La Fresita Loca: sweetening Houston County, one dessert at a time

BYRON – La Fresita Loca, translated to “the crazy strawberry,” offers delicious Mexican snacks and desserts for everyone to enjoy.

The new business recently opened on June 28 by Karla Olivera at just 20-years old with the help of her dad. Olivera graduated from Northside High School and is the daughter of Mexican parents, her dad from Tamaulipas, a state in Mexico, and mom from San Luis Potosi, a central Mexican city.

The business offers Hispanic treats like the Mangonada, made of mango pieces at the bottom, topped with mango ice cream, mango slices and drowned in chamoy, tajin and salsa Valentina. 

It also offers El Pepino Loco, “the crazy cucumber,” and La Manzana Loca, “the crazy apple.” Both treats are wrapped in tamarindo, or tamarind, a tropical fruit made into candy. They are topped with more candy including gummy bears, gummy worms, peach rings, gushers and mango.

The business also offers mini pancakes, crepas and churro cheesecakes. All of them include two toppings, syrup, whipped cream and a choice of ice cream. 

Olivera started from her home selling chocolate covered strawberries to her friends and family. This inspired the business’s name, reflecting the menu which gives customers a chance to go over-the-top with fruit toppings.

“I feel that the name reflects our menu pretty well: either choose a dessert topped with strawberries and crazy toppings of your choice, or choose from our Fruta Loca menu for our combination of fruit with chamoy and tajin,” she said. 

She noticed there wasn’t anything in the area selling Hispanic snacks for the community to enjoy and ease their “antojos,” their cravings. 

“We decided to take the risk and open up something here to see how it went,” she said.

Since its opening, Olivera said her business has been going well and admitted it surprised her. She expected to be bored every day, making a few sales, but her business has been booming thanks to support from social media. 

“Our weekends have been really packed lately, especially with our new chamoyadas and our milkshake supremes. Facebook has helped a lot, everybody sharing their reviews, and everything has helped tremendously,” she said. 

Olivera shares it has been stressful starting her business young and feels like she has no days off. However, she believes it’s all worth it in the end and she will put herself out there.

“I am young, so some people will tell you no, thinking, ‘you’re not really sure what you’re talking about.’ But you just have to keep putting yourself out there and showing them: you do know what you’re talking about, you are serious about what you want to do. It’s all worth it in the end. It is stressful and it’s hard, but you just have to keep pushing through to keep it growing,” she said.

As a Mexican American, her heritage is very important and she loves showing her pride. Olivera shared she loves being around people who are like her, and understands how she was raised and her roots.

“I love our traditions, so being able to share a little bit with everybody else around the community just feels so welcoming, especially when everybody loves it and tells you how amazing everything is,” she said

Olivera also said it is nice being around people who speak the same language, have been through the same things and enjoys listening to the same music. 

Olivera shouts out her dad for helping her start her business and thanks him publicly for all the support. 

“He helped me with everything, honestly, he helped me so much. We both worked every day, weekends included, to get this business going and build everything from scratch. I really want to thank him for being by my side through it all,” she said. 

La Fresita Loca is located at 3421 Highway 41, suite 3000 B at the Beau Claire Plaza. To keep up with the business visit their Facebook page.