When the mercury soars, food seems to be the last thing on one’s mind. Some reach out for juices, some for salads and some prefer plain water but across age groups there is one thing which everyone loves - ice cream! Naturally this is that time of the year when ice-cream brands come up with their never-before-imagined blend of flavours, super sizes and varieties. So smoothies, yoghurts, sundaes, shakes, scoops or punches, you name it and the ice cream parlours hand it over to you.But the most popular ones this season are the ice-candies that come from branded stables and in almost all fruit flavours.While Creme Bell, Kwality Walls, Top N Town and Amul have introduced new flavours of candies, Frostee and Celesty retain their original flavours. In some, the water content in the candies has made way for cream-base and colours too have undergone an interesting change.Interesting options like avocado, papaya, blueberry, saffron, plum, kiwi, and coconut are flooding the market, the latest being Fruttare from Kwality Walls which comes in flavours like kiwi, lychee, red grape and strawberry with no artificial colour but just fruit solids.Top N Town too has candies in interesting flavours like blueberry, kacchi Kerry, lychee, mango dolly, orange, rose and mango. “These candies are priced between `15 and `25 and are not more than 60 K cal per serving; hence these are apt for those who wish a keep a tab on their calorie intake. We keep changing the flavours are per the requirement of our customers. At present, the most sought after are the mango and lychee flavours. A plus point of these candies is that, if you don’t want any one flavour, then you can opt for a mixed fruit one,” says Siddhart Chawla, a Bhubaneswar-based proprietor of the company.Likewise, Amul, the market leader in ice-creams, had earlier launched the ‘Stamina Candy’ in orange and lemon flavours, touted as India’s first fitness ice candy. Priced at just `8, the candy contains minerals and vitamins in a well digestible form, glucose, whey proteins, highly digestible calcium and vitamin C apart from milk solids.Dealers say customers now want more than just the water and sugar content in the candies. “Our company offers the same flavours now but with cream base and the candies are glazed with fruit syrup. Price too remains almost the same,” says Manoranjan Das, a dealer of Creme Bell in Cuttack.Local brand Frostee too has increased its candy production this season. “Our ice-candies are very much in demand. Earlier, ice-candies were prepared manually, but now even after installing automatic machines; we are unable to meet the demand. A major section of our clientele is kids. Our 50 per cent production is orange flavoured candy and the rest is in lime, mango and pineapple flavours,” said P K Lenka, manager with the company.Besides fruit-flavoured ice-candies, the frozen dessert dealers are offering a wide variety of candies with the crunchy feel. It’s that nutty hard ingredients that you can’t resist. This apart, there are richer varieties like chocolate, butter-scotch and kulfi in the ice candy segment. So step out and indulge yourself in the delightful array of ice candies.
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