A catchy song about ice lollies from Saint Lucia
-
- June 3, 2021
This ‘jumpy’ soca hit from Saint Lucia explains what must be done when your ice lolly is rock hard and just out the freezer.
In many ways, ‘Sock It Already’ by Saint Lucian soca artists Ambi and Bruno is a public service announcement.
Home-made ice lollies are a cheap and refreshing treat across the Caribbean.
Water flavoured with squash is poured into fist-sized plastic pouches, frozen solid and then sold straight from the freezer in tiny general stores across the islands.
There’s a trick to eating them.
If you simply tear them open and suck on them, you’ll get a mouthful of intense cordial but be left with a flavourless block of ice.
Waiting for it to melt isn’t much fun either.
The preferred method, on St Lucia at least, is to bash the unopened plastic bag against something hard to break it up into smaller pieces and then suck it.
In the local Saint Lucian parlance, you ‘sock it.’
Not surprisingly, the song was a huge hit in the Caribbean – arguably the most popular ‘jumpy’ soca song of the past couple of years.
And Ambi reached the finals of the Play Weh International Soca competition in Trinidad with it, impressing the judges with his ‘hi-octane, onstage energy.’
Which is hardly surprising.
The squash used to flavour ice lollies are notorious for containing a hell of a lot of sugar.
NB: It would be remiss of us not to point out that the song may interpreted more salaciously in some quarters of the Caribbean.
Just saying.
Main image: Ambi chilling in Saint Lucia. Ice lolly not shown. (© Ambroise Joseph)
