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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Ice Cubes
I remember buying them at the student union on the Kent State University campus when I was a kid waiting for my mother to be done with classes or my father to be done with work. (I usually panhandled to get the money to buy them, I was pretty shameless in the lengths I would go to get my fix.) Later when I was in college on my own I would use my meal points at the Jolly Giant Commons to buy these by the tub. The little candies have been around since the mid-thirties, made in Germany by a small company called Nappo and sold by Albert’s in the States. They’re similar to the Caffarel Gianduia, except for the fact that they’re made with partially hydrogenated coconut oil instead of nut paste and chocolate.
I was really excited to find these looking so smart and crisp at The Candy Store in San Francisco on Friday. I see them every once in a while, but they always look sad and melted. The Candy Store had a whole jar of pristine looking Ice Cubes in both wrappers (they’re switching to a gold wrapper from the traditional blue and white so there’s a crossover right now). They don’t smell like much, a little sweet, a little nutty, but nothing like chocolate. They have a soft bite and an immediate hit of cool on the tongue. They melt quickly (as partially hydrogenated coconut oil has a melting point of 76 degrees F) and have a decent mix of nutty flavors, a little milkiness and a little hit of cocoa. A little grainy, they’re not quite as good as I remember. Now, for the sobering part. Read the ingredients: partially hydrogenated coconut oil, sugar, low fat cocoa, dried sweet whey, soy flour, hazelnut paste, soy lecithin, artificial vanilla flavor. There is no nutritional info included with these, but this page tells me that just one of them is 22% of my daily value of saturated fat (65 calories). So while I enjoyed this little trip back in time to taste those little cubes of obsession and trans fats, now that I’m all grown up and have found good sources of candy, I don’t think I’ll ever eat these again now that I’ve found Caffarel Gianduias. (The traditional ones are perfect, the novelty shaped ones are fun & make a cute stocking stuffer.) In fact, at The Candy Store the price for Caffarel and Ice Cubes was identical ... 75 cents each. I bought a handful of Fig and Chestnut ones ... something I’ll feel a little less guilty about eating. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:36 am 
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICEAll content (text and photos unless otherwise credited) is copyright 2005-2008 by Cybele MayPlease do not use my photos on your own site without permission directly from me, they represent what I ate in preparation for these reviews and are not to be used for other purposes. Design by Hop StudiosPowered by ExpressionEngine
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VOTE IN THE POLLWhich do you prefer?
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Milk Chocolate 
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1% (3)
 
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I loved these as a kid! There was something mysterious and oddly glamorous about them, and they did, in fact, feel “cooler” to the tongue than one expected them to, in keeping with the name. That hazelnut flavor, too, was unlike anything else available at the candy store. I’m not sure I’d be nostalgic enough to take the trans-fat hit, though.
I don’t like the new gold wrapper--it doesn’t cue that “ice” thing in the same way and makes them look more like other candies.
These are known as “Icy Squares” in Canada. There are also “Icy Cups” which are the same thing, just round and sort of shaped like a Reese’s mini pb cup. They’ve also introduced “Dark” Icy Squares this year.
http://regalcandy.com/pages/display.php?i=moritz&n=Moritz Icy Square
I used to love these when I was little and up here there is one place where you can get them called Suckers..
Ah, the elite candy of my childhood only sold at the “expensive” candy store up the hill. I remember the upset it caused when Ice Cubes hit a dime a cube.
I too, remember these fondly as a kid. The only place to get them was in the local German butcher. They were 5 cents each. I’ve seen them occasionally lately at .75 to 1.00 each, and I admit, I’ve grabbed a couple from time to time. I have to agree with one of the other posters that they are grainier than I remember. I went in a local grocery store while travelling recently in Maryland. They had them in the bulk candy section for $2.49 per pound. That price didn’t really register, until I plopped 10 of them in a bag, put them on the scale, they weighed a little less than 1/4 pound, and the total price was 55 cents.
That is 5 cents each. Who says you can’t go back in time? I even checked the item code, thinking I might have put in the wrong code, but there on the label it said “Albert’s Ice Cubes” and $2.49/lb. Ahhhh. Can’t wait to go back
The best candy ever! These ice cubes rate much higher than just “pleasant” they get a super superb from me. I’ve got an idea, I’ll trade you diet food for the ice cubes. I don’t care about how much saturated fat they have, they are totally worth it.
to those of you who think the blue-and-silver wrapper is the “traditional” one: sorry, folks, but you’re *way* wrong!
i don’t know from the 1930’s, but in the 60’s and 70’s, the gold wrappers were the way i discovered these little, irresistable, melt-in-your-mouth, delectibles, at the firelands country store, when my family and i would go on weekend fishing trips.
and they were 2¢, not 5¢! it took a great deal of dedication to pass over all the penny candies, just to indulge in these sweet, luscious squares!
happy reminiscences!
blingadore
Blingadore....YOU ARE RIGHT, the gold ones were the original. I thought that too, when I first found this site, but they seem like such the authority (in a good way) on candy, I didn’t question it, I thought maybe I’d missed something. I always remember them in the gold and 5 cents. They never had them in my penny candy store, I found them much later. Thanks for adding that, now I know I’m not losing my mind!
--Nancy
Loved these as a kid and really hard to find now. I remember that sometimes they melted in your hand even before you could open the wrapper. No one else I know even knows what I’m talking about when I tell them that I LOVE them!
I was happy to find these in a candy store yesterday, but when I bit into my first one in many years I found that the coolness had diminished a lot since my last last taste ago. In trying to find out what has changed I looked at the ingredients and saw hydrogenated coconut oil. I don’t know that hydrogenated coconut oil existed when I was a kid and suspect that it was pure, unadulterated coconut oil back then. I, too, noticed some graininess to yesterday’s experience and am a little disappointed. The gold wrapper was always the better than the silver wrapper type. I think the silver wrapper contained an actual nut, but why waste money on that when more of that coolness was in the gold style. I’d love to know if they have altered the ingredients since 1965. Anybody?
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