A penny lick was a small glass for serving ice cream from the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Street vendors would sell the contents of the glass for one penny. The glass was usually made with a thick glass base and a shallow depression on top in which the ice cream was placed. The customer would lick clean the glass and return it to the vendor, who would reuse it.
The thickness of the glass made the contents appear greater than they were, often disappointing the customer, and the glasses commonly broke or were stolen. The penny lick was banned in London in 1899 due to concerns about the spread of disease, (Tuberculosis), as the glass was not washed between customers. Questions of hygiene also led Italo Marchioni to introduce a pastry cup in New York in 1896, which he patented in 1903. The waffle ice cream cone rapidly became popular soon afterwards, displacing the penny lick.
Famous quotes containing the words lick and/or penny:
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 16:19-22.
“With one hand he put
A penny in the urn of poverty,
And with the other took a shilling out.”
—Robert Pollok (1798–1827)