National Ice Cream Day is this Sunday. It is celebrated each year on the 3rd Sunday in July and is a part of National Ice Cream Month.
The evolution of ice cream
Thousands of years ago, people in the Persian Empire would put snow in a bowl, pour grape-juice concentrate over it and ate it as a treat. They did this when the weather was hot and used the snow saved in the cool-keeping underground chambers known as “yakhchal”, or taken from the snowfall that still remained at the stop of mountains by the summer capital.
It is believed that ice cream was first introduced into the United States by Quaker colonists who brought their ice cream recipes with them. Their ice cream was sold at shops in New York and other cities during the colonial era.
- Ben Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were known to have been regular eaters of ice cream.
- First Lady Dolley Madison served ice cream at the Inaugural Ball in 1813.
- 1832 – African American confectioner, Augustus Jackson created multiple ice cream recipes as well as a superior technique to manufacture ice cream.
- 1843 – Philadelphian, Nancy Johnson, was issued the first U.S. patent for a small-scale hand-cranked ice cream freezer.
- It is said that today there are over 1,000 ice cream flavors.
National Ice Cream Day Proclaimed
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed July as National Ice Cream Month and established National Ice Cream Day as the third Sunday in the month of July.
