Tràng Tiền Ice Cream, From a Childhood Treat to a National Brand

Some memories return through taste. For the writer, the flavor of Tràng Tiền ice cream brings back Hanoi, childhood trips into the city and a time when a simple treat felt like a special occasion.

The writer grew up in Nghĩa Dũng, where only a few small grocery shops stood nearby. Trips into the city were rare, usually reserved for illness, sulking or another special reason. Sitting in a cyclo with their mother, the writer would tour central Hanoi, buy balloons or dolls and, above all, eat Tràng Tiền ice cream.

Compared with the small, lightly flavored orange ice pops that cost little, Tràng Tiền ice cream felt soft, rich and fragrant with milk or natural bean flavors. A single bar cost much more, so the writer ate it slowly and kept licking the wooden stick even after the ice cream had disappeared.

The old selection was smaller than it is today, with ice cream bars and cones in traditional flavors such as coconut, cocoa and mung bean. The writer’s mother joked that she would stop buying ice cream once every flavor had been tried. To keep the visits going, the child repeatedly chose mung bean, which eventually became a favorite.

Even after discovering unusual flavors from imported brands, the writer still wanted to stop at Tràng Tiền when passing through the street. The memories include summer rides with a melting ice cream bar, late afternoons traveling by cyclo with a mother, tears that disappeared after a taste of something sweet and the excitement of receiving two bars as a reward for good grades. For the writer, Tràng Tiền ice cream has remained a small source of happiness through both carefree childhood and a more troubled adulthood.