Hokey pokey is a flavour of ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 in Australia and New Zealand, consisting of plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid lumps of sponge toffee

Sponge toffee

Sponge toffee is a sugary confection with a light, rigid, sponge-like texture.The main ingredients are typically brown sugar, corn syrup and baking soda, sometimes with an acid such as vinegar. The baking soda and acid react to form carbon dioxide which is trapped in the highly viscous mixture...

 - known as "hokey pokey" in New Zealand. The original recipe until around 1980 consisted of solid toffee, but in a marketing change Tip-Top decided to use small balls of sponge toffee instead.

It is the most popular flavour after plain vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...

 in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, and a standard example of Kiwiana

Kiwiana

Kiwiana are certain items and icons from New Zealand's heritage, especially from around the middle of the 20th century that are seen as representing iconic Kiwi elements...

. It is also exported to Japan and the Pacific.

Etymology

"Hokey pokey" was a slang term for ice cream in general in the 19th and early 20th centuries in several areas — including New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and parts of Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 — 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, although no certain etymology is known.

The name may come from the term "hocus-pocus", or it may be a corruption of one of several Italian phrases. According to "The Encyclopedia of Food" (published 1923, New York) hokey pokey (in the U.S.) is "a term applied to mixed colors and flavors of ice cream in cake form". The Encyclopedia says the term originated from the Italian phrase oh che poco - "oh how little". Alternative possible derivations include other similar-sounding Italian phrases: for example ecco un poco - "here is a (little) piece".

Related uses

• Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Man) (1975) is a song by Richard & Linda Thompson.
• Hokey Pokey's Ice Creamery is an ice cream company in Corning, New York
  Corning (city), New York
  Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,842 at the 2000 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company that developed the community.- Overview :The city of...
  
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• Hokey Pokey is referenced in the Mike Leigh movie "Topsy Turvy" by Richard Barker as he leaves Richard D'Oyly-Carte's office on a very hot day, saying "I am going out for a little Italian hokey pokey and I care not who knows it."
• Hokey Pokey is a colloquialism for compromises in certain parts of the world.