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Ice Ice Baby: Craving an uncommon flavor? Check here.

Ice Ice Baby is among the places keeping raspas fresh with new versions of the treat.

Amigos Snacks and More is located at 107 Rigsby Ave.

At Las Nieves Fruit Cups & More, the ice in the raspas is coarsely ground, providing a crunh.

Raspas are the flavor of summer in San Antonio. Those icy delights deliver all the sugar, tang and addictive crunch of shaved ice needed to beat the intense heat.

In a city this big, there are scores of stores to choose from when it comes to raspas. To help navigate the frosty terrain, here’s a guide to seven stores for great raspas.

Amigos Snacks and More: This shop has a vast selection.

This shop on the Southeast Side just off Interstate 10 near the Little Red Barn Steak House has one of the broadest selections of shaved ice treats in town. The ice in all of the raspas sampled had a very coarse grain and crunchy texture.

A new creation at the shop dubbed the Selena Flower — a tribute to Selena’s hit “Como la Flor” — is worth a try for anyone seeking a balance of sweet and savory. It features blue coconut ice topped with cucumbers, green chamoy and sour belts arranged in a flower pattern.

Or skip the sweetness entirely and opt for a raspa made with pickle juice — a rare find in San Antonio raspa shops.

Amigos Snacks and More, 107 Rigsby Ave., 210-314-8777, Facebook: Amigos snack & more #1.

Big Daddy’s Treats: The ice in the raspas was the lightest and fluffiest of all the shops sampled.

On ExpressNews.com: Raspas are a puro San Antonio summer treat thanks to a guy from Dallas

If you want your raspa to be a showy spectacle, this wildly popular spot near Southtown and the Blue Star Arts Complex is the place to go. The ice in the raspas here was the lightest and fluffiest of all the shops visited.

Tart and sweet flavors balanced perfectly in a sour grape raspa topped with sour gummy worms. Gummy bears added sweetness and a chewy texture to the tart and spicy Picca Bear raspa. The Cucumber Cruncher was the most refreshing raspa sampled with a balance of flavors from lime-flavored ice topped with oodles of fresh diced cucumber.

Big Daddy’s Treats, 228 E. Cevallos St., 210-447-7377, bigdaddystreats.com, Facebook: @bigdtreats.

Chamoy City Limits: Many of syrups are made in-house.

This midtown shop near the intersection of San Pedro and Hildebrand is the place for raspa purists. Many of syrups are made in-house with cane sugar instead of the more common corn syrup, and many of the toppings such as chamoy and pickles are also made from scratch.

The raspas here are made with coarser ice on the bottom and fine, snowy ice on top, which retains the syrup and toppings for a longer time than the chunkier ice below. The Isle of Misfits raspa blended cherry, coconut and pineapple with red and green chamoy for an intense contrast of flavors.

The Pink Leche raspa was like a frozen cup of fluffy cotton candy. And if it’s a bold kick of tartness you crave, try one of the Pickle Cones, which feature shaved ice topped with a whole pickle split in half and sprinkled with tart Kool-Aid powder and chamoy.

Chamoy City Limits, 447 W. Hildebrand Ave., 210-744-0000, chamoycitylimits.com, Facebook: @ChamoyCityLimits.

El Chango Loco: This to-go store is South Side favorite.

This South Side staple near the intersection of Pleasanton Road and Southeast Military Drive is a to-go-only operation, but it’s worth a drive if you don’t mind a few drops of chamoy in your car. The shop offers a huge selection of frozen treats, all made with a fine, flaky ice that quickly turned to cooling slush.

This shop served the best piccadilly raspa sampled, with enough pickles on top to require a paper plate tucked into the cup to keep it all in. The Warhead Extreme raspa had a heavy hit of sweet and sour flavors that came with a bonus ice pop dunked into the slush. And if you can’t decide on a flavor, go for the Rainbow Raspa, made with multiple flavors of syrup.

El Chango Loco, 2802 Pleasanton Road, 210-437-1254, Facebook: @ElChangoLocoTreats.

On ExpressNews.com: 10 of the greatest frozen desserts in San Antonio

A selection of raspas from Ice Ice Baby

The first thing you may see in this Northwest Side shop near the intersection of Bandera and Evers is a vintage Olde New Orleans Ice Shaver prominently holding a spot at the heart of the kitchen’s counter. That machine produces ice with the perfect balance of flake and crunch to support a huge selection of over-the-top raspas bounding with flavor.

You’ll find uncommon offerings here such as the Fruit Snow Cone made with a tart chamoy-flavored syrup and topped with sweet slices of fresh mango, or the Raspa Loca, flavored with a syrup made from pickle juice, lime juice, chamoy and sour Lucas powder. The Rainbow Ice Cream Raspa is the perfect option for anyone who wants both creamy and crunchy textures that meld as the shaved ice and ice cream melt into one.

Ice Ice Baby, 2113 Bandera Road, 210-592-6427, Facebook: @IceIceBabySA.

Las Nieves Fruit Cups & More: Ice cream on top is an option.

This shaved ice institution near the intersection of Hildebrand and Interstate 10 is the go-to spot for a wide variety of frozen treats and fruit cups. Once you wait out the always-long line of customers, you’ll be rewarded with raspas made from ice so coarse, it’ll remind you of the irresistible crunch of pebble ice from Sonic.

The Chupacabra raspa is about as extreme as Las Nieves gets, made with puckeringly tart tamarind syrup and a heavy sprinkling of sour Lucas powder, a chewy tamarind stick tucked into the ice. The piccadilly here is an explosion of sour, topped with a pool of chamoy and finely diced pickles. And you can get raspas of any flavor topped with a scoop of smooth vanilla ice cream as well, an uncommon offering in San Antonio.

Las Nieves Fruit Cups & More, 1118 W. Hildebrand Ave., 210-785-0601, lasnieves.net, Facebook: @lasnievesfruitcupssa.

Señor Snow: Texture of the ice keeps the flavor even.

This far North Side shop near the intersection of Babcock and De Zavala roads primarily specializes in elaborate desserts made from flavored Italian ice, but you’ll also find a selection of no-frills, straightforward raspas on the menu.

The real star of the show was the ice itself, which has a perfect balance of fine flakes and tiny crunchy pebbles soaked with just the right amount of syrup. The mixed texture of the ice guarantees that flavor stays perfectly suspended throughout the cup as it melts.

Señor Snow, 6565 Babcock Road, 210-463-9046, Facebook: @senorsnow.

pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen

Paul Stephen moved to San Antonio from North Carolina in 2017 to join the Express-News Taste team. In that time, he's cooked through about 1,000 recipes, noshed at more than 200 restaurants and seriously considered getting a map of the city's grocery stores tattooed on his arm for easy reference. He cannot be trusted around your cookbook collection.