Box Vox

packaging as content

October 18, 2007

Ivins’ Famous Spiced Wafers

Ivins
Discovered this seasonal, regional cookie item on a visit to South Jersey. Apparently it is a fall tradition around Philadelphia and the greater Delaware Valley area. (See related blog post.)

I admire how different this box is from other items in the same product category—(an Oreo package, for example)—no 3D edible typography here. Just plain old type being flat. Old fashioned design, but a bracing use of only 2 colors. I’ve always been a sucker for fluorescent orange.

We speculate that this obscure delicacy survives because of regional and seasonal recipes. (Much like Nilla Wafers, and Graham Crackers.) There is a recipe for a pie crust on the side which I am curious to sample.

5 Responses to “Ivins’ Famous Spiced Wafers”

  1. J. D. King says:

    From Staten Island comes a sad attempt to revive the Cold War?

  2. Kelly says:

    RE: Leninaid
    All I can tell you is that it tastes OK and for some reason is really popular with college students who do too much gaming (xbox live to rockstar/guitar hero to D&D) I am not sure why other than it’s heavy sugar content. (It also goes well with vodka, but I am unsure if this is a factor.) The local Famima!! shops sell it in mass quantities.

  3. Lily says:

    I’ve had Leninade. The bottle is plastered with literally dozens of little Yakov Smirnoff-caliber “it’s this or the Gulag!” type jokes printed on the bottlecap, on the label, on the glass of the bottle itself…

  4. Lily, Thanks for the comment. For me, the ironic use of the hammer & sickle symbol will always remind me of the 1966 movie by Karel Reisz, “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment”… Although I guess there are also plenty of more recent example of it (New York Dolls early gigs with Malcolm Mclaren as manager; Komar & Melamid…) Part of the appeal, I think, for post-Mccarthy baby boom generation was the ‘dangerous’ idea of flirting with Communism. Hammer & Sickle = radical, crazy and hip. (And now: nostalgic)
    http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/morgan_a_suitable/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan%21

  5. Vincent Vacco says:

    I have an old bottle of Sapporo Beer.
    Imported by Corydon & Ohlrich Inc.
    Chicago, Ill.
    Can you tell me if it is worth anything.
    Thank You
    Vince Vacco