Check Out Daniel Leon’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Leon.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
Hello! Our business and journey began with our wedding. We started planning our wedding in 2018 and set the date to April 2020. Little did we know the struggles and obstacles we would encounter that year. My wife and I have known about Nieve de Garrafa throughout our childhood. She was raised in Guerrero, Mexico and I in Los Angeles, California. My parents would always buy me ice cream after school or in the parks. My aunt then got together with a Nievero in LA, which is how it began—at the same time, I am planning for the big day! I had the idea to have my aunt’s boyfriend come to AZ and make us Nieve de Garrafa for our wedding. So, our wedding day was around the corner, but in March 2020 Covid began.

Our wedding had to be postponed, but luckily, we secured another date in October 2020. Once again, the day came, but Nievero didn’t feel secure and safe traveling because of his immigration status. However, he was generous enough to show my aunt and bring the equipment! So my aunt made us Vanilla ice cream on our wedding day. I jokingly asked if I could keep the barrel and the garrafa as a wedding gift, to my surprise they agreed and gifted us our first Garrafa! The day after, I tried making some more ice cream, and I had the genius idea to use the dry ice left over from my wedding to make the process faster, but it all went wrong as it came time to siphon the water out of the barrel. I inhaled lots of CO2 gases, and my lungs inflated to the max and had no Oxygen. I felt as if I was drowning in mid-air. I knew I had to stay calm, relaxed, and focused, but everyone started screaming and panicking; I could not speak as my lungs had no air. I began gasping for air, just trying to compose myself and breathe, but my lungs were already so inflated that I could not pull more air in. Throughout the whole minute I was struggling, it felt like an eternity. I eventually banged myself against the wall and was able to get my breathing rhythm back to normal.

My family and wife were all terrified that I was restricted from ever making Nieve de Garrafa again, and my wife told my aunt to take the garrafa back to LA. But fortunately for me, she left it hidden at my grandma’s house. COVID carried on to 2021, and with heaviness in our hearts we lost loved ones due to COVID, but in the mist of all the sadness and heartbreak our ice cream business began a year later! In 2020, we had began running a life insurance business, which taught us so much in how to run a business and about finances! Then 2022 came, and we planned a party for my sister’s sweet 16 as the year before we couldn’t throw her a quinceañera, as my father in law passed away. So once again, I wanted to make Nieve de Garrafa! My wife was against it, but I persisted and gathered the equipment and prepped the ingredients! The party was great and next day we had some leftover ice cream, so I told my mother-in-law “Why don’t we sell the rest?”

Then, we began selling on the weekend. We build our clientele for a year from home. But one day, a food influencer named SenorFoodie stopped by early in the morning. It was about 40 minutes before opening, he waited in his car while I set up and then when we were ready he asked if he could record a video. Little did I know who he was and how great of an impact it would be for my business. Saturdays were not a busy day for us, but two hours of him leaving, we began having so much people and we eventually find out he had made us a video that made us viral on Instagram. The following weekends we began having so much traffic that one of our neighbors got really upset that he came to threaten me, my staff, and my clients by bringing his dogs out, and then he started threatening that he was going to take his guns and bring his gang. So, I had to shut down immediately as we didn’t know him and I didn’t want to cause any harm to anyone, more importantly I had to protect my pregnant wife. In good timing, another small business gave us some support and advice and a new location to start again! And it was going great once again! But this time, the county showed up and told us to close as we didn’t have permits, and they warned us that we would be fined, so once again, we got shut down until we got our food trailer and permits! But by then, we had lost our 2023 summer and began in November 2023 as the process of getting the permits took forever. We didn’t lose hope because in that stressful and difficult process our beautiful daughter was born in September 2023. Now in 2024, we have high hopes, and we all trust and believe that God has big plans and purpose for our lives and this business! He always helps us through our struggles and challenges and gives us strength, never to give up, and never quit! Because even though, we have gone through ups and downs, His timing is always perfect and we for sure have seen it in our business. As we now have a 6-month-old baby girl, we can always count on Him to give us strength, to open more doors for us, and to take care of our family and business!

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, we’ve gotten death threats from our own neighbor. Then not being content, he reported us to the county three times after us moving and not causing him any more problems. Closing again due to county, brought us financial hardship, as we didn’t know how much investment we needed and with the uncertainty that our permits could get denied. With all that our baby was about to be born. I had to still try run a business and take care of my wife because the delivery was tough and she almost died as the hospital released her with an infection due to the labor. It was far from being a smooth road, but it definitely made us stronger.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. What can you tell our readers who might need to be more familiar with what you do?
We are a Christian family. Our priority is God, and we always like to support our church. My wife and I have some leadership roles in our church. Although it has been a challenge to raise a baby, still work our full time jobs, attend to church events, and on top of that run our own business, we are so blessed that we want to give back. We didn’t think Nieve de Garrafa was going to change our lives for ever. Hearing our clients memories and stories of what our ice creams makes them remember, we are filled with joy and happiness. As we grow, we want to keep creating job opportunities for our family, friends and community! All this wouldn’t have been possible without my wife as she is the master mind on helping me run the business. I’m truly blessed to have her by my side, in the good and bad times, she has giving motivation to keep going and to not give up!

Do you have any big plans?
Our future goal is to buy a property for our church, as we are currently renting a property. We want to have an ice cream shop, and two more trailers, so we can keep sharing our Nieve de Garrafa throughout the Valley. Our vision is to actually have an industrial company where we can make our ice cream and share it with the whole country!

Pricing:

• Xs  $4
• Sm $5
• Med $8
• Lrg $15
• Gallon $50
• Cater starting at $250

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garrafa_leoncitos?igsh=bXBxc2doMnJrcTg1&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: Garrafa leoncitos
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@garrafa_leoncitos?_t=8kFU5k2YNg6&_r=1

Image Credits
Daniel Leon, Jocelyn Leon Sanchez