In the mid-19th century through the early 20th century, ice cream street vendors would sell ice cream in glass containers called a “penny lick.” As the name implies, the sweet treat would cost just a penny.
The penny licks were made with a thick glass bottom with a depression at the top where the ice cream was served. Through the magic of the light and reflections, the glass would actually appear to be full of ice cream until hungry buyers discovered that it was only just a lick. But, for just a penny, they probably weren’t too upset.
With all those people using the same licks and often not a lot of time to give them a proper cleansing in between uses, it wasn’t long before questions about hygiene were raised. The solution was to serve ice cream in a pastry cup, which paved the way for the invention of the waffle cone!
Tags: history, ice cream, penny lick
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If you’ve got a technical question about the ice cream making process or some other inquiry about the nuances of America’s favorite treat, chances are Ernie has the answer. He might not be able to answer all questions, but he’ll try his best and some may be featured on the Ice Cream Journal.
They look a little like shot glasses–if they sold them today, they would probably be called ice cream shots.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. They do look like shot glasses.
Today that would just be a quick lick for a penny…..but of course it would be good as being Turkey Hill brand!
i wish they sold ice cream for a penny today. of course you wouldnt get much!
Ewww… that was gross! Have never heard of “penney licks” before.
Happy Ice Cream month!
Lisa
Yes, I have heard about the Penny Lick. I saw it on the History channel. It would be cool to get a good scoop of ice cream for a penny. Then again, its good to just have some ice cream. Yum!
Neat history info, but Ewww!!!!!!!!
I’m thinking ice cream shots sound like a good idea. I’ll try some vanilla ice cream with orange liqueur.
I would just give them a quarter and take 25
hmmmm ice cream shots
How interesting; I wonder if anyone makes those kinds of glasses now.
Never heard of them – are there any still around? What an antique that would be!
It is amazing that anyone survived the”good old days” – I will take mine in a cone!!
Sounds yummy; certainly worth a penny! Too bad you can’t get it today
Great history! I am glad they don’t have that today. Sounds a little gross that the cups weren’t washed in between servings.
Ew. And what a tease! A lick of ice cream? You need at least a ball to be happy!
Thank god for penny licks, because I love waffle cones!
Interesting history! I think I prefer a cone.
Amazing … the penny licks of the past has brought us to where we are today … vessels that hold as much ice cream as we want along with any topping and flavor we desire! Nirvana
I’d probably go 10.00 especially if it was Turkey Hill ice cream! YUMMY!!
I would be an unhappy camper to recive just a lick of ice cream! I would have to buy many licks of ice cream until I would be satisfied
worth every penny
Penny lick…to pastry…to cones…to my favorite PRETZEL cones filled with TH ice cream! YUM, no matter what the price!
I love the story about the penny lick,mmm, I might try it at our next gathering,only I think I will use chocolate and I will use our shot glasses.
How many licks would the average cone take? Anybody?
Thank God ice cream serving has come such a long way. Don’t know what we would do without this family favorite
Turkey Hill should totally reproduce and sell these adorable ice cream shots!
Yep, TH should sell them.
I’m so glad we’ve moved away from the penny licks!
Give me a sugar cone with my favorite Turkey Hill ice cream any day.
“You’ve come a long way, baby!” 3 CHEERS FOR TURKEY HILL ICE CREAM!!
I didn’t know about penny licks, but I love ice cream cones!
The Lick Cups are beautiful, but I’m glad we went to cones, there’s a lot more Ice cream in them
I’d love it if places still sold penny licks… Then you wouldn’t have to choose between the flavors!
Ice cream for a penny … Almost as good as Free Ice Cream. I would like to win free ice cream.
nothing better than an ice cream cone on a hot day
I’ve never heard of penny licks…what a fun fact about ice cream!
Penny licks were a good way to get the customers to buy ice cream. I am really glad that cones were introduced to everyone because the ice cream is delicious with cones. How nice it would be to see those little glasses today!
I would have been very disappointed. When I eat ice cream I EAT ICE CREAM.
Never heard of Penny Licks before, but soft serve definitely wouldn’t be as icecreamlicious without a cone so kudos to the penny lick!
My kids think that’s rotten trick.
The “penny lick” glasses are definately interesting, but I am so glad we now have the waffle cone instead!!
Yes but for less than a dollar I could taste all of Turkey Hill’s great flavors!! Yum
As a member of the ice screamers club, I learned about the penny lick at a seminar during our annual convention that is held in Lancaster, PA each June. One of our members is from Great Britan and is a wealth of knowledge on the subject…glad I don’t live “back in the day”.
I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. So I drove myself to a Turkey Hill Store and got myself a vanilla sugarless milkshake with a banana in it. What a way to drink my problems away if only for a few minutes. I wish it had lasted longer.
Thanks for the history lesson. I had never heard of a penny lick before.
That’s rather disturbing. Waffle cones are much better.
I wish I had a penny lick @ my house.
You learn something new every day.
I wish ice cream these days were one penny…
If it wasn’t for your ice cream my husband would go insane! He has to have a bowl (or two) every night after our daughter goes to bed. It calms him from his crazy day! Thank you for all you do!
I like the idea of a cone way better!
I read about these before – ick at them being reused! But for ice cream, it might just be worth it…
ice cream is always good, even in a (ugh)penny lick !
Never heard of it before! Thanks for the info!
What a tease!
Talk about getting your pennies worth. LOL
I’d have to have a pocket full of pennies, and just line them up…yummy.
I think you opened up a can of worms.With the economy the way it is,Ice cream shops may start using the depression glass and charge a $1.50.The cost of inflation,I guess.
Huh…interesting…great wau to get rid of your pennies…glad the cone was invented though b/c I enjoy eating ice cream that way. I always pack the cone first though, a lot of people just put a scoop on top.
I never heard of that before. What a neat piece of history.
I never heard of the penny lick before and found it very interesting. This makes good conversation with other ice cream lovers, as myself.
Never heard about the Penny Link; but if they were cleaned between uses and used today, it would be a great way to sample a variety of flavors.
Quite gross! Glad we can safely enjoy TH in a washed dish today.
Wow, interesting history about the Penny Licks huh?? More reason to appreciate oh….things like hygiene and pasteurization in ice cream!
Interesting history facts I never knew. Thanks for sharing. I love Turkey Hill!
An interesting bit of history. I’m all in favor of paper product servers myself. Much more sanitary. But of course cones were a great invention.
Jacqueline Seewald
THE DROWNING POOL, Five Star/Gale–request it at your local library
Kind of gross but for ice cream it might be worth it! (nah, give me a cone any day)
my vote is with the gross out group
A penny probably went a lot further in the 1800′s. I’ll take a waffle cone over that thing anyday.
I bet people came back for more anyway.
Never heard of the Penny Lick, but was an interesting bit of history. Glad that cones were invented to get rid of the ick factor.
Thank you for the info, unsanitary but interesting. has anyone ever heard of the mellowroll? It was so delicious.
Ive heard of penny candy, penny for your thoughts and henny penny but never penny lick… thanks TH for my daily trivia dose. Ive always been told I was a wealth of knowledge ( well mainly useless knowledge but fun nevertheless) and this just got addd to the “storage bank”.
Interesting story, I am a collector and have never seen or heard of them. I agree that they were gross, no wonder the plague and other diseases spread!!!! I think the ice cream cone was a great invention, too bad it’s not a penny though.
I think I would be very upset to have just one lick of ice cream and a penny back then was worth around a hundred pennies now
Today, the health authorities wouldn’t allow “penny-licl” vendors to set-up shop. I prefer my Turkey Hill in a bowl.
What a great bit of history, and I bet that penny lick glassware would fetch a pretty penny on Antiques Roadshow.
great marketing gimmick.
Wow! Never heard of that before. Love to learn something new every day.
Great story!! I never knew that. I will have to tell my kids.
thanks
Great story, keep educating me please.
What struck me was that were street vendors selling ice cream before automatic refrigeration — how did they keep it cold?
Had never heard about the penny lick. Guess those days people did not pay that much attention to sanitary issues.
Never heare of the penny lick. Interesting!
Interesting piece of knowledge. Do you have other tidbits to share with us this month?
My grandmother had these in her things, for years I thought they were candle holders until someone set me straight!
I’ll pass on the penny lick. A cone will be just fine thank you!
Browsed the past newletters. Loved the Colburn Report with Tom Hanks!
does anyone know why they offered penny licks? Was it to allow you to try the ice cream before buying? I wonder how much ice cream they actually held. Our ice cream stands allow you to taste anything and serve it on a little plastic spoon, about a tablespoon’s worth.
My kids would’ve loved those! Their piggy banks would be spent in one day! We used to only get sweedish fish for a penny growing up!!
Interesting. Glad for the invention of cones.
I’ve never even heard of these! Interesting.
Thanks for the tidbit of history–never heard of this before. I’m glad I can still be satisfied with “just a lick”.
Ahhhh….The Past Days Of The Penny Lick!
That Was / Were The Days, Now I Will Take The 1/2 Gallon Size Licks & Spoonfuls & Bowlfuls & More…….:)
Not the most hygienic thing — but it was probably one of the first portion controlling dishes and the pre-cursor to the 100-calorie pack of today.
I had never heard of that before!
What a neat bit of ice cream history!!
I remember penny candy but this is the first I heard of penny licks – interesting!
Glad they dont have the penny lick anymore. Definately need a cup of ice cream.
I hadn’t heard of a penny lick before. I’ll stick with the waffle cone, thanks!
I have seen these glasses. I didn’t know the name was Penny Lick. That was an interesting story. I can remember sitting in a drug store and ordering a dish of ice cream and thinking how lucky I was to be served my favorite food.
Interesting fact. An early version of the samples that they hand out at grocery/club stores??
Makes me wonder where you could pick up a couple of those penny licks today!
Russ
They sure knew how to market the penny-licks by making it appear you were getting a lot more than you were. I can’t imagine having that small amount of ice cream but back then you were lucky if you had a penny to spend so I’m sure they were happy with that.
Turkey Hill ice cream is on my weekly shopping list because I could never be satisfied with just a “lick”
When I first looked at the picture, I thought they were egg holders like my great-grandmother had for soft-boiled eggs, so I was unsure at first what eggs had to do with licking ice cream!
This is a very interesting I bet that is where the idea for the paper ketchup cups originated. Linda
Thank goodness those Penny Lick things aren’t around anymore. I can’t imagine they would be popular at all! Who would be happy with only a lick of Turkey Hill ice cream? Besides,, with cones, you get a double treat!
the glass probably cost more to make than the teaspoon of ice cream that was served in it! a very interesting fact indeed
after visiting the ice cream festival at Penns Landing in Philly, I was wondering if this would be a better idea, to charge for the ice cream by licks; of course it would be a lot more work for the people dishing it out and probably more trash from the disposing of the cups and spoons, however small cones would be less trash. for the $5 admission that would be 500 licks. wow.
Interesting. I had not heard about the penny lick before. Unsanitary though, yuck.
Wow, another bit of trivia I didn’t know. Just glad that today we can put as much Turkey Hill Ice Cream as we want in our individual ice cream bowls or cones. Thank Goodness !!!!
Nice looking glass with a interesting history, I wonder if you can find these at flea markets?
Yeah for waffle cones!
We would all be a lot thinner if they still used these!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe the penny lick would be good for other ice creams but TURKEY HILL deserves a FULL dish or cone..BET YOU CAN”T JUST HAVE ONE LICK!!!!
That’s interesting, but just one lick of ice cream would be kind of disappointing. A bowl or cone of Turkey Hill is so much more refreshing!
I’m with the gross group. It’s amazing how far we’ve come. Any flavor of ice cream we want, any size dish, any size cone, all we want to eat! I had my ice cream social 6/27 and we ate 8 gallons of Turkey Hill, 2 of peanut butter ripple.
I would love to go back to the day of the penny lick, penny socials & the peacefulness of the time. The heck with hygiene & pasteurization! With all the germs & diseases of today, a penny lick doesn’t seem so bad!
I loved the article-very interesting-I loved the picture of the glasses. In order to fulfill my craving of ice cream they would have to line up a considerable amount of these glasses with ice cream, and I would empty them one by one.
That’s kinda gross! I’m glad someone invented the cone.
The penny lick’s a nasty trick!
Lick, noway, i bite. Samples are free, I could never deal with just a lick!!!!
Wow, I had no idea!
That’s really interesting…I had no idea how the cone came about.
My mom had told me something about that, but I had forgotten until now, with your reminder. I think we had gone to an antique shop, and one of those glasses was there. She explained what it was to me – because at first I had thought that it was a drinking glass…thanks for this chance to win!
They’d be a great novelty and good for samples, tastes, or toppings….
I had not heard of that before, what a cute story. Finding out who started the idea and if they became famous would be a nice ending.
That idea is equivalent today by using a tiny plastic spoon to get a “lick” of different flavors of ice cream. A good one too, since I have lots more than one favorite flavor!
i couldn’t imagine the idea doing too well in this time frame. people are just too nuts now.
Not very sanitary but a great answer to portion control.
Great article-love the picture of the glasses. I would need a long line of these glasses filled with ice cream and eat one at a time as if it was a assembly line.
Since we are so germ conscious today I don’t believe these penny lick glasses would be popular. With cones, dishes, and Turkey Hill ice cream in the home, we certainly don’t have to go far for this treat.
What an interesting piece of history! This one should be added to those e-mails (chain) that one gets in teh in-box every so often about not well known information.
Clever idea, gotta give’em that!
wow very interesting
Very interesting piece of history.
Thanks,
I would love to have an “ice cream sampler” made of small scoops (like melon ball size) of all Turkey Hill’s Flavors. YUM!
one lick is just not enough
I don’t need a dish, all I need is a spoon and a great half gallon of Turkey Hill Ice Cream…Happiness in a container!!!
It is kind of like the mini cones. I love the places that serve the mini cones for .10 or .25 cents. Even if you dont have or dont want to spend a lot of money you can still get a little tasty treat.
It looks like it only takes one lick to finish, but the thing did lead to a great invention. The WAFFLE CONE
Great invention, waffle cones, they are my favorite. But I can eat TH ice cream any way at all. New invention… Turkey Hill ice cream on cinnamon raisen toast. EXCELLANT!!!
i love having cones to put ice cream in.
Sorry, I’m not a “lick” kinda person. I need to taste my ice cream, 2 or 3 scoops please. If any of those “penny licks” are still around, they’d probably be worth more than a penny.
I think that I would like to have these for when you just want a taste and a good way to limit how much you get.53,960
Thank goodness the cone was invented. I have never seen a “penny lick” before but bet they would be collectible items if any could be found.
So tiny! No room for toppings:( Glad they’re a thing of the past!
I have a husband and wife who are 94/95 years old respectively-and they know all about “penny licks” !!!!! I get alot of knowledge from them !!!!!! Thanks to you too
The marketing people still do that. The pound can of coffee never got smaller but now it is only 11 ounces. I remember one company reduced the size of the can but had to go back to the pound size because people did not buy the small can even though it had the same amount of coffee in it.
Hmmmmm. Today, it would probably be a dollar lick!
I’m glad they invented the cone. Can imagine using one of those, but then I guess they weren’t as germaphobic then.
I’d rather have a LARGE helping of something like cherry/fudge!
Very interesting! I love odd bits of history! My mother is 92 I wonder if she remembers the penny lick! Glad cones were invented, although I prefer the cake cone!!
This story evokes many “good” ice cream memories. In our small town, years ago when I was a child, the pharmacy had an ice cream counter where you could get the best phosphates, sundaes and those luscious ice cream cones.
what a goldmine. I wonder how many licks in a pint?
The penny lick was loaded with germs by the end of the day. I wonder if they washed them at night? At least they were gluten free!
Penny Lick what a concept! Today it’s more like a buck fifty lick! But as long as it’s chocolate it’s fine. I had plenty licks over the July 4th weekend!
Never heard of penny licks before. Thanks.
My son-in-law loves to play trivia games–I can’t wait to use this information to try and stump him!!!!
Ice cream shots–a novel idea! I’ll take Kaluha and coffee ice cream please.
Very cool…did not know that!! I don’t think it would have filled me up!!
It is nice to hear the history of how things came about ,it is fun;;;
Totally unfamiliar with “penny Licks”.
I love to learn new things.
Those are neat but I think I would have had to spend a LOT of pennies to get the ice cream that I would want.
So since it was a national holiday, my parents always reserve the day entirely and strictly for “family.” We are instructed to turn off our cell-phones, unplug our computer and remain “gadget-free” for the entire holiday. That way we are able to appreciate the reason for the holiday, celebrate our nation’s historical figures that made the day possible, and give thanks with our family. That is all well and good, but the embargo on internet lasted 2 days and I missed reading this blog
that was truely tragic and I was so tempted to sneak on and see what the topic of discussion was, read some funny posts, and see if there were any additional prizes. But I kept my promise and suffered through with no turkey hill blog…but im back!
In that case…order me 1000 of those because that’s how much money I currently have on me, and I cannot think of a better reason to spend money than on ice cream. I mean really, can anything else make your smile bigger than ice cream for a penny?
Interesting. It’s nice to think back to a time when things fun AND cheap.
Interesting. It’s nice to think back to a time when things were fun AND cheap.
Wow that is the first time I have heard about that. Very interesting history lesson. Something to tell the grand kids about.
All of this talk about ice cream is making me hungry.
An interesting piece of trivia!
Thanks for that bit of history! Interesting stuff.
I love these – too bad they’re not still around.
I DONT LIKE THE IDEA OF THE PENNY LICK. IT SEEMS LIKE A MEAN TRICK TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE MORE. WHY DIDNT THEY JUST SELL A SPOONFUL.
that’d be a great trick to play on the kids.
I wonder if any of the glasses are still around.
What a rip off That’s worse than having no ice cream at all.
Very interesting bit of ice cream trivia and something I had never heard of before. I’ll bet I could get a lick for every penny I spend on a carton of Turkey Hill – that is if I could keep myself from biting into the deliciousness and polishing it off in a hurry.
waffle cones are a good thing!
I can remember getting a small portion in one of those little dixie cups at the candy store.
TEASE!
portion control smortion control. give me a cone I’ll eat it all, give me a bowl of TH I’ll eat all that, give me a container of TH, and believe me, I’ll eat all of it too.
Hi turkey HIll fan, my computer is not working at this time, so I have to go to the library to say hit to everyone. I miss everyone here, When I can’t talked to you. This blod is like a large family,…getting back to the those two ice cream glass cone…I love them. It would be nice to win them, if turkey hill, gave them away as prize give away.
They are so cute. Can you see yourself eating ice cream out of them…I can. I love Turkey Hill vanilla and strawberry ice cream.
100 licks for a dollar. Hummmm.
Ice cream makes everything better!!!
They look like something you would see on “The Antique Road Show.” Good way to try a flavor to see if you like it.
Am glad they no longer sell icecream like that. Very unsanitary.
Glad we can get more than a “lick” now! Especially of the Chocolate Cherry Cordial that I love!!!
Don’t we all wish it could’ve stayed that way! I would drown myself in Turkey Hill Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream of course for only a single dollar!
So where are the prizes?
I wonder what the breakage rate of the penny lick containers was.
go turkey hill!
Not even 9 am and grandkids are screamin for ice-cream!
Wow, I’ve heard of the “penny lick” but never knew where it came from!
What a tid-bit!!!
Thank goodness for the ice cream cone!