Hokey pokey is a flavour of ice cream in New Zealand consisting of plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid ⚾️ lumps of honeycomb toffee. Hokey pokey is the New Zealand term for honeycomb toffee.[2][3][4][5] The original recipe until around 1980 ⚾️ consisted of solid toffee, but in a marketing change, Tip Top decided to use small balls of honeycomb toffee instead.

It ⚾️ is the second-most popular ice cream flavour behind vanilla in New Zealand,[6] and is a frequently cited example of Kiwiana.[7] ⚾️ It is also exported to Japan, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.[8]

Origins and etymology [ edit ]

The term hokey pokey has ⚾️ been used in reference to honeycomb toffee in New Zealand since the late 19th century. The origin of this term, ⚾️ in reference to honeycomb specifically, is not known with certainty, and it is not until the mid-20th century that hokey ⚾️ pokey ice cream was created.[citation needed]

Coincidentally, "hokey pokey" was a slang term for ice cream in general in the 19th ⚾️ and early 20th centuries in several areas — including New York City[9] and parts of Great Britain — specifically for ⚾️ the ice cream sold by street vendors or "hokey pokey men". The vendors, said to be mostly of Italian descent, ⚾️ supposedly used a sales pitch or song involving the phrase "hokey pokey", for which several origins have been suggested. One ⚾️ such song in use in 1930s Liverpool was "Hokey pokey penny a lump, that's the stuff to make ye jump".[10]