THE story goes that the very first ice lolly – with a stick handle – was accidentally invented by an 11-year-old American in 1905. Frank Epperson left a glass topped up with water, powdered soda and a wooden stirring stick outside overnight – and the rest is decades of tasty, cooling history.
It took a while from that point for the ice lolly industry to take off commercially though. Wall’s only started selling ice creams almost two decades later, in 1922, the same year the trusty choc ice came into being.
But it was not until the 1950s that ice lolly innovators really got into their stride though. Remember this lot?
The mid to late-50s saw the welcome advent of several ice lollies that are still much-loved favourites today. It was the decade that brought us the 99 from Mr Whippy (sadly, rarely found for less than a couple of quid now).
We also got the classic Cornetto as well as cheap-and-cheerful ices, including the Calippo, the Orange Maid and the now defunct Mivvi.
Mivvi Ice Creams and Orange Maids dominated much of the 1960s too, but were given a run for their money in the freezer space stakes after the Zoom hit shelves in 1962 (also known as the “rocket lolly”). It was swiftly followed by the Fab, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
The 1970s brought us Cola Quenches, cider lollies (sadly, they didn’t contain any alcohol) and many a Wall’s Lemonade Sparkle were devoured during the heatwave summer of ’76. This was also the decade that gave us the Screwball, which promised a gum ball under the ice cream.
In the 1980s came the king of all ice lollies, the Twister – a core of strawberry ice, encased in a twirl of pineapple ice cream and lime flavoured ice. Wall’s Funny Feet were hot on the Twister’s heels, as was the Magnum.
Come the 1990s and 2000s, it was all about ice lolly sequels. The Solero got a cousin; Solero Shots (which had to be knocked back quickly, or else you’d end up with a slush of highlighter pen-coloured ice you couldn’t get out of the Dalek-shaped tub); the Mars bar got frozen, and so did the Kit-Kat, which flopped spectacularly as the wafers went soggy.
The most successful was the Fruit Pastille ice lolly, which still makes an excellent back-up if there are no Calippos left.
It feels like a long time since any brand attempted to unseat the mainstays of the ice lolly world. Instead the 2010s have ushered in grown-up boozy popsicles (gin & tonic, prosecco and peach), all-natural sorbets and artisan ice creams with eclectic flavourings, from bay leaf to lychee and chilli.
But there’s still more fun in a fab.
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