Taitung Sugar Apple Ice Pop 释迦冰
Taitung Sugar Apple Ice Pop is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Image notes
Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited.
Taitung Sugar Apple Ice Pop (释迦冰) is a frozen treat made from the sugar apple (释迦) of Taitung County (台东县) in eastern Taiwan. The Taitung Farmers' Association (台东地区农会), which calls the fruit the first thing outsiders associate with Taitung, says it made the first sugar-apple ice product on the market.
Where it comes from
Chinese Wikipedia lists Taiwan as the world's largest grower of sugar apples, and Taitung grows more than any other part of Taiwan: in 2020 the county had 2,529.10 of the island's 2,750.63 hectares planted with the big-eyed (大目) type.
The ice began as a way to use fruit that went soft before it could be picked in the peak season and could neither be kept nor sold. The association's food-processing plant bought these soft-ripe fruits from growers and, after repeated trials, turned them into ice products.
Ingredients
The association makes its sugar-apple ice without added flavourings, saccharin or chemical additives, aiming to keep the taste of the fruit, and sells it as both ice lollies and ice cream. A travel writer on ETtoday describes an ice pop sold by an unnamed stall near the Rishengtai (日昇台) grocery, up a mountain road and worth a detour for anyone passing Taimali (太麻里): it is 100% frozen big-eyed sugar apple packed in old-fashioned freezer bags.
Flavour and texture
The same writer describes that bagged ice pop as intensely flavoured, with flesh and seeds in every mouthful.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.