History of Ice Cream

What comes to mind when you think about ice cream? A hot summer day? Maybe a memory with friends or family? Have you ever thought about where it came from and how it was created?

Ice cream was invented about 2,500 years ago. In ancient Persia, sweetened ice water was ground into tiny pieces then topped with different fruits and spices and enjoyed as a cold dessert. As time passed, people started enhancing it by adding creamed milk. This is where the word “cream” in “ice cream” comes from!

Different cultures and civilizations developed it further with the resources that were available to them. The Romans would store snow inside of mountain caves to prevent the ice cream from melting too fast. In China and Eastern Asia, the dessert was enhanced with water, buffalo milk and flour. Eventually, they began incorporating sweet juices and sweetened condensed milk. The Vikings put their own twist on things by adding fresh cheese to the mix, which made their version of ice cream more like a yogurt. European countries discovered that combining salt and ice helps freeze the cream faster. This was a revolutionary practice crucial for the creation of ice cream in today’s world!

As ice cream grew more popular, so did the desire for something new. Do you have any guesses on the first official flavor of ice cream as we know it?

CHOCOLATE! Around the time of the Industrial Revolution, an entrepreneur named Daniel Peters combined milk and sugar to create, you guessed it, chocolate! Soon after, people realized ice cream tasted much better with chocolate and began adding it to recipes.

Fast forward to today, we have many different varieties and flavors of ice cream! Who would have thought that our favorite dessert all started with a couple of fruits and some ice?

Would you be interested in trying any of these ancient practices? We think we will stick with our favorite flavors of Moose Tracks Ice Cream… 😊

Now that you know the history of ice cream, check out the history of Moose Tracks!