National Cherry Popsicle Day

In the US, August 26th is National Cherry Popsicle Day.

This is a rather specific food day. Rather than being a general popsicle day - popsicles are also known as ice pops and ice lollies amongst others, as Popsicle® is actually a registered trademark of Unilver, Inc. - this is a very specific one.

All true ice pops or lollies are made from frozen liquid (usually, but not always, frozen onto a stick) which has been flavoured and coloured. These particular ones have been flavoured and coloured in a very specific manner - with cherries and coloured red. A cherry popsicle that was another colour just wouldn't seem right.

Cherries themselves are a type of fleshy drupe, or stone fruit, that come from many trees, but only a few varieties are actually eaten. Cherry popsicles are flavoured with these although, in most cases, it's unlikely that there will be much more than cherry flavouring in the lolly.

National Grape Popsicle Day

May 27th is National Grape Popsicle Day in the United States.

Popsicles can be known by a variety of different names, including ice lollies, freeze pops, freezer pops, ice blocks, ice pops and icy poles, as different countries have their own names for this items. Popsicles are based on frozen water, and often, but not always, have a stick in them around which the water was frozen to hold them to eat. One name for them when they lack a stick is freezie.

The water in popsicles is flavoured and, usually, coloured. Different flavourings can be added, with fruit flavours being generally the most popular. In this case, the flavouring used is grape. Popsicle also refers to a branded type of this frozen snack.