What Is Hokey Pokey Ice Cream And What's In It?

When most people are asked what their favorite ice cream flavors are, their answer is probably something like chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla ice cream. And while these may be staple flavors in many countries, some places have other additional flavors that are household favorites.

One such country with some popular yet unique flavors is New Zealand. Besides the standard vanilla and chocolate options, they've also got something called Hokey Pokey ice cream. Hokey Pokey ice cream has a vanilla ice cream base with hokey pokey bits strewn throughout. And, if you're not sure what hokey pokey is, it's a type of honeycomb toffee made of sugar, golden syrup (a type of treacle syrup), and baking soda.

However, understanding the ingredients behind hokey pokey ice cream is just the tip of the iceberg for this classic Kiwi dessert. Here's what else you need to know about hokey pokey ice cream, as well as some other hokey pokey treats that are almost as good as the ice cream.

Hokey pokey ice cream couldn't have come about without the invention of hokey pokey itself first. However, there's very little information about who invented this treat or where it originated. While similar honeycomb candy recipes are thought to have been invented sometime between the 1850s and the 1940s, in New Zealand, hokey pokey was patented by a man from Dunedin in 1896.

While the candy itself may have been patented in the late 1800s, it wasn't until roughly half a century later, in 1953, that the ice cream itself came to be. According to the New Zealand Herald, the going story is that a man named Brian Simon, who worked at a family ice cream business, was the first to whip up this ice cream flavor. He experimented by adding crushed-up hokey pokey chocolate bars to a batch of ice cream, thus giving birth to a new flavor. Of course, this story is up for debate and may be purely legend.

Whether or not the legend is actually true, what we do know for sure is that hokey pokey ice cream has now become a popular flavor in New Zealand. The New Zealand Herald tells us that in 2016, hokey pokey ice cream won the Supreme Award at the New Zealand Ice Cream Association Awards (NZICMA). Later, in 2019, it took home gold, as proudly stated on the TipTop site itself.

Hokey pokey ice cream isn't the only hokey pokey product in New Zealand. In fact, hokey pokey is such a popular sweet that you can find it in several other tasty treats around the country.

You can always go for a classic chocolate bar with hokey pokey bits in it. One of New Zealand's popular chocolate makers, Whittaker's, makes a hokey pokey chocolate bar that, like the ice cream, features tiny bites of the toffee candy sprinkled throughout. Or, you can try Cadbury Chocolate's special edition Caramilk Hokey Pokey Bar — a white chocolate and caramelized milk powder chocolate bar with hokey pokey bits buried inside. Another chocolate bar to try is a Cadbury Crunchie, a thick slab of hokey pokey coated in Cadbury chocolate.

For those who aren't into chocolate, New Zealand has other creative ways for you to enjoy hokey pokey, too. There are several kiwi recipes for making a classic hokey pokey biscuit or whipping up a tasty hokey pokey cheesecake. Whether it's chocolate, ice cream, cookies, or cake, there's plenty of hokey pokey to go around in Kiwiland!