The news that ice-cream manufacturer Tip Top will discontinue its lurid green, bubble-gum flavoured Goody Goody Gum Drops brand has prompted uproar across New Zealand.
The lolly-laced dessert, considered to be a national delicacy by some and a national disgrace by others, is unique to the island nation.
When local news outlet Stuff reported on Friday that the company had ceased producing two-litre tubs of its Gum Drop and Cookies and Cream variations, many New Zealanders turned to social media to express their dismay.
“Tip Top you have broken my heart,” one fan wrote on the brand’s Facebook page.
“Can’t believe you are getting rid of two of the most important flavours of NZ history,” said another.
“Are you seriously discontinuing Goody Gum Drop!!!??? Noooo,” said a third.
“Goody Gum Drops is everything that’s great about summer in New Zealand. It’s a way of life,” a disappointed fan wrote on internet message board Reddit.
“Make peace with your gods Tip Top. Vengeance is coming,” posted another.
But the pastel-shaded ice-cream has polarised consumers for decades and others taking pleasure in celebrating its demise. Foreign correspondent Ben McKay tweeted that it was “the rankest flavour” that New Zealanders “only like ironically”.
Immigration minister Michael Wood tweeted that the flavour was “a blight on western civilisation”.
“Sometimes the tough calls are the right calls,” he said of the ice-cream manufacturer’s decision.
No. GGGD is a blight on western civilisation and sometimes the tough calls are the right calls.
— Michael Wood (@michaelwoodnz) October 28, 2022
The flavour was apparently invented 25 years ago by Murray Taylor, Tip Top’s technical general manager. Producing the ice-creams with a good distribution of gumdrops and enough structural integrity to stay on a stick was, apparently, a challenge. “Very few ice-cream makers in the world would have attempted it,” Taylor said in 2008. “We are delighted to have pushed the technical boundaries.”
A Tip Top representative confirmed that the company was discontinuing the flavour in its tub and stick forms. The tubs had already been discontinued, they said, and the stick ice-creams would be available until around December. Asked how long current stocks were expected to last, they said it “depends how long it takes to sell it”.
