Fun Facts About Ice Cream, Everyone’s Favorite Frozen Treat

Most people in the United States like ice cream. In general, the typical person in the United States will have it around 28.5 times every year. More than 90% of households around the nation are known to break out their colored spoons and indulge in a frozen treat on a regular basis. More than 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream, frozen yogurt and other similar desserts are produced every year around the nation. For people who are vegan or who cannot tolerate dairy products, every year seems to bring more and more options for frozen treats made with coconut, soy or almond milk. No one has to miss out on fun, flavorful, frozen treats.

Here are some fun facts that may get you thinking about how you enjoy ice cream, gelato or frozen yogurt:

• People do not just eat ice cream in their dining or living rooms. At least 9% of people say they enjoy ice cream in bed. Another 3% take it to the bathtub.
• When ice cream was needed on cooking shows, when television was new, producers used mashed potatoes instead. The hot lights of the television studios made the real stuff melt too quickly to look good on camera. As a side note to that, when black and white movies and television shows were a thing, chocolate syrup was used for blood (it has a similar consistency).
• People eat more ice cream on Sundays that all the other days of the week. In terms of months, June is the time when the most ice cream is consumed nationwide.
• In 2008, Missouri made the Ice Cream Cone its official dessert for the state.
• There are some strict standard for United States ice cream. A gallon of the delight must weigh at least 4.5 pounds. It must contain at last 10% milk fat and have 20% milk solids. Additionally, the overrun (how much air is whipped into the final product) can only reach a maximum of 100%. This effectively doubles the volume of the ice cream. The overrun process for this kind of ice cream typically leaves it will 50% air. By contrast, gelato has less air, is more dense and has only between 25 to 30% air and between 3 and 8% milk fat. The higher air content makes it easier to eat with your colored spoons.
• Ever wonder how French ice cream gets its rich flavor? They add egg yolks to the mixture.
• Ice cream needs a lot of milk. There are 12 pounds of it in every gallon of ice cream.
• Vanilla is the most popular flavor of ice cream in the country. At least 28% of people say they prefer it to other flavors. Baskin Robins, the ice cream chain, boasts “31 flavors” but a full 25% of their sales are vanilla flavored ice cream. After vanilla, chocolate tops the list, followed by a vanilla/chocolate mix, ice cream with fruit and then cookies and cream.
• While vanilla may be popular now, there was a time when the flavors of ice cream were very different from today. During the Continental Congress, popular flavors included oyster, Virginia ham, parmesan, asparagus, chestnut and kidney dijonaisse. Dolly Madison would make her favorite with oysters she pulled from the Potomac River. Some people did want their ice cream to be sweet so, even to these interesting flavors, they added cookies and fruit.
• George Washington loved ice cream. One summer, he ate so much of it that his tab for ice cream that season was over $200. That was a lot more back then than it is today. Today that would be about $5,300!
• Haagen Dazs, the name, has no actual meaning. Despite sounding Danish, it is not. People can be forgiven for thinking it was a Danish thing as the containers had a map of Scandinavia. Reuben Mattus was a New York businessman who was originally from Poland. In 1859, he created the premium ice cream and name.
• If you like your cherry pie with ice cream, do not order it on Sunday in Kansas. It is illegal to do that.

One fun thing to do is to go to an ice cream shop and ask for a sample of a new flavor with one of their colored spoons. This is one of the best uses for colored spoons.

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