SOBEWFF: Suzy Batlle Honors Her Cuban Heritage at Azucar Ice Cream Company

Since 2011, ice cream aficionados have been popping in to Suzy Batlle's Azucar Ice Cream Company (1503 SW Eighth St., Miami) for a rotating lineup of ice cream and sorbet flavors that could only be dreamed up in Miami.

Situated in the heart of Little Havana, the shop serves desserts with Cuban flair amid a Cuban ambiance. The selection of flavors ranges from café con leche (Cuban coffee and Oreo) and plátano maduro (sweet plantain) to a signature "Abuela María" (vanilla ice cream with ripe guava, chunks of cream cheese, and crushed Maria cookies), a treat inspired by the traditional merienda (afternoon snack) Cubans enjoy daily around 4 p.m.

"When I started, I was set on creating the most Cuban ice cream in the nation," Batlle tells New Times. "What better place than Little Havana? Every day is different there — it's a freeing place with music, coffee, community. It's basically a 24/7 party."

The artisanal spot was inspired by Batlle's grandmother's ice cream recipes and her family's love for the frozen treat. Born in Cuba, her abuela moved from place to place in Central and South America with her husband, a sugar mill engineer. Tropical flavors became an essential part of her creations, and savoring ice cream a daily family ritual.

“We’re an ice cream family," says Batlle. "My dad would make ice cream sodas, my mother served ice cream every night. I grew up thinking that that's how it was at every household."

In 2008, when Batlle got laid off from her job as a mortgage banker, her children Bianca and Tommy suggested she open a shop to sell the food they loved most.

"I never thought I could transform our passion into a lifeline," Batlle says. "I actually thought it was the most ludicrous idea."

But once she made the decision to pursue her kids' business idea, Batlle, now 54, attended Penn State's Ice Cream University (then the Frozen Dessert Institute in St. Louis).

"I didn’t know how to make ice cream commercially. My abuela made it the old-fashioned way," she says. "A decade later, here we are, making all different kinds of ice cream, including customized flavors. We'll basically make ice cream out of everything."

Among her favorite creations is "Burn in Hell Fidel," a chocolate ice cream with a spike of cayenne pepper she concocted when the Cuban dictator died in 2016. "When you eat it, it's delicious, then about ten seconds later you feel that kick of cayenne in your throat," she says. "That’s the kick in the throat I wanted to have given Fidel."

Batlle says the themed flavor has become a sensation, especially at Azucar's outpost in Dallas, which opened four years ago as a way for Batlle to stay close to relatives who reside in the city. The shop offers the same rotating flavor roster as Miami, based on what Batlle calls "farm to cone" savoring. Every season, she goes on a flavor pilgrimage, visiting local farms and purveyors to purchase pounds of fresh mangos, mamey, and other tropical ingredients she can freeze for ice cream use.

This year, Batlle will participate in the South Beach Wine & Food Festival's 21st Birthday Dessert Party, where she'll dish out scoops of her boozy "Guava Bellini." And on Sunday, February 27, from 3 to 5 p.m., she'll join the "Family Ice Cream Social" at the Lowes Miami Beach Hotel.

"It's my eighth year at the festival," she notes. "I feel so blessed to be able to attend and represent the Cuban population. That's my roots, that's who I am."

Batlle is currently working to open a new Azucar outpost in Pinecrest, which she'd like to debut by April.

21st Birthday Dessert Party Hosted by Buddy Valestro. 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, February 25, at the National Hotel, 1677 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Tickets cost $95 via sobewff.org.

Family Ice Cream Social hosted by Duff Goldman. 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, February 27, at Loews Miami Beach Hotel, 1601 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Tickets cost $50 for adults, $25 for kids via sobewff.org.