Haltom City's Sol Dias paletas win $50K grand prize in H-E-B's Quest for Texas Best

A family-owned paleta shop from Haltom City is now officially "Texas Best." Sol Dias, a Mexican ice cream and paleta company, won the $50,000 grand prize in H-E-B's 13th annual Quest for Texas Best competition. The win also guarantees its products a place on H-E-B shelves.

Victor and Stacey Garcia founded Sol Dias Ice Cream in 2020. According to H-E-B, Victor learned to make paletas from his parents, who ran their own businesses, and he helped bag paletas as a boy. He built the company around the flavors of their hometown, Mexticacan, Jalisco, which H-E-B calls the birthplace of the paleta. The company credits long churning and a handful of real ingredients for its creamy texture and big chunks of fruit. Sol Dias has shops in Haltom City, Watauga and Irving, and another is set to open on Fort Worth's Northside in spring 2027.

The field was crowded. This year's contest drew a record 978 entries from more than 500 companies across Texas. In September, judges cut that list to 10 finalists, who pitched their products on October 8 at H-E-B's headquarters in San Antonio. Sol Dias was one of two DFW finalists, along with Uncle Marc's barbecue seasonings from Glenn Heights. The five winners split $110,000 in cash, and the other five finalists got $5,000 each, for a total of $135,000.

"Because H-E-B began as a small business, we understand the difference that meaningful support and access can make," said James Harris, H-E-B's senior director of diversity and inclusion and supplier diversity. H-E-B says that since the program started in 2014, it has found more than 1,000 Texas-made products and given out nearly $3 million in prize money, plus marketing support and mentoring.

This story is based on original reporting by CultureMap Fort Worth, with more details from H-E-B's newsroom announcement.