ICE CREAM TRIVIA

Top 3 Ice Cream Consuming Countries in the World

1) United States
2) New Zealand
3) Denmark


Top five U.S. States that produce the most ice cream.

(1) California
(2) Indiana,
(3) Ohio
(4) Illinois
(5) Michigan


The Ice Cream Sundae was invented. Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, supposedly when he served a customer ice cream topped chocolate syrup (used to flavor ice cream sodas). It was a Sunday, and flavored soda water was not served on Sundays to respectable people.

The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. An ice cream vendor ran out of paper cups and asked a nearby waffle booth to make some thin waffles he could roll up to hold the ice cream. However, it is also reported that a patent had been taken out in the late 1890's for an ice cream cone by Italo Marchiony. So, the ice cream cone was probably popularized at the St. Louis Fair, but not invented there.

In 1846, Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked ice cream freezer. Nothing more is known about her. Her design was patented in 1848 by William G. Young. Whatever flavor ice cream you like best, you can make it by mixing cream, sugar, and flavorings (like chocolate or strawberry) and then carefully lowering the mixture's temperature until it sets. The discovery of using salt to control the temperature of the ingredients, along with the invention of the wooden bucket freezer with rotary paddles, were major b-r-e-a-k-throughs in the creation of ice cream as we know it. A Baltimore company was the first to sell it to stores in 1851. Finally, with the introduction of refrigerator-freezers came the ice cream shop, which has become a symbol of American culture

What used to be called 'ice milk', is now usually called 'light' or reduced fat' ice cream. It contains from 2% to 7% milkfat, and a minimum of 11% total milk solids.


ICE CREAM HISTORY

The origins of ice cream go way back to the 4th century B.C. When the Roman emperor Nero ordered ice to be brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings. In the 13th century, Marco Polo learned of the Chinese method of creating ice and milk mixtures and brought it back to Europe. Over time, people created recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices. It became a fashionable treat in Italy and France, and once imported to the United States, ice cream was served by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Dolley Madison. Jefferson's favorite flavor was vanilla. (Library of Congress)

Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, Charles I of England hosted a sumptuous state banquet for many of his friends and family. The meal, consisting of many delicacies of the day, had been simply superb but the "coup de grace" was yet to come. After much preparation, the King's French chef had concocted an apparently new dish. It was cold and resembled fresh- fallen snow but was much creamier and sweeter than any other after- dinner dessert. The guests were delighted, as was Charles, who summoned the cook and asked him not to divulge the recipe for his frozen cream. The King wanted the delicacy to be served only at the Royal table and offered the cook 500 pounds a year to keep it that way. Sometime later, however, poor Charles fell into disfavor with his people and was beheaded in 1649. But by that time, the secret of the frozen cream remained a secret no more. The cook, named DeMirco, had not kept his promise. This story is just one of many of the fascinating tales which surround the evolution of our country's most popular dessert, ice cream. It is likely that ice cream was not invented, but rather came to be over years of similar efforts. Indeed, the Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar is said to have sent slaves to the mountains to bring snow and ice to cool and freeze the fruit drinks he was so fond of. Centuries later, the Italian Marco Polo returned from his famous journey to the Far East with a recipe for making water ices resembling modern day sherbets. (International Assn. Of Ice Cream Manufacturers.)


FAVORITE ICE CREAM SHOPS
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

BASKIN ROBBINS

25% of Baskin Robbins ('31 flavors') ice cream sales are for plain vanilla.
Baskin-Robbins was founded by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in 1945 in Glendale, California, and owned by the founders until purchased in 1967 (just prior to Burt Baskin's death) by the United Brands Company (United Fruit), then by the British food company J. Lyons and Co in 1973. 

Baskin-Robbins was known for its "31 flavors" slogan. When the first Baskin-Robbins store opened, they offered 21 flavors, an innovative concept at the time. The idea for 31 Flavors came from Carson-Roberts advertising agency, along with the slogan "Count the Flavors. Where flavor counts." Burt and Irv also believed that people should be able to sample flavors until they found one they wanted to buy -- hence the iconic pink spoon.

Baskin-Robbins most popular flavor was actually created as a gag for a TV show. Comedian Steve Allen introduced the flavor "Steverino" ice cream in a skit on the Steve Allen Show. Always ones to capitalize on an opportunity, Baskin-Robbins began producing Steverino and sold 1,000,000 scoops, an industry record.

Jon Luther, CEO, responding to concerns about the health of their food, "We're going to create a healthy halo over our product line, so if you want coffee with soy milk, you can get it; or a low trans fat muffin, you can get it."

BEN AND JERRY'S

Childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield took a correspondence course in ice cream-making from Penn State University — Agriculture 5150 — and founded the company in 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont.

As demand for their products grew, the friends decided to fund their growth by taking the company public. The capital raised from their IPO helped fuel rapid expansion, but also reduced the founders' control.

In 1988, Ben and Jerry were named "U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year" by President Ronald Reagan.

Each year on one day either in late April or early May, Ben and Jerry's observes Free Cone Day, on the anniversary of its opening as a "thank you" to its customers. On this day, over one million cones are given away. The 28th annual Free Cone Day was held on April 25, 2006.

Some of their ice cream flavors are named after musicians, such as their most popular flavor Cherry Garcia, named after Jerry Garcia, and Phish Food, named after the Vermont-based band Phish, as well as Dave Matthews Band's Magic Brownies. Flavors from the company come and go, with seasonal "limited edition" ones appearing each year. Retired flavors enter what is referred to as the "flavor graveyard"]. 2006's new flavors include: Turtle Soup, Vermonty Python, Neapolitan Dynamite, and Black & Tan. Due out late summer will be an apple pie type flavor titled American Pie, which will contain pieces of pie crust.

DAIRY QUEEN

"Sherb's" was the name of a small ice cream store that opened on South West Avenue, in Kankakee, Illinois on August 4, 1938. The proprietor of the store, thirty-year-old Sherwood Dick "Sherb" Noble, had been associated with dairy products from his teen-age years. What his customers were offered that day in Kankakee for 10¢ was a new semi-frozen, "soft serve" dairy product formulated by a recent acquaintance and new business partner, J. F. McCullough. The Dairy Queen companies and franchises recognized Sherb Noble as the "original Dairy Queen operator." 

The first Dairy Queen outlet was opened by Noble in Joliet, Illinois on June 22, 1940. The company's products expanded to include malts and milkshakes in 1949, banana splits in 1951, Dilly Bars in 1955, Mr. Misty slush treats in 1961 (later renamed Misty Slush, then again to Artic Rush), and a range of hamburgers and other cooked foods in the late 1950s, under the Brazier banner. Other popular items include ice cream sundaes and the blended coffee drink, the MooLatte.

A very popular Dairy Queen treat today is the Blizzard, which is ice cream with candy bits blended in; it has been a staple on the menu since 1985. The Blizzard was modeled after the concrete treats of the Midwest.The most popular Blizzard flavors include Oreo Cookies, chocolate chip cookie dough, M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and Butterfinger. Dennis the Menace appeared in Dairy Queen marketing from 1972 until 2002, when he was dropped because Dairy Queen felt children could no longer relate to the character.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Dairy Queens in small towns of the Midwestern and especially Texas, were often a center of social life. In that role they have often come to be referenced as a symbol of life in small-town America, as for instance in Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond by Larry McMurtry, Dairy Queen Days by Robert Inman, and Chevrolet Summers, Dairy Queen Nights by Bob Greene. Some of the popular items on the Texas menu include the Hunger-buster and Belt-buster hamburgers. Bob Phillips, host of a popular Texas syndicated television program named Texas Country Reporter was the longtime spokesman for DQ in Texas.

HOWARD JOHNSON'S

Howard Johnson's was founded in 1925 by Howard Deering Johnson when he borrowed $2,000 to buy a small corner drugstore in Wollaston, Massachusetts. It sold candy, newspapers and patent medicine.

After noticing that his soda fountain was the busiest part of his drugstore, Johnson decided to come up with a new ice cream, mostly made in part from his mother's recipe (although some say this is untrue). He eventually came up with 28 flavors and opened a beachfront ice cream stand. According to Johnson, "I thought I had every flavor in the world. The 28 flavors became my trademark."

Over the next few summers he added more beachfront stands, and decided to add hot dogs. His success was beginning to be noticed by others, and thus he was able to convince some bankers to lend him enough money to open a restaurant in Quincy, Massachusetts. This first Howard Johnson's restaurant featured fried clams, baked beans, chicken pot pies, frankfurters, and, of course, ice cream.

In 1932, he persuaded an acquaintance to open another "Howard Johnson's" restaurant in Orleans on Cape Cod under one of the nation's first franchises. Soon there were 17 Howard Johnson's restaurants and by the end of 1936 there were 39 more franchised restaurants. By 1939 there were 107 Howard Johnson's restaurants along East Coast highways generating revenues of $10.5 million.

When the Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey turnpikes were built, Howard Johnson bid on and won exclusive rights to serve the hungry turnpike multitudes. There were 200 Howard Johnson's restaurants by the time of the United States' entry into World War II. Due to war rationing, by the summer of 1944 only 12 remained in business. Mr. Johnson managed to stay barely afloat by serving commissary food to war workers and army recruits. By 1954 there were 400 Howard Johnson's restaurants in 32 states. 

In 1959, the company founder, who still made his headquarters in Wollaston, Massachusetts, turned the reins over to his son, twenty-six year old Howard Brennan Johnson, who succeeded him as president. Howard Deering Johnson died in 1972 at the age of 76.