This 5-Cent Sam’s Club Freezer Find Is Summer’s Most Nostalgic Treat

Time to unleash your inner ‘80s kid.

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What do you associate with the summer months? Perhaps it’s the smell of freshly cut grass, the sound of the ice cream truck, or the sight of kids running gleefully through a sprinkler. 

For me, summertime is chronicled through tastes. I imagine that first bite of a freshly grilled brat, accompanied by a perfect tang of mustard and pillowy-soft roll. Or a sip of an ice-cold Arnold Palmer that’s 70% tea and 30% lemonade (try that instead of 50/50 and you’ll never go back).

Above all, one thing reigns supreme: Fla-Vor-Ice ice pops. You know, the ones that come unfrozen in a big box, chained together like lightsabers of food coloring, ready to be thrown in the freezer.

Now, you can buy them at Sam’s Club, and it’s only $9.98 for a box of 200. That's the taste of childhood summers for 5 cents apiece.

Fla-Vor-Ice Ice Pops

• Price: $9.98 for a 200-pack of ice pops
• Why I Love It: Fla-Vor-Ice pops are a classic for a reason—there's no more affordable way to cool down on a hot summer day.

What Is a Fla-Vor-Ice-Pop?

If talking about Fla-Vor-Ice doesn’t immediately conjure up memories of your childhood summertime, let me elaborate more. The ice pops come in six different flavors: Berry Punch, Grape, Lemon Lime, Orange, Strawberry, and Tropical Punch. No one in their right mind uses the actual flavors to describe them—it was always the "red" flavor or the "blue" flavor.

Let’s be clear, everyone had specific and non-negotiable favorites. For me, the best flavor was pink (tropical punch), followed closely by red (strawberry). While I did enjoy blue (berry punch), I hated how it would turn my tongue blue.

Simply Recipes / Sam's Club

Everywhere I went, green (lime) and orange (orange) were somehow the least popular flavors. They would sit in the freezer for weeks before someone could be coaxed into eating one.

And I guarantee that many kids shed actual tears when they couldn’t get their favorite color. I watched neighborhood parents enact treaties of peace in the driveway: “You can have blue next time, sweetie.”

I definitely cried about this. Twist my arm and I’ll have orange, I guess…sniff.

What’s great about the Fla-Vor-Ice Pops is that you don't need a giant chest freezer in your garage that can accommodate all 200 ice pops at once. The tear-and-share, freeze-when-you-want method of packaging is genius in this way. You can keep the box in your pantry, and add a couple sheets of ice pops at a time. 

Just beware the folly of my own father, one fateful summer afternoon. He unloaded the box into the garage and carried the rest of the groceries inside. He forgot to put the ice pops in the freezer at all, and then no flavors were cold, and many tears ensued.

I guess the ultimate nostalgia here is of the crying, in a way. It’s sweet to remember a time when the worst thing that could happen to you was being stuck with a green ice pop or no ice pop.

Time to head to Sam’s Club and relive the simpler days.

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