By: Emma Xing
In 1984, America’s 40th president, who loved sweets, declared July the National Ice Cream month. Everyone knows President Ronald Reagan’s love for jelly beans and ice cream. So he issued Proclamation 5219, which declared July as the ice cream month and the third Sunday of July as the ice cream day.
Many Americans celebrate this with fun activities and ceremonies, and of course, eating tons of ice cream.
As ice cream month comes around, many people will also wonder what the origin of ice cream is. The modern ice cream recipe uses milk and sugar as the main ingredients. This recipe was created by the Arabs in the 9th century. Europeans discovered this delicious treat as well in the 16th century. However the first account of ice cream in the US was in 1744 when Maryland Governor Thomas Bladen served it to guests.
Despite the late appearance of ice cream, Americans are now the world’s largest consumers of ice cream. Americans eat an average of 20 pounds of ice cream per person in a year. Over 6 billion dollars are spent on ice cream. Although California produces the most ice cream, the biggest fans of ice cream live in Washington, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
Everyone loves vanilla as an ice cream flavor. However, there are also many other flavors that people love as well. In fact, there are over 1,000 different recorded ice cream flavors. Famous ones include chocolate, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, cookies & cream, and of course the all-time favorite vanilla. But other flavors are sometimes wacky and weird. A 1790 cookbook showed ice cream flavors such as Parmesan, ginger, and even brown-bread!
Believe it or not, people have also set Guinness World Records with ice cream. In 2023, Germany’s Andre Ortolf set a new record for eating the most ice cream, a total of 1.25 pounds in 30 seconds. In 2018, Italy’s Dimitri Panciera set a world record for balancing a total of 125 scoops on a single cone!
Ice cream is truly a remarkable treat that almost everybody loves! People can’t wait for ice cream month and day to start!