Summer heat provokes people to have a vacation in a relaxing place and it is also the reason why people crave cold desserts. During summer season, there are a lot of stores offering different kinds of cool desserts in different places in the Philippines. In so many years, halo-halo(mix-mix) is considered as our iconic cooler. Halo-halo (mix-mix) is made of sugar, mungo beans, boiled kidney beans, garbanzos, pinipig, gulaman, nata de coco, kaong, macapuno, caramelized plantains, jackfruit and topped with shaved ices with leche flan and ube halaya.
No one really knows who, where, and when our iconic summer cooler halo-halo (mix-mix) started. Historical record showed that it was introduced 100 years ago by the Japanese women called karayukisan-san—a group of prostitutes. While others claimed that it was the Chinese traders who spread it to our country. Halo-halo (mix-mix) is popular all over the world and it has been the favorite of the Filipinos for a long time. Fast food and other restaurants create their unique version of it. They put additional ingredients like wafers, ice cream, grahams and etc. Other neighboring countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore also have their own version of halo-halo (mix-mix).
For me, it’s not important who, where, and when this cold dessert started. Remember that we had been colonized by different countries for so long. It is not new that most of our tradition and beliefs were influenced by different races. It is proven that we Filipinos love to embrace things that were introduced to us. This is the reason why people from foreign lands considered us very hospitable people.
