The Mexican Sorbet Spot Making Waves on TikTok

All summer long, Fidel Cortés Jr. and his family have been hard at work selling nieves—a traditional Mexican dessert that tastes like a sorbet and translates directly to ‘snow’ — to small crowds gathered in Bushwick, around the intersection of Knickerbocker Avenue and Suydam Street. Online, on TikTok feeds, Nieves Cortés has become something of a Bushwick sensation.

The Cortés family starts their day at 8:00 am, preparing and blending fresh, ripe fruit for two to three hours. The main Cortés entourage include his wife, Tania Hernandez, his father, Fidel Sr., their son Kevin, his nephew Bryan and his brother Laurencio “Shaggy” Cortés. It’s a family affair. In the morning, the group lug the barrels and equipment to their street corner, where they swirl chartreuse, coral, and crimson-colored fruit juice in big wooden barrels that are packed with ice and salt for around two hours. The salt drops the temperature and turns the fruit juice into a slushy consistency. By two, the Cortés’ are out there selling the nieves.