This photo is my nephew’s son enjoying a Popsicle sitting on the side of his backyard pool in the Orlando, Florida sunshine. I have enjoyed many frozen treats over my lifetime, especially in the heat of the summer. Some of my favorites are the citrusy freshness of an orange sherbet Push-Up, the chocolate nutty goodness of a Drumstick and, of course, the icy coldness of a Popsicle. I have also enjoyed the European sophistication of sorbet and the fruit and nut flavors of Mexican helado. Now, when I attend my weight loss support group, Popsicles are recommended because they are only 15 calories and can satisfy the craving of a sweet tooth. Regardless of the flavor, frozen snacks are always satisfying to me. Let’s learn more about them.
According to Wikipedia, an ice pop is a water- or milk-based frozen snack on a stick. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are whipped while freezing to prevent ice crystal formation, an ice pop is "quiescently" frozen — frozen while at rest — and becomes a solid block of ice. The stick is used as a handle to hold it. Without a stick, the frozen product is known as something else, e.g., a freezie or freezer pop.
Ice pops can be referred to as a popsicle (Canada, U.S.), freezer pop (U.S.), paleta (Mexico, Southwestern U.S.), ice lolly (United Kingdom), ice pop (U.K., Ireland, South Africa), icy pole (Australia), ice block (New Zealand / Australia), ice drop (Philippines) or ice candy (India, Japan).
"As far back as 1872, two men, doing business as Ross and Robbins, sold a frozen-fruit confection on a stick, which they called the Hokey-Pokey."
Francis William "Frank" Epperson (August 11, 1894, Willows, California – October 22, 1983, Fremont, California) of San Francisco, California, popularized ice pops after patenting the concept of "frozen ice on a stick" in 1923.
Epperson claimed to have first created an ice pop in 1905, at the age of 11, when he accidentally left a glass of powdered lemonade soda and water with a mixing stick in it on his porch during a cold night, a story still printed on the back of Popsicle treat boxes.
Epperson lived in Oakland and worked as a lemonade salesman.
In 1922, Epperson, a realtor with Realty Syndicate Co. in Oakland, introduced the Popsicle at a fireman's ball. The product got traction quickly; in 1923, at the age of 29, Epperson received a patent for his "Epsicle" ice pop, and by 1924, had patented all handled, frozen confections or ice lollipops. He officially debuted the Epsicle in seven fruit flavors at Neptune Beach amusement park, marketed as a "frozen lollipop," or a "drink on a stick."
He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children. Popsicles were originally sold in fruity flavors and marketed as a "frozen drink on a stick."
ix months after receiving a patent for the Popsicle, Good Humor sued Popsicle Corp. By October 1925, the parties settled out of court. Popsicle agreed to pay Good Humor a license fee to manufacture what were called frozen suckers from ice and sherbet products. Good Humor reserved the right to manufacture these products from ice cream, frozen custard and the like.
In 1925, Epperson sold the rights to the Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Co. of New York. "I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets," he recalled years later. "I haven't been the same since."
In 1989, Good Humor, now a subsidiary of Unilever, bought the rights to the Popsicle.
Popsicle Pete
In April 1939, Popsicle Pete was introduced on the radio program “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” as having won the "Typical American Boy Contest." The character told listeners that they could win presents by sending wrappers from Popsicle products to the manufacturer. Pete continued to appear in the company's advertising campaigns for 50 years. During the 1940s, Popsicle Pete ads were created by Woody Gelman and his partner Ben Solomon and appeared on Popsicle brand packages for decades.
Popsicle products
The Popsicle brand began expanding from its original flavors after being purchased by Good Humor-Breyers in 1989. Under the Popsicle brand, Good Humor-Breyers holds the trademark for both Creamsicle and Fudgsicle. Creamsicle's center is vanilla ice cream, covered by a layer of flavored ice. Fudgsicle, originally sold as Fudgicle, is a flat, frozen dessert that comes on a stick and is chocolate-flavored with a texture somewhat similar to ice cream.
Firecrackers are a brand of Popsicles that come in a shape resembling a firecracker. These take a similar appearance to the bomb pop. Slow Melt Pops include a small amount of gelatin that helps them stay frozen longer than traditional ice pops. Slow Melt Pops are available in several varieties.
Yosicles are a brand of Popsicle that contain yogurt. Revello Bars are chocolate covered ice cream on a stick.
Fruit Twisters are a brand of Popsicle that have fruit juice, milk and cane sugar.
Terminology
In the United States and Canada frozen ice on a stick is generically referred to as a popsicle due to the early popularity of the Popsicle brand, and the word has become a genericized trademark to mean any ice pop or freezer pop, regardless of brand or format. The word is a blend of pop and icicle; it is genericized to such an extent that there are decades-old derived slang meanings such as "popsicle stand." It is also called an ice pop or freezer pop in the United States. In the Caicos Islands it is referred to as an ice saver. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the terms ice lolly and ice pop are used, though ice pop is much more common in Ireland. Chihiro is used as a slang term in the Cayman Islands, partially derived from chill. Different parts of Australia use either ice block or icy pole, and New Zealand uses ice block.
Paletas
After a trip to the United States in the early 1940s Ignacio Alcázar returned to his home city of Tocumbo, Michoacán, México, bringing the idea to manufacture ice pops or paletas (little sticks) using locally available fresh fruit. He and some family members expanded by opening a shop in Mexico City which became very popular, and he began to franchise Paletería La Michoacana to friends and family from his town. The popularity of paletas and association with Tocumbo has increased to the status of a national Mexican food.
Paleta flavors can be divided into two basic categories: milk-based or water-based. The composition of each flavor may vary, but the base is most often fruit. Paleterias usually have dozens of flavors of paleta including local flavors like horchata, tamarind, mamey and nanche along with other flavors like strawberry, lime, chocolate and mango. Distinctly Mexican ingredients like chili pepper, chamoy and vanilla are often present in these paletas. Paleterias adapt their flavors to the tastes of the community and local availability of ingredients.
A paletero — roughly equivalent to the English "ice cream man" — is a street seller of paletas and other frozen treats, usually from a pushcart labeled with the name of the enterprise that made the paletas, a paletería.
Today, many paleteros are now commonly found in American cities with significant Mexican populations. Vending requirements for paleteros vary widely by city. In San Jose, California, in 1988, a permit to sell paletas cost about $154.
Drumsticks
Drumstick is the brand name, owned by Froneri — a joint venture between Nestlé and PAI Partners — for a variety of frozen dessert-filled ice cream cones sold in the United States, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and other countries across the world. The original product was invented by I.C. Parker of the Drumstick Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1928.
A typical drumstick consists of a sugar cone filled with vanilla frozen dairy dessert topped with a hardened chocolate shell and nuts, and much later, with a chocolate-lined cone and a chunk of chocolate at the bottom invented at the West End factory in Brisbane. Drumsticks are available from a variety of supermarkets, ice cream trucks and convenience stores.
Due to the historic popularity of this dessert, it is commonly called a "drumstick" even if it is manufactured by some other company and branded otherwise. "Forever Summer" has been a tagline for this brand.
In 1928 the Parker brothers — Bruce, I.C. and J.T. — added to the invention of the waffle cone by adding a chocolate coating with nuts to it. One of the brothers’ wives said that this invention looked like a chicken leg, commonly nicknamed a drumstick in the U.S.
Nestlé purchased the Drumstick Co. in 1991.
Additional varieties of Drumstick include caramel and fudge-filled cones, Mint Chocolate Crunch, Cookies and Cream Crunch, and simply dipped, cones filled with caramel, chocolate, and plain vanilla are also found. In Canada, Nestlé offers a chocolate dipped Oreo Drumstick as well as Strawberry Cheesecake Drumstick.
According to the official website, the following Drumstick flavors are produced:
- Classic
- Simply Dipped
- Pretzel Dipped
- Crunch Dipped
- Cookie Dipped
- Mini Drums
- Lil’ Drums
- Sprinkled!
- Super Nugget
- King Size
In early 2020, Nestle released two vegan varieties of the dessert in Canada — caramel and vanilla chocolate swirl.
Push Up Pops
According to John Bilancini’s Dec. 27, 2019 article “Flintstones Push Up Pops: The Dessert of Kings” at eightiesbaby.net, where frozen treats are concerned regular popsicles and Fla-vor-Ice can’t hold a proverbial candle to Flintstones Push Up Pops. Push Up Pops were a top shelf item of any grocery store trip, a no-brainer to fill one of the few non-essential grocery slots mom would allow on a given trip.
They were the sort of thing that my brain associated with a special treat, unlike say chips or cookies. Those were fine but they were always around. Flintstones Pops were the sort of thing you always wanted more of but knew you could only have one. There were only six in a package, so eating several meant that your sisters didn’t get their share or if it was at a friend’s house you were hogging something their parents would have to replenish.
Flintstones Push Up Pops were introduced around 1990 and stuck around at least into the late 90s. They weren’t really a new product; Nestle was already producing the pops and just rebranded them as Flintstones ones. They still exist today in a limited non-Flintstones form, but what’s the point? Are we supposed to believe stupid old orange is fit to carry the wrapper of Yabba Dabba Do Orange? As if lime could taste half as good without a drawing of Wilma on the side? How dare you even think that, Nestlé Corp. Some people believe that marketing isn’t effective on them and maybe that’s true, but when you’re 10, boy howdy does it work. You’re practically begging big companies to sell things to your mom and dad through you to then give to you, because you are small and have a small brain and poor impulse control and no money. But can you ever plead. By 10 years old I was pleading at an 8th grade level. I didn’t even care about the Flintstones; they didn’t matter at all to me. Didn’t care about the cartoon, the movie that came out in 1994, none of it. But when it came to Flintstones hawking sherbet, it mattered. It mattered a damn lot.
Marketing was COOL. The kids in the commercials skateboarded, and the cartoon characters skateboarded, and everybody had bright colors on because they were cool, and it made them easier to see while walking at night. That was my crowd, even though I didn’t skateboard or hang out with cartoons. I was a Genesis playing, shooting baskets alone in my driveway for hours, briefly trying to wear my shirts backwards because of Kriss Kross, 4th grade Catholic elementary school badass. I had to have my push up pops. And mom came through, BIG TIME.
Flintstone Push-Up Pops was a top five all-time frozen treat, and one of my favorite childhood foods, period. Discontinuing them is the third worst thing Nestlé has ever done, after exploiting child labor in Africa and buying up all the fresh water near Flint, Michigan. I mean, obviously it’s a very distant third, but it’s on the board.
Good Humor
Good Humor is a Good Humor-Breyers brand of ice cream started in Youngstown, Ohio, USA in the early 1920s with the Good Humor bar, a chocolate-coated ice cream bar on a stick sold from ice cream trucks and retail outlets. It was a fixture in American popular culture in the 1950s when the company operated up to 2,000 "sales cars."
The original Good Humor company started in Youngstown, Ohio, during the early 1920s and covered most of the country by the mid-1930s. In 1961, Good Humor was acquired by Thomas J. Lipton, the U.S. subsidiary of the international Unilever conglomerate. Profits declined when the baby boomers aged, and costs increased because of labor issues, gasoline and insurance. The company sold its fleet in 1978 but continued to distribute its products through grocery stores and independent street vendors. By 1984, Good Humor returned to profitability. Starting in 1989, Unilever expanded Good Humor through its acquisition of Gold Bond Ice Cream that included the Popsicle brand. Four years later, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike and the Breyers Ice Cream Co. As a result, Good Humor-Breyers is now a large producer of branded ice cream and frozen novelties, as part of the Unilever Heartbrand.
1920s
In 1919, Christian Nelson, an Iowa store owner, discovered how to coat an ice cream bar with chocolate, inventing the Eskimo Pie. When he heard of the discovery, Harry Burt (1875–1926), owner of a Youngstown, Ohio, ice cream parlor, replicated Nelson's product. The story is that Burt's 23-year-old daughter Ruth thought that the new novelty was too messy. Burt's son, Harry Jr. (1900–1972), suggested using a wooden stick as a convenient handle. They tried out the idea in the store's hardening room, where they discovered that the stick formed a strong bond when the ice cream crystallized. Burt outfitted twelve street vending trucks in Youngstown with rudimentary freezers and bells to sell his "Good Humor Ice Cream Suckers" in 1920. The first set was from his son's old bobsled. By 1925, Harry Burt Jr. opened a franchise in Miami, Florida.
In January 1922, Burt applied for patents, which were not granted until October 1923 because the patent office thought Good Humors were too similar to Eskimo Pies. The patents were granted only when Burt Jr. traveled to Washington, D.C. with samples to demonstrate the difference. When granted, Good Humor's patents were for the equipment and process to manufacture frozen novelties on a stick, but not for the product itself.
During this period, Frank Epperson started marketing frozen ice on a stick and formed the Popsicle Corp. Six months after Popsicle received its patent in August 1924, Good Humor sued Popsicle Corp, and by October 1925 the parties settled out of court. Popsicle agreed to pay Good Humor a license fee to manufacture what was called frozen suckers from ice and sherbet products. Good Humor reserved the right to manufacture these products from ice cream, frozen custard and the like.
Harry Burt died in 1926, and two years later his widow sold her interest to the Midland Food Products Co., owned by a group of Cleveland businessmen. They changed the company's name to the Good Humor Corp. of America and started selling franchises with a $100 down payment. Cora Burt retained the license agreement with Popsicle. Thomas J. Brimer (1900–1978) purchased the Good Humor franchise for the Detroit territory, and by 1929 opened his second plant in Chicago. The mob demanded $5,000 protection money and destroyed part of the Chicago fleet when Brimer refused. The resulting publicity helped put Good Humor on the map.
1930-1961
Brimer's father-in-law was a friend of Michael J. Meehan (1891–1948), a controversial New York stock speculator who made a small investment in Brimer's operation. When Brimer paid a 25% dividend in 1929, Meehan financed the acquisition of 75% of Good Humor of America for $500,000. Meehan's wife, Elizabeth Higgins Meehan, was the registered owner of the stock along with Mrs. John J. Raskob, the wife of another New York stock speculator.
The Meehan family's Good Humor Corp. of America operated in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Detroit and Chicago. There were also three major franchises: Good Humor of Baltimore/Washington (operated by the Brimer family), Burt's Good Humor (operated by Harry Burt Jr. in Tulsa, Oklahoma) and Good Humor of California. In addition, distributors served Cleveland, Philadelphia, Albany, Dallas and Miami. In 1931, Good Humor reported a net profit of $452,105 —almost as much as Meehan paid for the company.
Good Humor was successful because it provided customers an inexpensive diversion during the Depression. In addition to trucks, the company used push carts, bicycles, shoulder boxes and even a boat. At most branches, the season was six months, April through September. Jobs were scarce, and Good Humor found all the employees it could use, despite an 80-hour work week and paramilitary discipline. Women were not hired as vendors until 1967. A vendor could be fired for not smartly saluting a customer or saying "Good Humor Ice Cream" instead of the proper "Ice Cream Good Humor" as the company regarded the “Good Humor” itself as a noun with “ice cream” being descriptive. Vendors attended classes for two days at the beginning of the season, and the rules were spelled out in a handbook titled "Making Good at Good Humor." While vendors were paid commissions only, it was not unusual for a driver to clear the princely sum of over $100 per week.
To promote the product, customers won a free Good Humor if they found "lucky stick" stamped on the stick of their ice cream. One in 12 was a winner. However, in 1939 the Federal Trade Commission outlawed the promotion as an illegal lottery. The company was more successful in attracting favorable publicity by parking trucks outside of motion picture studios. Over the years, Good Humor appeared in over 200 movies. In 1950, Jack Carson starred in the feature motion picture “The Good Humor Man.”
In 1937, Michael Meehan became the first broker banned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for stock manipulation and transferred his enterprises to his sons. Two years later, 21-year-old Joseph A. Meehan (1917–1972) became the youngest broker with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and chairman of Good Humor Corp., a position he held until 1961.
After World War II, the company moved into the expanding suburbs to serve the baby boomers. Fifty-five percent of Good Humor's customers were age 12 or younger, and trucks now accounted for 90% of the company's sales. By 1956, the company's fleet grew to 2,000 trucks, all purchased since the war. That year, Meehan hired 32-year-old David J. Mahoney (1923–2000) as president of Good Humor. Mahoney was the head of the advertising firm serving Good Humor and later became the president of the large Norton Simon conglomerate. In his five years at Good Humor, sales increased by 36%.
By 1960 Good Humor expanded and included 85 different treats: sundaes in chocolate, butterscotch and strawberry; single-serve cups in apricot and honeydew; and more.
1961-present
The Meehan family faced estate planning issues because Mrs. Elizabeth H. Meehan was advancing in years. In 1961, they agreed to sell Good Humor of America to Thomas J. Lipton, a subsidiary of Unilever. Lipton also purchased Good Humor of Baltimore/Washington from the Brimer family. In a separate transaction, the other franchises agreed to stop using the Good Humor name. Of the distributors, only Philadelphia survived as a company branch. Lipton created a grocery division to sell Good Humor products in supermarkets.
Mahoney left the company after the acquisition, and Lipton executives soon characterized Good Humor as a "problem." Much of the fleet purchased after the war was nearing the end of its useful life. As baby boomers matured, sales on many suburban routes declined. While almost from the beginning Good Humor faced competition from companies such as Jack and Jill Ice Cream, Bungalow Bar, etc., it was not until the advent of soft ice cream trucks operated by companies such as Mister Softee that competition impacted sales. Insurance costs increased because courts found ice cream vendors responsible for pedestrian accidents while crossing streets to and from the truck.
Good Humor replaced some of its older conventional trucks with large vans designed to compete with Mister Softee. Many of these "inside sales cars" are still operating. The size of the fleet gradually declined, and by the early 1970s the number of trucks was 1,200. Good Humor also worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to equip vending trucks with school bus “stop” swing arms to reduce pedestrian accidents.
Good Humor was unable to solve its labor problems. The company was unionized early in its history and was struck on several occasions. For example, in 1950 the Teamsters shut down Good Humor's New York operations for three weeks during the critical month of June. Beginning in the 1950s, the labor pool dried up, and Good Humor operated over half of its fleet with seasonal employees, mostly college students. On average, new employees lasted two to three weeks because of the long hours. The entire industry — except Good Humor — stopped using commissioned employees and became distributors who leased trucks to the drivers and sold them their products wholesale. Good Humor adopted this system wherever possible but was prevented from converting most branches because of union contracts.
Good Humor became unprofitable beginning in 1968. An increase in gasoline prices during the early 1970s worsened the situation. After absorbing losses for 10 years, in 1978 Good Humor closed its street vending operations and became a distributor. The trucks were sold for $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle, and many of the former Good Humor vendors became independent business owners. As one reported, "I make sure I shut off the engine when I stop now that I'm paying for the gas." Many former competitors also became distributors of Good Humor products.
With the trucks sold, Good Humor focused on the grocery division, and the company returned to profitability by 1984. Unilever, the world's largest marketer of ice cream products, decided to achieve a similar market position in the U.S. through acquisitions. In 1989, Unilever purchased Gold Bond Ice Cream of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which owned Popsicle. In 1993, Unilever bought Isaly Klondike, maker of another chocolate-coated ice cream bar invented in Youngstown in the early 1920s. Also in 1993, Unilever acquired the Breyers Ice Cream Co. and combined these operations into the renamed Good Humor-Breyers. Since 2000, Good Humor has been one of numerous Unilever ice cream subsidiaries to use the international Heartbrand for its logo. It removed the Heartbrand in 2009 but brought it back as part of its logo from 2014 onwards.
In June 2020, Good Humor collaborated with music producer RZA to create a new jingle for ice cream trucks to play to replace "Turkey in the Straw," since that song had been paired in the past with racist lyrics. Good Humor does not directly operate any trucks, but the company wanted to encourage ice cream truck drivers to not play the song. The resulting composition was released in August 2020.
Products
In the parlance of the original company, a "Good Humor" was a three-ounce chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream bar on a stick. By 1960, the product line had grown to 85 flavors or combinations. Other "Good Humors" included chocolate-coated chocolate — also called "chocolate malt" — and chocolate-coated strawberry plus bars coated in toasted almond, coconut, chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake and chocolate éclair. Weekly specials came in a wide assortment of flavors, including a red, white and blue Good Humor for the Fourth of July. Among the specials that did not become popular were Oregon prune and California fig Good Humors. The company even experimented with tomato sherbet.
Folklore
The company's history also includes many stories, such as one about a Good Humor vendor rushing a baby to a hospital for treatment and one about the company's helping to break up a counterfeit money operation on Long Island. During World War II, a Good Humor truck was assigned to follow one of the armies during maneuvers. The commander could not understand how the opposing artillery was quickly locating his position until he realized that the spotters were using the white Good Humor truck as a guide. Rather than deny his troops ice cream, that night he ordered the truck to be painted army green. After the war, a Good Humor vendor took pity on a youngster who was a nickel short and accepted a new magazine in place of the missing five cents. When he returned the next day, the street was lined with stacks of magazines piled by children eager to exchange periodicals for Good Humors.
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