Can that one person please raise his hand who does not like ice cream? Ask this question in a room filled with men women or children. Chances are that not only would you get a single hand up, but on the contrary, you might be booed out of the room for asking such a stupid question!
The magic of ice cream is so strong that it has everyone from an Eskimo to someone living on the equator under its spell.
Being a great fan of ice cream himself, recently, superstar Vijay Deverakonda launched a brand named VDC Ice Creams in a variety of flavours. While it is too early to know how successful his off-screen venture would become, chances are that the spell of Ice Cream and that of Vijay Deverakonda together might help the brand to sail to newer heights.
While we all know that ice cream has been a part of our lives for centuries now, there are some interesting facts about ice creams that many are not aware of. Here are some of them:
- According to historians, ice cream was first made in China in the 2nd century AD. The Chinese would take goat, cow or buffalo milk, add flour to it and heat the mixture. They would then add some aromatic substance to give it a flavour and then pour this mixture into specially designed containers and freeze it in chilled water pools. Soon the process reached India and we Indians customised it and the famous ‘Kulfi’ was born. Unfortunately, ice cream remained restricted to the Himalayan regions due to a lack of refrigeration in other areas.
- It is said that Marco Polo was the first European to have tasted Ice cream when he visited China and India some 1000 years later. Delighted with what he ate, he carried the recipe back home and thus Ice cream reached Europe.
- In 1671, ice cream was introduced in England when King Charles II hosted the Feast of St. George at Windsor Castle. Here, for the first time, ice cream was served only on the table where the King and his special invitees were seated. Others had to simply watch them relish this newly introduced dish from a distance.
- The first ice cream parlour was opened in Paris in 1686 and was named Café Procope. It is also known as the birthplace of Gelato which has more milk and less cream than ice cream. Café Procope and its Gelato soon became famous among ordinary Parisian and French intellectuals.
- With the advent of artificial refrigeration tools like freezers, industrial production of ice creams began in 1851 in the US. But soon, smaller and home versions of these freezers called refrigerators reached individual homes and ice cream started getting made in every household thus becoming a global phenomenon.
- When it comes to consuming ice creams, New Zealand tops the list. An average New Zealander consumes over 28.4 litres of ice cream every year followed by an American (21 litres) and an Australian (18 litres). Surprisingly, the annual per capita consumption of ice cream in India is a mere 400 ml despite being the top producer of milk in the world!
- Across the world, Vanilla is the most liked ice cream flavour, even ahead of chocolate. This is surprising, given the fact that chocolate ice cream was discovered much before Vanilla!
- In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan, himself an ice cream fan, declared July as the National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of July as the National Ice Cream Day. This soon spread across the world and is now a global phenomenon.
Now that July is just around the corner, what is your plan for this National Ice Cream Day? How are you planning to celebrate this July 16th? Will it be your favourite flavour or will you try something new this time?
