Hokey pokey is top choice for a quarter of all Kiwis, including Yasmin Robertson, 4. Photo / Richard Robinson
Long-time Kiwi icecream favourite hokey pokey has trumped the fancier options as the flavour we most like to lick.
A Weekend Herald survey, conducted by research company Nielsen, has found hokey pokey is the clear flavour favourite for icecream in a cone.
Of the 2296 people surveyed, 26.3 per cent
opted for the flavour, followed by boysenberry (14.9 per cent), then cookies and cream (11.8 per cent).
Respondents were asked to choose their favourite flavours from a choice of chocolate, hokey pokey, boysenberry, cookies and cream, goody goody gum drops, vanilla or any other flavour they wanted to specify.
Young women preferred cookies and cream, while young men preferred chocolate.
Hokey pokey was a winner for older men and women.
Among the 16.2 per cent who chose "other", rum and raisin featured as a favourite.
Weekend Herald inquiries have revealed other local favourites. A survey of 20 beachgoers at Mission Bay yesterday put boysenberry as first choice, followed by cookies and cream.
Northland holiday spots including Paihia, Kawakawa and Kerikeri had two clear winners - cookies and cream and boysenberry.
Dairy owners confirmed the trend, saying lime and hokey pokey were also popular this summer.
One Paihia superette owner said cookies and cream had emerged as a favourite in recent years and was requested mainly by children, teenagers and young adults.
Further south, at the Beach Grocers store in Waihi, manager Puneet Singh is also selling lots of cookies and cream.
His store has a separate window for the hordes of beachgoers who pop into town to cool off with an icecream when the weather starts heating up.
Mr Singh was scooping cookies and cream the most "without a doubt".
"It's mainly with the kids, but you'd be surprised how many adults like it as well."
Mint cookie smash came in second, then passionfruit and boysenberry.
When the Weekend Herald visited the store, 7-year-old Meredith Jackson of Whangarei and her friend William were enjoying a double scoop of goody goody gum drops icecream.
"It's a good icecream because you get free lollies in it as well," said Meredith.
