Ice pop

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An ice pop is a frozen water dessert on a stick that is colored and flavored. It is made by freezing colored, flavored water around a stick. Fruit juice can also be used, either by itself or in a mixture with water and other ingredients. Once solid, the stick is then used as a handle to hold the ice pop. In Ireland the term "ice pop" is used, but it is usually called an ice lolly (or, rarely, lollyice) in the United Kingdom, ice block in Australia and New Zealand, and icy pole in Australia (from the brand name Icy Pole). In the United States and Canada it is almost always called a popsicle due to the early popularity of the Popsicle brand, and the word has entered the vernacular there to mean any ice pop, irrespective of brand.

The first recorded ice pop was created in 1905 by 11-year-old Frank Epperson in San Francisco, who left a glass of soda water powder and water outside in his back porch with a wooden mixing stick in it. That night the temperature dropped below freezing, and when Epperson returned to the drink the next morning, he found that the soda water had frozen inside the glass, and that by running it under hot water, he was able to remove (and eat) the frozen soda water chunk using the stick as a handle.<ref>Hall of Fame.</ref>

The ice-lollipop was introduced to the public for the first time at an Oakland ball for firemen in 1922. In 1923, Epperson applied for a patent for "frozen ice on a stick" called the Epsicle ice pop, which he re-named the Popsicle, allegedly at the instigation of his children. This brand is now one of the most famous in the United States.

In the United Kingdom, the term "ice lolly" tends to be used generically for any frozen dessert on a stick, including those which are predominantly ice cream- or fruit juice-based as well as the traditional water-based confections. The term "ice pop" is usually used for a similar water-based dessert frozen in a sealed long, narrow plastic bag instead of on a stick. The top of the bag is cut off and the ice pop is progressively pushed up as it is consumed. These are now much less common than they once were.