Who doesn’t enjoy ice cream on a hot summer evening? But where did this frozen delicacy come from? What are the origins of these frozen desserts? Ice cream history is hard to pin down to a single year or date, but some claim that ice cream development may have emerged in Persia around 550 BC. They could constantly create desserts like faloodeh and sorbets because they had dedicated places to store ice. Recipes for desserts with snow on them can be found in a cookbook from the first century, which was a very long time ago. In the second century, documents from Persia mention beverages that were sweetened and cooled using ice. Ice cream’s origins can also be traced back to China. Between the years 618 and 907, during the Tang era, something resembling modern ice cream was first produced in China. For ancient ice cream, they cooked milk from goats, cows, and other animals, then allowed it to thicken into yogurt. They then thickened it with flour and let it cool before serving. This was the birth of ice cream, a mighty delicacy still enjoyed today. Early ice cream, as interesting as it gets, was seasoned with camphor. Legend has it that ancient ice cream was so well-liked by the Tang Dynasty that many people were working for King Tang of Shang, and 94 of them were in charge of producing only ice cream.
Historically, ice cream was a luxury reserved for the wealthy due to the necessity of specialized storage facilities for ice. Fast forwarding a couple of decades down the ice cream evolution timeline, around 1700, ice cream began to be accessible to the general public throughout the Mediterranean. By the middle of the 1800s, it was also popular and affordable in England. In 1851, a Swiss immigrant by the name of Carlo Gatti established the first ice cream stand in front of Charing Cross station. He charged one penny for each scoop of ice cream!
In 1866, an ice cream advertisement appeared in a newspaper in New Zealand. It asserted that ice cream had never before been sold in Wellington. In 1875, they first produced ice cream for commercialization. A pivotal point in the evolution of ice cream and modern ice cream inventions was the refrigeration system. With this brand-new cooling and freezing system, people no longer had to cut and store ice. This meant that ice cream, too, could be produced in mass for commercialization and stored for longer periods of time.
After World War II, the ice cream market expanded significantly. As a result, many various ice cream flavors could be developed using artificial substances, and the price also decreased. Ice cream around the world has its own varieties, flavors, and ice cream recipes that are unique to every culture, including Italian gelato, Argentinian helado, Indian kulfi, etc. Today, the ice cream industry generates enormous profits each year, with the United States being the leading country that consumes the most of this delicious treat, especially in the summer.
