Thanks to The Capital Times, I now know the difference between sprinkles and jimmies. The difference is there is no difference. Both are the little bits of candy-coated chocolate that liven up your ice cream. The real distinction seems to be one of place. As a New Yorker I call them sprinkles. Folks in Philadelphia, Boston, Michigan and Wisconsin call them jimmies.But where does the word jimmies itself come from? As with many food origins, there's a fanciful story. In the 1930s the Just Born candy company manufactured sprinkles. Seems a guy named Jimmy ran the the company's sprinkle-making machine and the name stuck.
The article also goes on to detail how sprinkles are made as well as foreign variations. It even suggests some really novel uses for sprinkles. All I can say is cream cheese and rainbow sprinkles on a bagel is one combination this New Yorker isn't trying. And nobody's gonna fool me by calling them jimmies either.
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