When I hear the distinct melody of an ice cream truck driving down the street, I'm immediately transported to summer in the 1980s. I'd hear the sound in the distance and stop everything I was doing to see if it was getting closer—and if it was, I'd immediately beg my mom or dad for money. And if no one was home, I'd scour every crevice for loose change like it was a matter of life or death.
Once I had just enough quarters, nickels and dimes, I'd sprint out of the house and start waving my hands like a maniac to make sure I was spotted. Then, it was time to consider the vast options: Was I in a Snow Cone sort of mood or interested in something richer, like a Choco Taco? And what would be my backup if I didn't have enough change? My seven-year-old brain would start thinking about more cost-effective options—like a Push-Up Pop or Screwball. While some are still around today, others have quietly disappeared—taking with them a piece of every '80s kid's childhood.
In honor of summer 2026—and three new nostalgic flavors from 5-hour ENERGY® (Firework Freeze, Raspberry Cooler and OrangeSicle)—I'm taking a walk down memory lane. Get ready to transport back to chasing down that treasure-filled truck with 16 ice cream truck treats that defined summer in the '80s.
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16 Forgotten Ice Cream Truck Treats That Defined Summer in the '80s
1. Screwball
Photo by MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images on Getty Images
The Screwball tasted like an Icee, but just a little thicker and came in a cone-shaped plastic cup. You had two flavors to choose from: cherry or blue raspberry. And don't forget the bubblegum ball waiting for you at the very bottom, leaving you with a little something extra after you finished the frozen treat.
Fun fact: The Screwball was specifically designed to solve a common '80s ice cream truck problem: the Bubble Play dilemma, where the gumball would fall off the popsicle before you could finish—or even fell off when you unwrapped it. With the Screwball, the gumball was safely trapped at the bottom—genius!
2. Rainbow Snow Cone
Photo by The Washington Post on Getty Images
A Rainbow Snow Cone wasn't just a treat—it was a statement. Crushed ice piled into a paper cone, drenched in stripes of red, blue and green syrup. Honestly, the flavors barely mattered because it was mostly just sugar, but the colors? Iconic. By the time you finished it, your tongue was a different shade entirely. And if you were like me, you inhaled the syrup immediately, only to be left with a cone full of flavorless crushed ice.
3. Candy Center Crunch
Good Humor
This super sweet chocolate fudge treat felt like an upgrade from the traditional Chocolate Eclair or Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bar. That's because while it had vanilla ice cream dipped in a chocolate crunchy shell, it also had a solid bar of chocolate right in the middle! I'll never forget the jealousy pouring out of my veins when my sister got one and showed me the surprise center. After that, it entered the rotation of my ice cream truck order list.
4. FrozFruit Bars
Wells
I don't know about you, but anytime I got the FrozFruit bar, I felt grown up and fancy. No frozen gumballs to be seen—instead, it had real fruit chunks inside. FrozFruit came in its famous clear packaging and you could choose from flavors like raspberry, strawberry, coconut—each one bursting with bright, refreshing flavor. It was basically the healthy ice cream truck option and a treat at the same time, making it the perfect treat to beat the summer heat.
Grown-Up Swap: That same vibrant, fruit-forward nostalgia is exactly what 5-hour ENERGY bottled up in their brand-new Raspberry Cooler flavor—sweet, tangy berry notes with a smooth, frosted finish that feels like a frozen summer dessert in shot form. It's available now exclusively at 7-Eleven and Speedway locations.
The orange sherbet Push-Up Pop was the original portable ice cream truck dessert. The cardboard tube, the little wooden stick that pushed the sherbet up as you ate it, the slightly tangy citrus flavor that always melted faster than you could eat it—pure '80s magic. Bonus points if you remember the sticky orange ring it left around your mouth—and will admit to accidentally eating tiny pieces of paper to get just one more lick.
6. Chipwich
Photo by Greg Vote, VStock LLC on Getty Images
The Chipwich was definitely one of the more elevated options available at the truck. Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two big, soft chocolate chip cookies. And the extra chocolate chips rolled around the edges? Chef's kiss. A regular ice cream sandwich could never. If you were able to find a Chipwich with chocolate ice cream, it was a major W.
Fun fact: The Chipwich was invented by a New York City lawyer named Richard LaMotta. He got his start selling them via a guerrilla marketing campaign in 1982—hiring 60 pushcart vendors in pith helmets and khaki uniforms to walk Manhattan and sell Chipwiches for $1 each. They sold all 25,000 the first day!
7. Orange Creamsicle
Popsicle
As a kid, orange creamsicles were definitely underrated—more so reserved for what your mom asked for as she was handing you a couple dollar bills before you sprinted out the front door. But as an adult, I get it. Super refreshing and less sugar than pretty much anything else on the menu.
5-hour ENERGY gets it, too. They just launched an entire flavor in its honor: OrangeSicle opens with a punch of fresh, juicy orange balanced by smooth vanilla. It's a love letter to the original and has as much caffeine as a 12 oz. cup of premium coffee.
5-hour ENERGY
8. WWE Ice Cream Bars
If you had brothers—or sons—this one will certainly ring a bell. Made by Gold Bond Ice Cream, these vanilla ice cream bars featured a frozen "cookie" lid with a hand-drawn portrait of a different wrestler. Options included Hulk Hogan, Randy "Macho Man" Savage and the Ultimate Warrior.
9. Bomb Pop
Photo by Ronda Churchill on Getty Images
The red, white and blue rocket-shaped popsicle is hands-down the most patriotic ice cream truck treat ever invented. Cherry, lime and blue raspberry in three perfectly stacked layers—it's been a summer staple since 1955. The Bomb Pop's original missile-shaped design was actually inspired by Cold War-era nuclear tension—the creators leaned into the patriotic, atomic-age aesthetic on purpose and Americans couldn't get enough.
Grown-Up Swap: If you want the adult version of this nostalgic treat, 5-hour ENERGY just launched Firework Freeze—a cherry, lime and blue raspberry shot inspired by the iconic ice pop. It's available now in stores nationwide and on Amazon.
Related: Why Is It Called a Bomb Pop? The 70-Year History Behind America’s Favorite Summer Treat
10. Strawberry Shortcake
Photo by Cindy Ord on Getty Images
My mouth is actually watering thinking about this one. Creamy vanilla ice cream with a luscious strawberry center, coated in a layer of pink-and-white strawberry shortcake crumbles that somehow stayed crunchy even after freezing. That crumb coating was everything—and if any crumbles fell off the stick into the wrapper, you better believe you were licking it out. (I eventually learned to lick the wrapper right after opening, so my true last bite was pure perfection with no hints of paper or plastic.)
11. Bubble Play
Photo by The Washington Post on Getty Images
The Bubble Play was a cherry-flavored ice pop shaped like a baseball glove, with a baseball-shaped gumball planted right in the middle. The cherry flavor was a homerun, but everyone had a different strategy while consuming it. Eat around the gumball until you got to the very end? Pull the gumball off and keep it wrapped tightly in your other hand? Just never immediately bite into the frozen gumball or you might break a tooth!
12. Ice Cream Sandwich
Photo by Roberto Machado Noa on Getty Images
The OG. A rectangle of vanilla ice cream wedged between two soft, slightly chocolatey, but totally unique cookies that always stuck to your fingers no matter how careful you were. By the end, the cookies were softer than the ice cream and your hands were a sticky chocolate mess. Worth it every time—and back then, they were made with actual ice cream and not ultra-processed, so they actually melted.
13. The Great White
Good Humor
Sharks went from scary to sweet when Good Humor launched The Great White. It was a lemon-flavored, but white-hued ice pop molded into the shape of a great white shark. It would weirdly get stuck to your tongue like the pole incident in A Christmas Story, but after that, it was smooth sailing. Sadly, these quietly disappeared from ice cream truck menus during the early 2000s.
14. Super Mario Bros. Bar
Gold Bar
Before Mario was an Oscar-winning movie franchise, he was a cherry-flavored ice pop. Made by Gold Bond Ice Cream, the Super Mario Bar was molded into the shape of Mario's iconic mustachioed face—including his iconic red cap with the letter M. The perfect touch? Making the pink gumball his nose, right above his cherry mustache.
15. Choco Taco
The Choco Taco was simply iconic. Vanilla ice cream and layers of fudge tucked inside a folded waffle-cone "taco" shell. Only this taco's fixin' was a chocolatey-peanut combo that made it a full-on dessert event in your hand. In addition to being on most ice cream truck menus, it was also available at select Taco Bell locations. The Choco Taco was discontinued in 2022 and it continues to be desperately missed. In February 2024, Taco Bell teamed up with ice cream co. Salt & Straw to bring back their own version, but sadly it was a limited-time offering.
The Choco Taco lore continues: A U.S. Senator tried to invoke the Defense Production Act to keep production going—and Reddit co-founderAlexis Ohanian publicly offered to buy the rights. (Sadly, neither attempt worked.)
16. Tweety Bird Pop
Photo by Albany Times Union/Hearst Newspapers on Getty Images
The Tweety Bird pop was the ultimate ice cream truck score for any '80s kid who loved Saturday morning cartoons. Shaped like Tweety's adorable little yellow head and flavored with a mix of zesty orange and sweet cherry, it came complete with two blue gumball eyes that were supposed to make Tweety look wide-eyed and curious. However, the end result was the opposite—frozen Tweety looked dazed and confused!
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