The ActiveTalker

It’s summer again, and the Philippines, being a tropical country, it is quite hot. So the locals found ways to cool themselves by making coolers. These are made with/from ice and are usually sweet.

The king of Filipino coolers is the Halo-halo, a mixture of sweetened ingredients (sweetened coconut, ube halaya or taro, nata de coco or coconut jelly, sweet corn, mung beangs, sweetened banana, jelly, jack fruit, etc. with evaporated milk and sugar) topped with ice shavings and sometimes with ice cream or custard.

Another Filipino cooler is the popscicle ice pop, popularly called “ice drop”. When I was a kid, they used to call it “ice buko-beans” (as it comes with coconut at mung beans). Nowadays, it comes in different flavors, cheese, chocolate, etc.

An alternative cooler (and cheaper) is the ice candy. Its a frozen fruit-flavored juice that comes inside a tube-like plastic.
The usual flavors are orange, strawberry, grapes, avocado, and sometimes it’s flavored milk or chocolate.

Ice candy