For 80 years, John's Water Ice has stood strong in South Philly as a destination for the city's favorite frozen treat made in classic, no-nonsense flavors.
Then came this summer, when third-generation owner Anthony Cardullo took a chance on a business pitch from a former high school classmate at Neumann-Goretti in the mid-1990s. Why not freeze-dry John's Water Ice and sell it as a crunchy candy bursting with flavor?
"I'm always interested in a new idea," Cardullo said outside his shop at 701 Christian St. "It sounded like something that could work."
Freeze-dried candy has been around since the 1950s but took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, spawning a new craze in the confectionary industry. The freeze-drying process removes the moisture from candy, making it more shelf-stable and giving it a crispy texture that retains flavor while maxing out sweetness.
"The flavors do become more intense because it crunches and hits your taste buds all at once," said Philip Kramer, Cardullo's old friend and classmate who came up with the idea to join forces.
Freeze-dried John's Water Ice is shown together with cups of the classic cherry and lemon flavors that were used to make the crunchy candy.
The tale of how Cardullo and Kramer wound up in business together goes back to a long-ago partnership between their grandfathers. In the years before John Cardullo founded John's Water Ice in 1945, the Sicilian immigrant got his start in Philly's kerosene delivery business with Kramer's grandfather, Nick Bagio Sr.
Once kerosene was phased out due to alternatives for heating and lighting, the two men followed different paths. Cardullo started a coal and oil delivery business and later opened up John's Water Ice next door as a source of summer income for his family. Bagio started an asparagus farm in South Jersey. The J. Cardullo & Sons heating and oil business, still located next to John's Water Ice, has evolved over the years and is run by Anthony's cousin.
Kramer is now the co-owner of SugarCrunch, a local business that specializes in freeze-drying popular candies. He and close friend Tommy Sandelier founded the company about two years ago and ran a short-lived storefront together in South Philly. The brand is best-known for its freeze-dried version of Skittles —called Scrunchums — that are now sold mostly online and wholesale along with SugarCrunch's other products.
Freeze-dried John's Water Ice is produced using buckets of actual cherry and lemon water ice prepared at the South Philly shop. It comes in packets that contain pellets about the size of a cheese curl. They're sold at John's storefronts in South Philly and Wildwood, online, from a vending machine in the food court of the Cherry Hill Mall and at several Jersey Shore businesses that purchase them wholesale.
Kramer and Sandelier first got into freeze-drying a few years ago when they started using plants to make nutrient-dense microgreens, which are often used for cooking. The pair had modest success with that venture, but one day their kids suggested freeze-drying candy instead after seeing videos of the process on TikTok. SugarCrunch — a name chosen by their kids — scaled quickly in the Philly area. But the company still needed a way to differentiate itself in a competitive market.
"We needed a first-to-market product, something no one else was doing," Kramer said. "I was thinking freeze-dried ice cream was the original freeze-dried candy, so what's the next best thing or even better? Water ice. We were already in the game and we knew we could make it happen."
Once Cardullo was on board, Kramer and Sandelier got to work experimenting with John's Water Ice at SugarCrunch's production facility in South Jersey. Freeze-drying extracts moisture by using a hot-cold dynamic of sublimation under vacuum pressure. The water ice is placed in machines that reach up to 150 degrees, and the machines sit inside larger spaces that are kept as low as -80 degrees.
After testing out various recipes, Kramer and Sandelier felt they landed on a flavor that's true to the traditional formula at John's Water Ice.
"I think it's great," Cardullo said. "It's pretty dead-on."
SugarCrunch has a patent pending for freeze dried water ice, and the company is aiming to produce about 100 packets per day. Kramer said a mango flavor is due out in September and SugarCrunch will add others as the business grows.
Cardullo and Kramer see their partnership as a full-circle moment. Kramer said some of his family members once worked at John's Water Ice over the years. Anthony, who started helping his father run the business by the time he was 8 years old, now has help from his kids and young relatives. That enabled him to open new franchises in Logan Square and Wildwood this year, in addition to another long-running location in Huntingdon Valley.
"He's building his own legacy after taking over an already iconic product," Kramer said.