# What do you call the candy bits that go on ice cream? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2018, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789 "2018-09-05T09:11:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/21 "2018-09-05T12:33:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Rainbow jimmies and chocolate jimmies are what I’d call them. Yep, same here - New England. ETA: I’ve never heard “hundreds and thousands”. It feels clumsy and way too long when you just want some jimmies on your ice cream. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/22 "2018-09-05T12:33:36Z")
When I was a kid they were usually called Jimmies, with the other-than-chocolate varieties(not always a rainbow mixture - you can get them in single colors) sometimes called sprinkles. Now I think I would say sprinkles. Don’t know why. In a previous discussion somewhere I had heard that Jimmies was more common in New England, but the closest I have ever been to Boston was a trip to New York City about forty years ago. And until this thread I had never heard of hundreds and thousands. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/23 "2018-09-05T12:46:09Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Sprinkles are multicolored. > Jimmies are chocolate. I agree, except I’m not entirely sure the brown ones are really chocolate. They could be mouse droppings for all I know. I haven’t had them in years, but I don’t recall that they ever tasted particularly chocolatey. To me, nonpareils are round and hard. You put them on cookies, but not (in my experience) ice cream. Sprinkles and jimmies are elongated and softer and both go on ice cream. I’ve never heard of hundreds-and-thousands before this thread. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/24 "2018-09-05T12:50:05Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Sprinkles are multicolored. > Jimmies are chocolate. This. And I’ve never heard of hundreds and thousands either. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/25 "2018-09-05T13:27:26Z")
Growing up it was colored sprinkles for the rainbow variety and chocolate sprinkles for the brown variety. Now, it would probably be rainbow and chocolate. I’ve heard the term jimmies for sprinkles, but we didn’t use it in Queens in the '70s and '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/26 "2018-09-05T13:28:23Z")
In my Boston childhood, jimmies. In my New Jersey adulthood, sprinkles. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/27 "2018-09-05T13:31:07Z")
Jimmies. I’m from New England. I recognize hundreds-and-thousands only because they were a plot point in one of Agatha Christie’s Miss Markle stories. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/28 "2018-09-05T13:56:43Z")
Sprinkles in Minnesota. Have never heard them called anything else. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/29 "2018-09-05T14:20:02Z")
“Sprinkles.” Never heard of “jimmies.” I may have somewhere in my life come across “hundreds and thousands.” It sounds vaguely, vaguely familiar, but if you asked me to define it without context, I would not have known they are sprinkles. “Nonpareils” I know from reading the packaging in the baking section. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/30 "2018-09-05T14:20:40Z")
Sprinkles for me but I know that people in New England call them Jimmies so I might say that there. Before this thread, I thought nonpareils were the disgusting blobs of chocolate coated in tasteless sprinkles. I didn’t realize the sprinkles themselves were also called nonpareils. I have never before heard the term “hundreds-and-thousands” and I would have had absolutely no idea what you were talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/31 "2018-09-05T14:25:26Z")
> [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > Jimmies. I’m from New England. > > I recognize hundreds-and-thousands only because they were a plot point in one of Agatha Christie’s Miss Markle stories. Argh, Miss Marple, clearly. Autocorrect is apparently staying up with the times. (Though now I am slightly intrigued at the idea of a mystery series about an America who marries a prince, becomes a duchess, then goes around solving mysteries…) ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/32 "2018-09-05T14:25:55Z")
Chocolate jimmies if they are, you know, chocolate. Sprinkles if they are colored or silver. Grew up in eastern Wisconsin, where we also call a bubbler a bubbler. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/33 "2018-09-05T14:28:05Z")
Jimmies. It’s a New England thing, and if you grew up there, most likely you use that term. ---
**Author:** ![Sveltington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@Sveltington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sveltington)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/34 "2018-09-05T16:29:44Z")
Jimmies Born & raised in Massachusetts. My 1st husband from CT called them chocolate shot I worked one Summer during HS years at an outdoor ice cream kiosk and sprinkled a huge number of Jimmies. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/35 "2018-09-05T16:36:47Z")
I grew up calling them jimmies, but as an adult adopted sprinkles. I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/36 "2018-09-05T16:37:10Z")
I grew up with sprinkles. I later acquired jimmies in New England. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/37 "2018-09-05T16:40:37Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > Chocolate jimmies if they are, you know, chocolate. > Sprinkles if they are colored or silver. Yep, Jimmies when I was younger, sprinkles now, but that’s mostly because there are so many choices now, and all I had growing up were chocolate jimmies (and we liked it!) Never ever heard the term “hundreds and thousands”. Seems clunky. Same with “nonpareils”. What kid says those? I was a smart ass - I’d have asked for pareils. > [@brossa](#): > > Grew up in eastern Wisconsin, where we also call a bubbler a bubbler. Damn straight. Central WI as well. And it’s pop, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/38 "2018-09-05T16:47:11Z")
They were jimmies in the Bronx in the 1950s-1960s, but sprinkles also worked. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/39 "2018-09-05T16:47:38Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Sprinkles are multicolored. > Jimmies are chocolate. This is correct culinary terminology. Even in the culinary world nobody cares much though. I voted for sprinkles because I’m slightly more prone to use that instead of jimmies. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789/40 "2018-09-05T16:52:24Z")
Sprinkles. Never heard of jimmies until I lived near Boston. I’d also never heard of a ‘frappe’ for milkshake, nor ‘carriage’ for grocery cart. I’m pretty sure those people aren’t really Murikans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-candy-bits-that-go-on-ice-cream/820789.md?page=3)