Coming Soon: “Watershed Ice,” Philadelphia’s Newest Treat
Little Baby’s Ice Cream and Philly environmental groups are debuting two neighborhood-inspired water ice flavors. Here’s where (and when) you can get some.
Strawberry water ice by Little Baby’s | Photo via Little Baby’s Ice Cream
Several Philadelphia organizations — Little Baby’s Ice Cream, Bartram’s Garden, the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, the Circuit Trails, and WHYY‘s PlanPhilly — have come together to produce two new flavors of water ice based on Philly neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods, Juniata Park and Southwest Philadelphia, were chosen for the project because they’re connected by the city’s Circuit Trails and watersheds. Sure enough, the water ice will feature water from the Delaware River (the Juniata Park flavor) and the Schuylkill River (Southwest Philadelphia).
The creators chose two unique flavors for each neighborhood, based on “the history and immigration patterns of the people living in these areas.” For Juniata Park, that’s “Cocochata,” or coconut horchata, as recommended by the Tacony Creek Park Keepers. Coconut is frequently used in Hispanic and Asian cooking, and horchata is a Mexican rice-based beverage found in many restaurants and grocery stores throughout the area.
For Southwest Philadelphia, students at the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden picked bissap (the national drink of Senegal and popular in the Caribbean Islands), which is made from a species of hibiscus flower known as the Roselle.
https://twitter.com/BartramsGarden/status/1006172105950580736
Both flavors will be available at block parties later this month. You can try Cocochata at the Tacony Creek Park starting at 5 p.m. on on June 19th. Bissap will be available at Bartram’s Garden on starting at 7 p.m. June 21st. The block parties will feature activities like cycling, face-painting and canoeing. They’re meant to go encourage people to use the city’s Circuit Trails, a network of recreational trails (like the Schuylkill River Trail) through southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.
Those interested in attending the block parties (which are free) are asked to RSVP on Facebook so organizers know how much water ice to make.
