Fascinating Facts that You Probably Didn’t Know About Ice Creams

Almost everyone has eaten ice cream at one point of their lives. Ice cream is a frozen dessert that is well-loved by many all over the world. Ice cream comes in many different flavors and is widely popular. Ice cream has come a long way since its first introduction to the world, without further ado, here are some fascinating facts that you probably didn’t know about ice cream that might surprise you.

1. Nobody knows when Ice Cream was First introduced.

No one really knows who invented ice cream, but we have bits and pieces of information. It’s enough to put together a basic story, even though we don’t have all of the answers.
In Ancient Rome, Emperor Nero enjoyed combining snow with fruit and honey. He would frequently send messengers out to gather snow from the frosty mountains.
Some historians believed that Marco Polo was the first one to bring some type of ice cream to Europe. He had learned it from the Chinese, who had flavored snow with rice and milk to create a creamy dessert.
From there, the evolution of ice cream has progressed. Eventually, ice cream recipes reached the United States a few centuries after Christopher Columbus landed on American soil.

2. The Ingredients of the First Handwritten Ice Cream Recipe was Disgusting

In 1668, an English noblewoman named Lady Anne Fanshawe wrote down the first official ice cream recipe. She originally called the frozen dessert “icy cream,” and it called for some pretty strange things.
To make ice cream, the recipe involves boiling cream with mace. If that doesn’t surprise you, wait till you see what comes next.
For giving the ice cream flavor, Fanshawe wrote to use orange flower or ambergris with some sugar. If those who don’t know what ambergris is, it is basically whale vomit.
Sometimes, sperm whales suffer from a buildup in their intestines that would end up coming up in the form of a vomit-like substance. This is known as ambergris, and in the past ambergris was commonly used to make things such as candles or perfumes.

3. The Ice Cream Waffle Cone was Invented by Accident

In 1904, an ice cream vendor ran out of cones.
He worked at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, and was facing high demand from his customers.
Desperate for a solution, he went to a waffle vendor nearby. Together, they came up with the idea to mold the waffles into cones and serve the ice cream in the cones.
The customers loved the concept; and thus, the waffle cone was officially born.

4. Ice Cream Sundaes were Originally Made For Sundays

There are two popular stories about the creation of the ice cream sundae. Here is the most popular one.
Ice cream sodas were a popular drink you could buy at the local soda shop.
However back in the 19th century, religious laws forbade shop owners from selling them on Sundays because people were not allowed to indulge in the sugary treats on the Sabbath.
Edward Berners, the owner of Ed Berners’ Ice Cream Parlor, decided to get around this law. One day, he served a customer ice cream soda without the actual soda part, so it was just ice cream and syrup.
Soon, the concoction was sold on Sundays as an alternative to ice cream sodas. However, it became so popular it was sold every day.
Berners eventually changed the spelling to “sundae” to avoid associating it with the holy Sabbath.

5. Frozen Ice Cream that stays cold in room temperature? Yes Please.

There is a type of ice cream known as Kanazawa ice-cream pops that stay frozen for an entire hour at room temperature.
The process for making them was discovered accidentally, but they are now sold all over Japan

6. Why do we call it “Brain Freeze”?

We often know these as “ice cream headaches” or “brain freeze”.
“Brain freeze” is actually a cold-stimulus headache that happens when extremely cold food touches the roof of the mouth, this causes the blood vessels there to rapidly constrict, affecting sensitive nerves in the area

7. There is actually a fruit called Ice Cream Fruit that grows in Hawaii

There’s a Hawaiian fruit that tastes exactly like vanilla ice cream.
This fruit is known as the inga feuillei, but the locals call it the ice cream bean.
The ice cream fruit grows on perennial trees in hot climates, and it is enjoyed in many different ways by locals.

8. Ice Cream Used to be a Dessert Served for The Wealthy

In the past, ice cream was seen as a luxurious dessert that only the wealthy and royal could afford.
Ice cream was considered rare and exotic, and maintained that way until the late 1800s.
The elite and rich upper-class society members were the only ones who could afford the imported ingredients and the cold storage.
This happened before the commercialization and manufacturing of ice cream, so it wasn’t as easy to get for everyone to be able to afford ice cream, this would lead to exclusivity.

Overall, ice cream is a frozen dessert that everyone knows and loves. Now that you know about these eight fascinating facts about ice creams, you just might learn to appreciate them just as much as we do.