Who doesn’t love a cold scoop of ice cream on a hot day?
This frosty treat has been around for millennia. From ancient royalty to astronauts in space, ice cream has a rich and surprising history.
As you’re about to read, we’ve been screaming for this excellent dessert for thousands of years!
Ice cream has Chinese origins! The cold, creamy treat we know today was invented in China and brought over by Marco Polo in the 13th century.
The first ice cream parlor in America opened in New York around 1790. Later, during Prohibition, in the 1920s, ice cream parlors replaced many bars and saloons as places to gather and listen to music.
Thomas Jefferson was the first American to write down a recipe for ice cream and helped popularize it by serving it at the president’s home. His French butler, Adrien Petit, is likely the source of the recipe.
During his time in office, President Reagan declared July National Ice Cream Month, with the 3rd Sunday of July National Ice Cream Day.
Kulfi, a traditional ice cream from India, originated in 16th-century Delhi making it almost 500 years old!
Ice cream was freeze-dried for astronauts starting with the Apollo missions. However, astronauts like Mike Massimino mostly hated it, saying it was “more closely related to a building material than a food.”
During WWII, the US Navy converted a barge into a floating ice cream factory that could produce 10 gallons (37.9 liters) of ice cream every seven minutes and hold up to 2,000 gallons (7,600 L)!
Commander J. Hunter Reinburg converted a plane to hold canned milk and cacao in WWII. He then flew to an altitude where the temperature dropped below freezing, making ice cream for his troops stationed in Peleliu.
The first ice cream cone was patented by an Italian immigrant named Italo Marchiony in 1903. It was then popularized at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis by a Syrian immigrant named Ernest A. Hamwi.
Fried ice cream is made when a scoop of ice cream is coated in batter and deep-fried. A similar dessert, baked Alaska, was invented by a chef named Charles Ranhofer in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1867.
Harry Burt, a confectioner based in Ohio, launched the first ice cream truck fleet in the 1920s, equipped with bells from his son’s sled. Nowadays, tunes like “Frere Jacques” (France) and “London Bridge is Falling Down” (UK) can be heard everywhere.
Black ice cream, made popular on Instagram, gets its color from ingredients like black garlic, activated charcoal, and squid ink.
McDonald’s soft serve machines are notorious for breaking down. The website McBroken.com was launched in 2020 to show a map of the broken machines so that you are never McDisappointed again.
New Zealand consumes the most ice cream per capita in the world, at a whopping 7.4 gallons (28 L) per person every year!
Gourmet Grubb, a South African ice cream company, uses an insect-based milk alternative called “EntoMilk.” Black soldier fly larvae are blended to make EntoMilk, which is flavored with peanut butter and spices.
Ice cream sodas, also known as “ice cream floats,” were invented in 1874 by Robert Green in Philadelphia. The story goes that Green ran out of ice and improvised with ice cream from a neighboring vendor.
In 1988, Palm Dairies Ltd. broke a world record by making a 54,917 lb (24.91 tonnes) ice cream sundae in Alberta, Canada.
“Blue laws,” religious laws in the 1800s, prevented the sale of certain goods like alcohol or soda on Sundays. The soda in soda floats was replaced with chocolate sauce to create the first “Sunday soda,” which became known as the ice cream Sundae over time.
In 2007, Serendipity 3 in New York sold a world-record-breaking ice cream sundae worth $25,000 called the “Frozen Haute Chocolate” sundae that was topped with edible gold. The profits went to children’s charities.
Alfred L. Cralle, an African American inventor, patented the world’s first ice cream scooper in 1897. This first scooper created conical scoops rather than the spherical version we know and love today!
11-year-old Frank Epperson from California invented the first popsicle in the winter of 1905. After playing outside in the cold, Frank left his cup of soda with the stirring stick still inside. His soda froze, and popsicles were born!
Paleteros (“Ice cream vendors”) are common all over Mexico. They offer paletas (“popsicles”) in various unique flavors, like tamarind and mango with chili.
Brain freeze happens when something cold touches the roof of your mouth, causing blood vessels to constrict and dilate rapidly. You can stop this by warming the roof of your mouth with your tongue!
A scientist from Japan has found that eating ice cream in the morning can improve your focus. Sicilian people also eat ice cream for breakfast, served in a Brioche roll called Brioche con Gelato.
Ice cream is a significant source of vitamins A and B-12. Now, you can’t swap your broccoli for a bowl, but it’s something you can tell your mom to try to get an extra scoop!
Whether enjoying a classic vanilla cone or trying an exotic flavor, there is always time for ice cream.
More than just a delightful treat, ice cream is also a fascinating part of world history and culture.
Presidents and paupers all agree this has always been (and always will be) the best dessert!
