You can go shopping at a mall and have your hands full of bags when you suddenly come across a Fresca Palapa, a colorful oasis with dispensers filled liquid that will hydrate you and inject flavor into your day.
Fresca Palapa, owned by Máximo Cruz, sells natural fruit aguas frescas and snacks.
Each month, the business sells about 100,000 glasses of the liquid at the 14 locations where the brand has opened since 2019 in different malls in Texas and Oklahoma. That’s 6 aguas frescas per minute during the 9 hours that, on average, the stores are open.
Originally from the town of Zacatepec in Morelos, Mexico, Cruz immigrated to the United States at age 16 and was protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for more than a decade. That allowed him to study and have a job.
He graduated from Corsicana High School and worked at La Michoacana Meat Market for 13 years, where he became a district manager.
But he had a dream.
“I love aguas frescas, so the idea for this business was born out of a need: I wanted to have something fresh at the mall,” Cruz told The Dallas Morning News. “I realized it was a profitable product, and my partner and I decided to launch it.”
Along with Jose Ibarra, his business partner, Cruz started Fresca Palapa as an experimental business at The Parks Mall at Arlington in November 2019. The pandemic put things on hold, but today he already has nine company-owned and five franchised locations in malls in Texas and Oklahoma. The company plans to expand nationwide.
“This product is not only sold to Hispanic people, but it is very well adapted to the American and other cultures,” Cruz said. “I have always believed in the product’s success, and we are ready to continue to grow.”
Two years after opening Fresca Palapa, Cruz saw an opportunity to manufacture the agua frescas concentrates so that the quality of his product would remain stable in all locations and to sell them in other places that offer aguas frescas, such as restaurants, taquerias, or paleterias.
He then opened Aguas Frescas de México, which distributes natural juice concentrates and aguas frescas. To perfect the recipes, Cruz traveled to Mexico to learn how to make them in the Tocumbo, Michoacán style, the birthplace of the famous Mexican ice cream and paleteria brand La Michoacana. His companies employ about 70 people.
“We believe in the business, and we want to take it all over the United States. The aguas frescas we make, we sell as far as Chicago and Portland, and I know we have the potential that in every corner of the country, people can find our product,” Cruz said.
In D-FW, Fresca Palapa has locations in malls such as The Parks at Arlington, Town East Mall, North East Mall, Grapevine Mills, and Stonebriar Centre. A store recently opened at San Marcos Premium Outlets, between Austin and San Antonio.
A long-standing tradition
The tradition of preparing aguas frescas dates back to the time of the Aztecs in Mexico, around 700 years ago. Historical records from the Mexican Government show that the Aztecs crushed plants, flowers or fruits to add flavor to the water they drank.
Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus is credited with bringing sugar cane to America, and after the Spanish conquest, it was added to flavored waters, making it a refreshing and recreational drink that spread to other parts of Mexico and Latin America.
In Mexico, it is traditional to drink aguas frescas, which are regularly sold in paleterías or small restaurants offering homemade food. Preparing them for family meals or parties at home is common.
In the United States, aguas frescas have made their way into Mexican restaurants and grocery stores and gradually became popular among the public as well.
