Sprinkles, Shots or Jimmies?
Growing up in New Hampshire my brother and I would frequent a local soft serve shop called the Creamy Cone. Which had vanilla, chocolate or you could do a swirl of both. But what went on top? We called them Jimmies.... What did you call them? What flavor did you prefer?
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50 Comments:
I grew up in NJ so they were sprinkles. (and soda was soda).
gingercookiewithlime at 8:46AM on 04/26/09
I grew up in Maine and we called them Jimmies.
izatryt at 9:00AM on 04/26/09
Ha--the great Mid-Atlantic/ New England divide!
I grew up in NJ so they were always sprinkles, but I remember reading books set in other regions where kids would eat them with 'jimmies'
I went to Carvel, so there was a choice between chocolate and rainbow sprinkles. Choosing between the two of them made my head explode--chocolate tasted a bit more interesting, but there was pleasure in the sweetness (to a child) of the rainbow plus they were pretty and girly.
HeartofGlass at 9:19AM on 04/26/09
in RI they were jimmies and always on a vanilla softserve Pav you are making me crave!
huneybumper at 9:21AM on 04/26/09
another ri gal here and it's jimmies time again but i like the swirl. maybe i'll go grab one from dot's after i cut the grass.
dearrie at 9:29AM on 04/26/09
grew up in chicago, where we call them sprinkles.
andshewas at 9:52AM on 04/26/09
I grew up in Boston; the chocolate ones were jimmies and the rainbow ones were sprinkles. Then in middle school we "learned" that "jimmies" wasn't a p/c term. Lately I've been hearing that was just a rumor, but I usually play it safe & call them all sprinkles, now.
littlestcapy at 10:10AM on 04/26/09
Always jimmies in Upstate New York, strangely, SO insists they're sprinkles, and she's only 3 hours south.
@littlestcapy--I only recently (like last week!) heard this idea of jimmies being non-pc...it disturbed me to say the least---maybe it's a hoax. I'm sticking with jimmies (and they were all jimmies---chocolate jimmies and rainbow jimmies!)
bruisedbuddha at 10:14AM on 04/26/09
Sprinkles.
Where the heck did "Jimmies" come from???
therealchiffonade at 10:15AM on 04/26/09
We called them sprinkles or jimmies (chocolate ones) and I never really cared for them on ice cream. I always put them on cookies and cupcakes.
JerzeeTomato at 10:32AM on 04/26/09
From wikipedia :The Brigham's Ice Cream Company claims that "Jimmies were first developed by Just Born Candy Company, which was founded by Samuel Born, who immigrated to the US from Russia around 1910 ... Born ... decid[ed] to accredit the name to the producer, Jimmy Bartholomew. The new product was named JIMMIES, which is still a trademarked name ..
Just Born is out of Bethlehem PA
JerzeeTomato at 10:34AM on 04/26/09
i did not know that.
dearrie at 11:07AM on 04/26/09
I've always known them simply as Jimmies. Now that my daughter is 3, she has learned that they are Jimmies and asks for them constantly and she does just what I did with them, eat them right from the container, forget the ice cream...
jonfoxx at 11:16AM on 04/26/09
Grew up in Michigan here and it's always been sprinkles. Like Jerzee, the chocolate ones were jimmies. Funny, I never really liked them on ice cream either - cookies and cupcakes were where I liked them the most too.
radley24 at 12:34PM on 04/26/09
Grewup around the Tex-Okla. boarder and we called Dairy Queen soft serve...
Markbb at 12:41PM on 04/26/09
I've always called them sprinkles. I think of alcohol when I think of shots.
runnereater at 12:47PM on 04/26/09
Loved, loved, loved sprinkles- I am from NYC. They just don't taste as great today, kinda plastic and artificial tasting. I think they were probably made more pure back in the day. Once in a while I still succumb to the lure and then often as not wipe it off the ice cream after a taste.
deefine at 12:50PM on 04/26/09
Also from NJ, but South Jersey.... we called them jimmies, but wouldn't be confused if someone called them 'sprinkles.'
unpocojmoney at 1:56PM on 04/26/09
Growing up in Florida we called them all of the above. Just depended on who you were taking to and where they came from.
finsbigfan at 1:58PM on 04/26/09
We called them Sprinkles and Jimmies, and I'm not sure if there was any particular distinction between the two. It might just be that my parents were born in different parts of the US and each called them a different name.
Or...we're talking about the tiny cylindrical things, right? They're sort of soft? But what were the little hard sugary tiny multicolored dots?
dbcurrie at 2:23PM on 04/26/09
In NC we call them sprinkles- both the chocolate and rainbow kind. And its always the soft little cylindrical kind. I never really ever see the hard little dots around here.
vanillapudding99 at 3:14PM on 04/26/09
So interesting about "jimmy" origins, since Just Born makes peeps... insert favorite conspiracy theory about source of all delicious processed-sugar-dye-and-edible-shellac-(seriously)-items here....
eleeb at 3:20PM on 04/26/09
the folks from NYC call them SPRINKLES..I like the rainbow sprinkles on vanilla soft serve from Carvel....
Italiancupcake at 3:35PM on 04/26/09
I grew up in SC and have always called them sprinkles. I used to get them at TCBY on my frozen yogurt, and I loved both the rainbow and chocolate ones (though thinking about it, I typically ordered rainbow ones more than chocolate ones). I now eat a low sugar diet and miss my sprinkles - haven't had them in forever!
PinkCupcake at 3:58PM on 04/26/09
I never really liked the cylindrical sprinkles; they were always too waxy for my taste, even as a kid. I love the tiny round dot sprinkles, though I don't see 'em much anymore. And growing up in the South, in Florida, I always called them sprinkles.
Tally at 4:23PM on 04/26/09
I'm from PA I call them sprinkles. My boyfriend is from another area of PA and he calls them jimmies. I don't understand why they aren't just sprinkles. In general, they are all sprinkles while jimmies is a local term. Why have 2 names for the same food? For example, go to a grocery store, such as Giant Eagle, and I bet on ice cream products you won't find the word jimmies on items, but you will find sprinkles. As for the terms pop or soda, I can understand that because it started out as one word and instead of saying soda-pop, people in different areas call it either soda or pop. But, why can't everyone just give those colorfull ice cream toppings one name instead of everyone arguing over what they are really called?
SHMarta at 4:45PM on 04/26/09
@shmarta~ who's arguing?
dearrie at 4:49PM on 04/26/09
Another NYC girl on the "sprinkles" team. I never really heard them called "jimmies" until I got to college, where it was very much a regional thing.
@dearrie, I completely agree, I thought this was cute. =)
kfarrel3 at 5:08PM on 04/26/09
Growing up in Northern NY (Canton), we called them sprinkles. At the Eskimo icecream stand, they also had rainbow sprinkles that were mixed with chopped peanuts and nilla wafer crumbs for what was called a crunch coat. That was my favorite sprinkle coating and I used to like a vanilla cone dipped in a cherry flavored shell.
dhorst at 5:20PM on 04/26/09
I grew up in Florida. They were called sprinkles and soda was called Coke - even if you were drinking Pepsi, Sprite, whatever. My favorite sprinkles were the chocolate.
caramel at 5:38PM on 04/26/09
Grew up in Northern NJ. Sprinkles are rainbow, Jimmies are chocolate.
sweethunibabi at 6:01PM on 04/26/09
*Dearrie
I've read other websites like this where people write in comments and some people argue on them saying one person is right and the other is wrong, and some people here in PA like to argue about it too, that is why I looked up info about sprinkles or jimmies in the first place. :)
SHMarta at 7:46PM on 04/26/09
I'm from CT and I have always called them shots....as in " I'll have a frosted donuts w/ shots". Sometimes its Jimmies (usually when its on ice cream). Never sprinkles.
labcab at 8:27PM on 04/26/09
Born and raised in Atlanta...I've only ever heard people call them sprinkles around here.
hayleythecaker at 11:48PM on 04/26/09
I grew up in the Midwest and we always called them (and still do) sprinkles. I still can't actually call them jimmies, since around here, that it's the nickname for something *very very* different. Think intimate relations....not a great association.
Traveller at 11:00AM on 04/27/09
Here in Chicago, we call them sprinkles!
I love to get colored sprinkles on my vanilla ice cream or chocolate sprinkles on my chocolate ice cream.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 11:51AM on 04/27/09
Sprinkles go on my ice cream. Jimmy is my cousin.
I've only heard them called sprinkles in Upstate NY. I prefer chocolate on vanilla ice cream.
Kerosena at 2:37PM on 04/27/09
I'm with Jerzee & Radley24 on this one. I never liked them on ice cream but could tolerate them on cupcakes and such.
I always liked to get the hard round dots on the ice cream though. WOW, I haven't had that since I was a child.
Butrflygirly at 2:51PM on 04/27/09
sprinkles .... but they DON'T taste good anymore, i agree. i used to like my ice cream cone dipped into the can of sprinkles..... and the crunchy texture with the ice cold swirly and the sugar cone .... man - that was good stuff.
pooch at 5:44PM on 04/27/09
Sprinkles are just OK. What really rocks is getting your soft serve dipped in the sauce that turns hard after setting, preferably in butterscotch flavor!
Mizbee at 6:03PM on 04/27/09
I prefer neither chocolate nor rainbow colored wax cylinders messing up my ice cream, but were I to ask for them here in Maryland I would request Jimmies. Husband from North New Jersey calls them sprinkles. We have never argued the semantics (well, okay, maybe once, but it was in jest.)
AliceBlue at 8:41PM on 04/27/09
from suburban massachusetts. always jimmies, whether rainbow or chocolate. :)
megannesta at 8:42PM on 04/27/09
Go NH! Jimmies all the way! (Chocolate only!)
veggieout at 8:58PM on 04/27/09
I'm was raised in L.A.
"Jimmies" are tubular and firm, but not hard. They're most commonly chocolatey and brown, but are also available in other flavors and corresponding colors.
"Sprinkles" are hard, spherical sugar pellets; each pellet is a solid color, but generally sprinkles are sold in multicolor packages. You'd have to go to a specialty store to get single color packages. They don't have "flavors". I've heard East Coasters call them, "hundreds and thousands".
I've since moved to NoCal and it's mostly the same here, except for all the ECers who migrated.
mauserati at 12:42AM on 04/28/09
@therealchiffonade: According to my invertibrate zoology professor, a "jimmie" is a crustacean's fecal matter. I haven't eaten a chocolate jimmie/sprinkle/whatever since that day.
I grew up in PA and NJ and can't remember which name I used first because I use them somewhat interchangably. And I only go with the rainbow variety, preferably on venilla soft serve. *nods*
Stufsocker at 2:46PM on 04/28/09
Jimmies. Both sets of grandparents were in the candy and icecream making business. My parents called them jimmies so I call them jimmies.
Vermicelli at 4:17PM on 04/28/09
hmmmm I'm from upstate NY as well.. but we always called them sprinkles. Not sure when I first heard 'jimmies', but about 50% of the time I call them jimmies now b/c it's more fun to say.
FoodStuffs at 4:44PM on 04/28/09
I'm from NJ also and it's sprinkles. Even when I buy SPRINKLES in Philly (where I live now) they are called "sprinkles" on the container in the store. What's with the jimmies anywho?
vivaladani at 8:47PM on 04/28/09
rainbow = sprinkles
chocolate = jimmies
ny capital region
sloppy at 5:28PM on 05/01/09
I grew up in Pittsburgh, where these toppings are caled "jimmies." A mere 100 miles north, in Erie, PA (where I have lived now for 15 years) they are called "sprinkles."
padrdeat at 2:41AM on 05/10/09