New Jersey Ice Cream Shop Highlights Puerto Rican Flavors

With the summer here, sales at ice cream shops in New Jersey are heating up. A promising candidate is Jersey City's Torico. Pura and Pete Berrios opened this eye-catching store in 1968; although they both still come in to help make ice cream often, their daughter Christine now runs the business. Everything is made with fresh fruit, so the flavors are intense. Even coconut flavors have shaved pieces of real coconut. More than 65 flavors are on offer, including several tropical recipes. Pura and Pete are originally from Puerto Rico; when Pura was pregnant, she craved ice cream and missed the tastes of home—jackfruit, tamarind, sour sop, avocado, mamey, papaya and passion fruit, among other tropical flavors. Ube (a type of yam), ginger, lychee, dulce de leche, amaretto and green tea are a draw for other patrons in this multi-ethnic neighborhood, reports