ALAMOSA — Jason and Paloma Mestas never saw themselves owning and operating an ice cream shop. Paloma was teaching middle school English and Jason was a farmer. But after Covid, they began thinking about doing different things with their lives. A stop in Denver set them on a whole new path. 

“We went to visit Paloma’s sister who asked us if we wanted to try rolled ice cream. I thought…’rolled ice cream’? Okay…. Being from here, we’d never heard of that before, so we waited in line for an hour in a snowstorm to try it out. After we got it, I told Paloma, ‘We have to take that home.’” 

Using equipment they already had plus buying what else they needed, they opened up Frosty Acres Rolled Ice Cream on Main Street almost three years ago.  

Rolled ice cream, originally from Thailand, is made by pouring a liquid ice cream base on a cold metal surface where it’s mixed and spread out into a thin layer, cut into strips and then rolled into scroll-like shapes. 

“The beauty of this is that you get raw product,” Jason says. “The ice cream you buy in the store is whipped and then ice is added to give it that texture.” The texture of rolled ice cream is different and the flavor is richer, which makes sense. “You could take two gallons of my cream base, put it in a machine and make five gallons of ice cream.” An added bonus – it stays frozen longer. And, aesthetically, toppings like freshly whipped cream and other toppings make rolled ice cream as fun to look at as it is to eat. 

The Mestas have brought their own special touch to rolled ice cream, choosing a vanilla cream base that mixes really well with additions like fresh berries, bananas, pineapple or mango, Nutella, Oreo cookies, Snickers, different cereals or (their Easter special) carrot cake. They also offer a great assortment of “drizzles” to choose from. 

They’ve also expanded beyond rolled ice cream in a cup to include The King Kong – a strawberry or banana split with different choices of drizzles, the Cowbunga – a waffle cone taco with “your choice of creation”, shakes and the “OMG Float” where rolled ice cream is put in a large cup and filled with customer’s choice of Zuberfizz soda, a soda company from Durango that makes “the real deal” - handcrafted soda using water from the San Juans, pure cane sugar and then transferred to glass bottles (versus aluminum or plastic). 

When asked how his business is going in Alamosa, he says it’s “a little slower in the winter” but, in the summer, “it’s amazing.” He was especially pleased for Frosty Acres Rolled Ice Cream to be awarded “Best of the Best in the San Luis Valley.” 

Although the idea of rolled ice cream is still new to the San Luis Valley, the Mestas are building a strong base of local customers. Plus they get a lot of business from tourists, either driving through Alamosa or traveling to the Great Sand Dunes.  

“Tourists are usually from the city so they’re familiar with rolled ice cream,” Jason says, “and they’re always surprised to see we’re here. ‘You have rolled ice cream in Alamosa?’ I hear that a lot.” But he’s learned a lot of tourists make a point of stopping when they see Frosty Acres has an average 4.9 rating on Yelp, Google and other sites. “You don’t see that very often, so that brings people in. And they all pretty much say the same thing when they’re leaving - they’re going to rate us a five.”   

Frosty Acres Rolled Ice Cream – Jason, Paloma and their daughter, Rohni - is a family run business and a genuinely cheerful place to be, not just because of the nature of their business or their brightly colored interior but also because of the Mestas themselves who greet each person coming in the door as if they’re old friends, making simple conversation or joking around.  

That small town feeling extends to how they run their business, keeping their ingredients fresh and prices as affordable as they can for “kids”. All students get a discount and there are specials every day, including Friday which is “Local Appreciation Day.” 

Frosty Acres Rolled Ice Cream will soon be on the road in their 20-footer trailer they bought last year. “We want to start making the tour,” Paloma says, “and get out to the other towns in the valley.”  

They also do weddings, proms, graduation bashes, events at schools. Adams State University recently paid for 200 students to get some rolled ice cream and they “had 200 kids waiting in line for ice cream.”  

“We didn’t want this to be a place where you’re just dipping into a gallon bucket of ice cream made somewhere else,” Jason says. “We had a different vision.”   

Vision accomplished. 

Frosty Acres Rolled Ice Cream, 1425 Main St., is open Tuesday through Saturday, 12 to 7 p.m. and 12 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. They can be reached at 719-480-4516.