture of pinepple and mango and it was quite delicious.
I’m one of those mom and pop shop supporters so I definitely liked this place. Mom and pop shops are the places with pretty much the best food, drinks etc so what’s not to love. The staff was really friendly and quick at getting our Raspados. The only negative thing for me was that the location is far for us but other then that I’d love to come back to try their other flavors. Plus I LOVE dessert AND it’s about to be 100+ degrees so this is the perfect time to try it out! =)

I like this place! It’s nothing to look at, but has a great selection of raspados.

This place is pretty awesome. At first I was skeptical, I already had my favorites in Tucson. You wouldnt typically pass by this place and pull over. But once your in, you can definitely tell its a moms&popsraspados place ran by sons & daughters They were very friendly and was very helpful with telling me what fruits they had because I cant read spanish. I got the peach raspados with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle. YUM! Not too sweet, great on a hot day.

After reading about the infamous raspados in Tucson, I knew I would lament over them until I got to experience the sweet satisfaction. I am so glad I did it sooner vs. later, as it is on and poppin’ now… I am out to experience every raspados there is far and wide. I was picutring a glacier from DQ. You know the slush, with soft serve ice cream? Um, NO! This is fresh, not artifical, it is unlike anything I have ever had. So many flavors, layer upon layer, sweet, tart, cool, refreshing… ahhhhhhh…
Anyone, in for a UYE raspados taste off? Perhaps, a Sonoran dog, raspados crawl?
I got a medium, which was served in a Styrofoam cup. A couple scoops of hard vanilla ice cream was topped with a generous portion of shaved ice. I chose fresa (strawberry) and mango. They ladle on a couple of scoops of the fresh fruit which is floating in their natural juices (kinda like an aqua fresca liquid).
They pointed to a squeeze bottle on the counter and I said no thanks, since I had no clue what it was. (The teenage girls who were working, did not speak English). Lucky for me, a young girl was there, who stated it was like milk candy and it is great! So, I quickly told them add some of that. OMG! SOOOOO glad I did. It is canned leche… creamy, sweet, nectar of the gods. I want to put this on everything I can feasibly put it on. And as soon as I was done, I picked up a can at the grocery. Make sure you get some, or a ton, on yours!
Not too sweet, very refreshing, highly addictive. The flavors change, as the ice cream and shaved ice melt into one another. At first, I was a purist and did sampled the flavors separately… then half way through, I mixed it all up with my spoon…
The whole experience was wonderful. The little girl chatted us up, gave us the low down of her favorites. She really likes the leche flavored one as well. She cracked me up, because one minute after she finished her raspados, she left… and the next thing you know, she was back ordering another!
Corn cocktail is next up! Which I believe is corn, mayo, lime, chili, garlic, salt, pepper, hot sauce (if you want) and cheese-​typically cotija.
Oh, and the piñata store next door looked really cool!

At the Unilocal event last Thursday, we were discussing the best Mexican food in Tucson. My fiancé and I mentioned this place, but we couldn’t remember what it was called. My roommate and I went on a «research trip» to get some information for you all!
Sno Cones Sonora is located in the same complex as Las Brasa, and is open daily from 11am-​9pm. They serve raspados and various other desserty type Mexican things, along with some basic snacky foods like nachos.
If you haven’t had raspados, they aren’t anything like any American snow cones you’ve ever had. American snow cones, and Hawaiian shave ice depend on a bunch of crazily colored syrups to add flavor to the ice. Raspados offers fruit and nut syrups with actual pieces of the fruit in it — and a lot of the fruit, to boot. You can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle for $ 0.50 — do this.
Texturally, raspados ice is much rougher than traditional American snow cones, and waaaaay rougher than the Hawaiian shave ice. The drinks — yes, drinks, they’re that soupy from the melting ice, ice cream and delicious fruit syrup, are great, and are between $ 2.50 and $ 3.50.
Macedonias are giant ice cream and fruit sundaes.
I have only had the raspados and the macedonias here, but they’re both delicious and crazy cheap.
Other menu items include smoothies of ice and fruit blended with ice cream, licuados, which is just blended ice and fruit, fruit salad, a corn cocktail, nachos, etc.
Make sure you, or someone with you can muddle your way through some Spanish reading, at very, very least, as the whole menu is in Spanish without any hints for the non speaker. First time I came here the lady making the raspados didn’t speak any English.
For anyone curious, and maybe needing a cheat sheet if your Spanish isn’t up to snuff, possible toppings include:
Durzano — Peaches
Fresa — Strawberries
Ciruela — Plums
Leche — Milk
Tamarindo — Tamarind
Nuez — Nuts (pecans, I believe)
Vainilla — You can probably guess
Mango — This one too
Pina — Pineapple
Coco — Coconut
Limon — Lime (no chunks of lime floating around in this one)