Hokey pokey is a flavour of ice cream in Australia and New Zealand, consisting of plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid lumps of sponge toffee - known as "hokey pokey" in New Zealand.[1][2][3][4] 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 in New Zealand,[5] and a standard example of Kiwiana.[6] It is also exported to Japan and the Pacific.[7]
"Hokey pokey" was a slang term for ice cream in general in the 19th and early 20th centuries in several areas — including New York[8] 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, 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".