Each summer on the 26th of August, Popsicle lovers across the United States enjoy National Cherry Popsicle Day.
One evening in 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson mixed a batch of soda on his porch and left it with the stirring stick still in it for the night. That evening in San Francisco, California the temperature dipped to record lows and the following morning, Frank discovered instead of soda pop, a frozen treat on a stick. Inspired, he created the fruit-flavored “Popsicle”.
It wasn’t until years later, in 1922 during a fireman’s ball, that he introduced his frosty treat. With the Popsicle’s huge success, Epperson proceeded to make and sell his frozen sweetness at an amusement park in Alameda, California. By 1924, he applied for a patent where he called it the “Epsicle” ice pop. He later renamed it “Popsicle”.
One of the summertime’s favorite treats, National Cherry Popsicle Day honors one of the top flavors!
- Epperson continued to make the ice pops for his friends and family, but didn’t file a patent for them until the 1920s. When he did, he wanted to continue calling the treats Epsicles—a portmanteau of his name and “icicles”—but his children convinced him to file them under the name they used: “Pop’s ‘sicles,” or Popsicles.
- The Popsicle company claims that its annual sales are over two billion and that its best-selling flavor is cherry.
- On June 22, 2005, Snapple tried to beat the existing Guinness Book of World Records entry of a 1997 Dutch 21-foot ice pop by attempting to erect a 25-foot ice pop in New York City. The 17.5 short tons of frozen juice that had been brought from Edison, New Jersey in a freezer truck melted faster than expected, dashing hopes of a new record. Spectators fled to higher ground as firefighters hosed away the kiwi-strawberry-flavored mess.
- Popsicle ice pops were originally marketed as “a frozen drink on a stick.”
- Cherry, root beer, lemon, banana, orange, grape, and watermelon are the seven original Popsicle flavors. There are no records of Epperson’s childhood flavors.
- The first “Ice Cream Truck” driver was a man in Nebraska who went around selling Popsicle ice pops to children in a horse drawn cart.
- Popsicle sticks are made from birch wood.
- Twin ice pops were invented during the Great Depression so that two children could share and ice pop for only a nickel.
- There are more than two billion Popsicle ice pops sold every year.
- Branching out from its humble roots, there are more than 25 variations of Popsicle today.
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