Jäätise/hooaeg (ice cream season) is in full swing and Estonians love their ice cream. It's particularly great to see older people enjoying jäätis on the street and in parks. It's an indulgence that's hard to resist even for people on a strict budget, as most Estonian senior citizens are. Jäätis is a quintessential part of suvi (summer), especially in northern climes, where the warm weather and explosion of nature is long-awaited. Jää = ice and jäätis could be translated as "something icy". The word for cream (koor) is not part of the word in Estonian, but is definitely part of the product. In the case of the koore/jäätis, the package states: 15% koorejäätis, which literally means 15% "cream ice cream", i.e. 15% milk fat.
The name "eriti rammus" means particularly rich and is the polar opposite of products dubbed "light" and fat-free (rasva/vaba). This rammus brand of jäätis, made by Premia (premiafoods.eu) was originally introduced as cones in vanilli, šokolaadi, ploomi (plum), punase sõstra (red current) and new this year is murakas (cloudberry), the golden raspberry of the far north. Nämma! (Yummy!) Some say nämmu, nämmi or just nämm as well. It all equals tasty and derives from kids-speak, where nämm is a cutesy word for food, often of the chewed variety (nämmutama = to chew long and hard). Tasty = maitsev and appetizing = isu/äratav.
A cone is called a vahvel (waffle) or tuutu, from the name of a rolled up paper cone. A smaller cone with a flat bottom is known as a vahvli/tops (waffle cup). A tops is a (usually lightweight) cup, such as the kind used for take-out coffee – kohvi/tops. Ice cream bars are pulgajäätis ("stick ice cream") and popsicles or ice pops = pulga/jää ("stick ice") or mahla/jää (juice ice). Larger packages, such as a liiter or more of jäätis are known as perejäätised or family ice creams.
Although the jäätis in the photo is perched on a pulk for the purposes of advertising, the real thing is actually a circular chunk of ice cream perched between two round vahvlid, as pictured on its wrapper. This is something new in Eesti and in the case of this particular brand has been given the name AMPS. An amps is a bite-size of something nämmi, derived from the sound you make when you devour it; sort of like chomp, munch or crunch. The round ice cream cookie-like treat is actually more than a suu/piste (bite-size) and takes about 5 or 6 ampsu to eat.
When coercing a child to fnish their meal, one might say, "Ainult kolm ampsu veel" = Only 3 more bites. When a mouthful enters a baby's mouth, the person feeding him/her tends to say: "Amps! or Ampsti!" as a kind of vicarious cheering-on. "Amps! ja kakuke oli koera kõhus" – Chomp! And the bun was in the dog's tummy. "Palun anna üks amps õuna" – Please give me a bite of your apple.
Jätku jäätist! May there always be enough ice cream.
Riina Kindlam,
Tallinn
