A Brief Ice Cream History

Ice cream is the most common dessert especially in the hot months of summer. And as we all know, it's not just for kids.

The history of ice cream apparently began some 3000 years ago in China. Let's not forget that there are still other things invented by the Chinese, such as umbrellas, fireworks, glasses, but ice cream certainly remains the most delicious of their inventions.

The Chinese Emperors' cooks used to mix mountain snow with fruit, thus obtaining this tasty dessert we now call ice cream.

Emperor Nero of Rome was also credited for having enjoyed some of the first frozen delights. He sent his slaves to fetch him snow from the mountainous areas, which they mixed with nectar, honey and fruit pulp.

According to another version of the "ice cream tale", Marco Polo brought to Europe ice cream recipes from the Far East, back in the 13th century. They say such water ices' recipes have been used on the Asian continent for thousands of years.

Ice cream appeared still later on, in the year of 1700 for instance, when Governor Bladen of Maryland delighted his guests with ice cream. In 1776, there was the first ice cream parlor opened in America, in New York City. At the 1812 second inaugural ball, Dolly Madison served ice cream dessert in the White House, thus creating a powerful impression on her guests.

In some other people's opinion, the appearance of the ice cream may be related to the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. According to an ice cream seller, there weren't enough dishes to keep up with the enormous number of demands. Because of that, the seller decided to team up with a waffle seller who came up with the idea of rolling the ice cream into so-called "cornucopias."

It was in 1843 that a housewife from New England named Nancy Johnson invented the "hand cranked ice cream churn". Although she patented this invention, she did not have enough finances to produce and market this product herself.

Because of that, she sold her patent for $200 to a kitchen wholesaler from Philadelphia. By 1847, this wholesaler made enough ice cream to satisfy the demands. Then later on, between the years 1847-1877, there have been patented more than seventy improvements to ice cream churns.

And of course, ice cream was highly promoted throughout time, as it started to be produced at such a large-scale. The very first ice cream plant was created in Baltimore in the year of 1851, by a gentleman called Jacob Fussell.

In 1919, the wine-selling bars were closed, and there were many ice cream parlors opened later on in the US. Ice cream became quite addictive for the Americans. The high ice cream demand led to the invention of the chocolate covered ice cream bar.

This first chocolate bar was actually called "I-Scream" and was later on changed for "Eskimo Pie". Such Eskimo Pie was available at the grocery store, and of course, it tasted delicious. In 1920, there came another invention in the ice cream field, and it was called "Good Humor Bar."

There was another ice cream flavor which appeared in 1983 and which was made of real Oreo cookies, called "Cookies 'N Cream". This type of ice cream was sold in Baskin-Robbins, which appeared in California in 1946. Cookies 'N Cream became instantly successful, and suddenly got to number 5 on the list of the ice cream flavors' best sellers.

Since 1983, there have been further inventions such as the magnificent Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. This one was created in 1991. It is a combination of a raw dough, semi-sweet chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream.

Another tasty killer would be vanilla ice with honey top, or any mixture of delicious, fresh fruits and frozen cream. If you add a little bit of chocolate topping, you'll feel like melting faster than the ice cream you're devouring. We have a lot of reasons to thank the Chinese people for having invented the ice cream, and all the other people implicated in the great and amazingly creative process of promoting such good taste for our humble and demanding taste buds.