It's a Tip Top deal

10c ice creams for Tip Top birthday
20 November 2006

The classic kiwi summer treat of a Tip Top ice cream in a cone for 10c, guaranteed to melt down your hand if you take too long to eat it, is coming to a dairy near you.
Tip Top, the iconic New Zealand ice cream brand, is 70 years old this week and current owner Fonterra has lined up 13 dairies to sell ice creams for 10c "just like the old days". The deal is for a single scoop from 2pm to 5pm on either Thursday or Friday while stocks last.

The name Tip Top is thought to have originated from a conversation on a train when Tip Top ice cream founders Len Malaghan and Albert Hayman overheard a man describing his meal as "Tip Top".

Back in 1936 when it all began the ice cream was a summer-time treat sold only from milk bars and dairies. Tip Top milk bars were an innovation and the original one was in Manners Street, Wellington.

The Eskimo Pie did not come along until the early 1950s and the first ice cream on a stick - the Topsy - was marketed soon after.

These days New Zealanders consume 1.9 million litres of milk in the form of Tip Top ice cream each year.

The dairies chosen for the 10c promotion each have their own story to tell and some of them have been selling Tip Top ice cream for 70 years.

They are as follows, including the day of the promotion:
? Rangitoto Superette, Takapuna, Friday
? Ollies, Royal Oak, Auckland, Friday
? Lakeside Cafe, Hamilton, Thursday
? Rotokawa Dairy, Rotorua, Thursday
? Cool Cat Ice Cream Parlour, Napier, Friday
? Northern Dairy, Stratford, Thursday;
? Oriental Bay Store, Wellington, Thursday
? Day's Bay Pavillion, Eastbourne, Friday
? Black Cat Super 7, Nelson, Thursday
? Redcliffs Dairy, Christchurch, Friday
? Tui's Treats, Fairlie, Thursday
? Foodlands, Dunedin, Friday
? Caltex Savoy, Invercargill, Thursday

- NZPA