Ice Cream is one lickalicious summer treat that the world cannot simply live without. It appeared first in France in the 17th Century.
It is without a doubt, the world’s favourite frozen treat.
Everyone knows that most ice creams are made up of frozen creams merged with sugar, milk, and different additions to make finger-licking flavours; but what you never knew these amazing and cool facts about ice cream
Fact #1 The Coolest Pudding in History
In the 5th Century B.C., Ancient Greeks were the first to try ice cream as dessert. In the 1300s, Marco Polo – the Venetian Merchant Traveler carried an early form of Ice Cream to Europe. He tried ice cream during his travel to China.
Marco Polo (1254-1324) tried it while exploring China and brought the idea back to his native Italy.
Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) is known to have loved snow flavoured with nectar and honey.
The Roman Emperor Nero (54-68 A.D.) had ice and snow brought to him from the mountains, which he stored in special rooms in his palace so that he could top it with fruits to enjoy.
Ice cream became available to the general population in France in 1660.
Fact #2 Americans love Ice cream
Coming in the 1700s, Ice Cream became the delicacy of America and was enjoyed by America’s high society people.
In 1776, the first ice cream parlour was opened in New York and 1851 first ice cream plant came into existence. During the 1880s ice cream sundaes were born. Once Sundaes came into being, they were a great hit among everyone.
In the 1920s, Ice cream on sticks and ice cream bars were introduced and again like sundaes, these were also liked and enjoyed by everyone.
July month was declared as National Ice Cream Month in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan and the third Sunday of July was National Ice Cream Day. Today it is the top-selling treat in America. 1880s first sundae was born. Ice cream novelties such as ice cream on sticks and ice cream bars were introduced in the 1920s.
Read More: 5 Weird Facts about Americans
Fact #3 The one who eats most of the Ice Cream
In the UK, an individual on average consumes 7 litres of ice cream in one year time which is quite a figure; but wait, there are even bigger ice cream fan nations. Finland is ahead of the UK where a person consumes 14 litres of ice cream every year.
In America, the best place for an ice cream lover, that quantity goes to 20.8 litres.
Who is the biggest consumer of ice cream? New Zealanders won this race by eating 28.4 litres a year.
Fact #4 Exotic Flavors
Ice cream is loved by almost everyone across the globe. Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Honeycomb Delight and Mint Choc Chip are the favourite flavours of ice cream across the world.
However, there are many unusual and weird flavours of ice cream also present in different parts of the world. Japan, we guess has the most unusual and weirdest flavours. Japan has produced many ‘less’ tasty and ‘less’ popular ice creams viz. octopus, cow tongue, horse meat and kelp.
To add to the list some more unusual flavours are Avocado, garlic, azuki bean, jalapeno, and pumpkin. Oh God! Who would eat garlic-flavoured ice cream or even jalapeno-flavoured?
One more flavour which finds its place in most unusual ice cream flavours is Eskimo Ice Cream or Akutaq. It is made by the concoction of reindeer fat, seal oil, freshly fallen snow or water, fresh berries and sometimes groundfish. Air is whipped by hand until it cools into a foam. Akutaq can also be made with moose, or polar bear meat or fat.
Do let us know in the comments if you ever tasted these or know more of such weird flavours.
Fact #5 Ice Cream Vans
In the UK Ice Cream Vans can’t play their tunes before noon and not even when close to 50m to a school during school hours, a place of worship during worship hours or a hospital. They can only play the tasty music between 12 pm and 7 pm for 12 seconds duration taking exactly 2 minutes interval after each tune.
In every street, they can play their song for at most 2 hours and should stop when coming in sight of other ice cream vans. Stringent business rules, huh?
Fact #6 Do you know about Knickerbocker Glory?
It is a British Dessert which is named after Knickerbocker Glory Glass as it accurately resembles the shape of knee-length Knickerbocker trousers worn by male players of fencing and golf and also by female tennis players, BUT Dutch settlers were the first to wear Knickerbocker when they arrived in New York in the 1600s.
So who inspired the ice cream? The Dutch who introduced the Knickerbocker; The Americans who saw the Knickerbocker; or the British who adopted the Knickerbocker? Who cares? Just grab a spoon when you see the Knickerbocker coming.
Fact #7 Ice Cream Cone
The Cone didn’t appear until 1904 when a Syrian waffle maker at the St. Louis World’s Fair began rolling his pastries into horns to help an ice cream vendor who had run out of dishes. Customers loved the idea, and the waffle cone was officially born.
Tallest ice cream cone 9ft tall Italy. The largest ice cream cone measured 2.81 m (9 ft 2.63 in) in height and was achieved by Mirco Della Vecchia and Andrea Andrighetti of Italy.
Fact #8 Ice Cream Sundae
In 1985, the biggest ice cream sundae was made in California. It stood twelve feet tall and was made with 4,667 gallons of Ice Cream. A twelve-foot tall ice cream sundae could make about 70,000 regular-size sundaes. That’s a lot of ice cream!
For TV commercials, “Ice cream sundaes are often constructed of scoops of lard or mashed potato covered in motor oil.
The most expensive sundae is the “Golden Opulence Sundae” at Serendipity 3 in New York, New York at $1000.
Fact #9 Ice Cream in Space
Despite its reputation as a cosmonaut staple, freeze-dried ice cream was never used in any space mission.
Though it was developed on request, it wasn’t that popular. Some reports have said it did once, on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968. However, those reports have been dismissed by Walter Cunningham, the only living astronaut on that mission, who claims that there was never such a thing.
According to NASA, ice cream is among the top three items missed by astronauts on space missions. The others are pizza and fizzy drinks.
Fact #10 Favorite Ice Cream Flavour
Top-selling flavours are vanilla, with 33 per cent of the market, and chocolate, with 19 per cent.
Chocolate syrup is the most popular ice cream topping.
The majority of the world’s vanilla commonly known as Bourbon vanilla or Madagascar vanilla is produced in Madagascar and neighbouring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and Indonesia.
Madagascar and Indonesia produce two-thirds of the world’s supply of vanilla.
Hawaii has a fruit known as the ice cream bean or the monkey tamarind that tastes like vanilla ice cream!
Some More Fun Facts about Ice Cream
- 87% of Americans have ice cream in their freezer at any time.
- California produces the most ice cream in America
- Brain freeze occurs when ice cream touches the roof of your mouth.
- It takes about 50 licks to finish a single-scoop ice cream cone.
- The perfect temperature for scooping ice cream is between 6 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
- There is an ice cream diet designed for weight loss. You can read all about it in Prevention Magazine’s paperback, The Ice Cream Diet
- Missouri designated the Ice Cream Cone as the Official State Dessert in 2008.
- More ice cream was sold on Sundays than any other day of the week.
- At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
- Rupert Grint’s first ambition was to be an “Ice Cream Man” and he bought an ice cream truck with the money he earned from Harry Potter movies.
- Ice cream testers use gold spoons to be able to taste the product 100% without a slight percentage of ‘after-taste’ from typical spoons.
- Clint Eastwood ran for mayor in the city of Carmel in California, campaigning against an ordinance banning the sale of ice cream and he won.
- John Harrison, the official taste-tester for Dreyer’s Ice Cream, has his tongue insured for $1 million.
- Ben and Jerry’s has a real physical graveyard in Vermont for retired ice cream flavours.
- Ice Cream used to be called cream ice.
- Sorbet is like ice cream but contains no milk.
- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was part of the team that first invented the method of making soft serve ice cream.
- The Beatles had an ice cream flavour named after them by Baskin Robbins called Beatle Nut.
- On June 13, 1789, George Washington became the first US president to eat ice cream.
- The world record for ice cream eating is 1.75 US gallons (11.66 UK pints) in eight minutes.
- Americans celebrated the victory of WWII with ice cream. In 1946, they ate more than 20 quarts of ice cream per person.
