HISTORY OF ICE CREAM

The origins of ice cream reach back as far as Alexander the Great.

Biblical references indicate that King Solomon was fond of iced drinks during harvesting.

Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar (A.D. 54-86) frequently sent teams of runners into the mountains to get snow, which was then flavored with honey, fruits and juices.

Over a thousand years later, Marco Polo returned to Italy from the Far East with a recipe that closely resembled what is now called sherbet. Historians estimate that this recipe evolved into ice cream during the 16th century in Italy.

Ice cream was offered to the general public for the first time at a cafe in Paris in 1660.

The first advertisement for ice cream in the United States was placed in the New York Gazette on May 12, 1777.

President George Washington spent about $200 for ice cream during the summer of 1790.

In 1845, New Jersey's Nancy Johnson invented a hand-operated ice cream freezer.

Manufacturing ice cream quickly became an industry in America, pioneered in 1851 by a Baltimore milk dealer.

During the late 1890s, in response to religious criticism for eating "sinfully" rich ice cream sodas on Sundays, ice cream merchants left out the carbonated water and invented the famous ice cream "Sunday." The spelling was later changed to "sundae" to remove any connection with the Sabbath.

The ice cream cone was introduced to the public at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

By 1921, ice cream had become so identified with American culture that the commissioner of Ellis Island decided to include ice cream in the meal given to arriving immigrants.

As of 1929, per capita ice cream consumption in the U.S. was roughly nine quarts a year. The so-called Hokey-Pokey Men, the small vendors who operated plants and sold ice cream on the streets, began to give way to the larger dairy corporations.

Ice cream became an edible symbol of morale during World War II as each branch of the service tried to outdo the others in serving ice cream to its troops. In 1945, the first "floating ice cream parlor" was built for the Navy for sailors in the western Pacific.

Today, total per capita ice cream consumption in the U.S. is 4.83 gallons. That includes per capita consumption of 2.09 gallons of ice cream purchased in supermarkets.

Source: International Ice Cream Association