ICED-GEM CHOCO BISCUITS

Familiar? Not familiar?

This is the biscuit of our time. This is what reminds me so much of my childhood---happy childhood.

I remember this as the biscuit that my siblings and I loved to have--- what with the combination of biscuit and icing. There is just something so delightful about having a plain biscuit with an icing. And a colorful icing at that! Every time my older sister and I reminisce about the old days we always include the Iced Gem Biscuits as one of the things that made us happy. It was not only a favorite but a biscuit we all loved to have during typhoons.

Typhoons frequently visit Surigao at the time when we were still in kindergarten. It was during those times that our roof was still made of nipa shingles. So whenever weather advisory would say that a typhoon is coming and is going to hit our province, Mama would make sure that we’d be able to survive the ordeal should it last for days. She’d list down the items that we all need to have and made sure we had it even before the typhoon hits our province----sort of an emergency or survival kit. So alongside dry cell, candle, matchstick, instant noodles and what have you she’d also buy this iced gem biscuits. Call it unadulterated innocence but typhoons are one of the things we looked forward to during those days. Typhoons meant abundant supply of the said biscuit. I think about it now and I can only shake my head.

Anyways, I don’t know what happened but we lost track of the biscuit when we reached grade school. We never looked for it maybe because we were introduced to other existing biscuits, say Jolly Sandwich or Rebisco Strawberry Biscuits or Presto Creams. We simply forgot about the biscuit we only loved. If it did stop making and distributing at that time, we wouldn’t really know.It was only in the later years when my older sister and I thought about it. We searched for it in every store in the province but we couldn’t find a single pack. We conceded. We thought that maybe the company lost revenue and decided to just stop.

I was in Cagayan de Oro City from 2002-2007 for my college education. I no longer remember the exact date or year as that detail already escapes me now, but one day while I was walking and passing through each aisle in a supermarket (which by the way is one of the things I love doing!)I saw a familiar pack of biscuits---a pack of biscuits that had me make a second look. Lo and behold, it was the Iced Gem Biscuits! I couldn’t contain my happiness that day that I immediately grabbed two packs and went straight to the cashier. Right after I paid the items I opened it and devour on the biscuit that I missed so much. I felt like I just reunited with an old pal! I gave some of it to my dorm mates and classmates but not without a background story and a wide grin. And it was the start of my frequent visits to that supermarket.

I did not tell my siblings about it because I wanted it to be a surprise. During the school break that followed after the ‘reunion’ I brought home packs of the iced gem biscuits. When I showed it to them I saw in my sister the delight of having seen the biscuit again. She can only say, ’Hala Leng, paborito man ini nato! Haman nimo nakita?’ (Leng, this is our favorite! Where did you find this?) Mama can only smile at the thought. I realized then that it was only me and my sister A who had a vivid memory of the biscuit. My brother barely remembers it, D does not remember and neither does E because she was still unborn at the peak of our love affair with the biscuit. But my siblings C,D and E love the biscuit anyways.

And that was the start of the rekindling love affair.

I am now in a different city but I must have been this good to be able to find the biscuits here. HAHA. I still buy a pack or two from time to time whenever my feet leads me to the store. And at times I buy more of it to bring home for my siblings, nieces and nephew.