Honey Drippers

Raise your hand if you knew which house to go to for honey drippers on a hot summer day. Raise your hand if you know what a honey dripper is.

For those who are unfamiliar, honey dripper is a regional name for a homemade frozen fruit punch snack. (I admit I learned of this frozen treat only recently, while pulling together a list of soul food dishes.) In other areas it is called Thrill, Lilly Dilly and Cherry Berry. This sweet snack-in-a-cup is easy to make (freeze Kool-aid or fruit punch in a Solo cup, with or without a popsicle stick) and perfect for sweltering Florida afternoons, making it a favorite of kids and adults alike.

“I always had some money to get one after school. As soon as I got off the bus, I went straight to the honey dripper lady’s house,” says Calli Marie, who grew up in Jacksonville and now oversees the culinary program and manages BREW. “It was so good, I got one every day.”

Thomas Smith, of Shut Em Down restaurant, has a similar memory. “There always seemed to be someone in the neighborhood who made honey drippers to sell, and all the kids knew just where to get them. Back then, the cups were only 25 cents. So if you had a dollar, and you’re outside playing all day, you would end up getting 4 of them.” These days Smith has 4 different flavors of honey drippers on the menu at Shut Em Down.

Although the basic honey dripper recipe calls for Kool-aid or other fruit-flavored drink, one variation makes for a fun surprise. “My uncle started adding fruit cocktail and fresh fruit, and we kids didn’t know that,” recalls Vernetta Stewart. “I was eating one and as I got to the bottom of the cup, there were pieces of fruit – that was a game-changer!” She added that he didn’t leave out the adults. “For them he would make a wine cooler version.”