We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Did you know...

• In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day, citing the food's "nutritious and wholesome" qualities. He decreed that patriotic Americans should mark the month with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."
   
• Before refrigeration, train cars filled with ice were used to ship ice cream cross-country.
   
• Average licks to finish a single scoop cone: 50
   
• The first ice cream sundae was served in Two Rivers, Wisconsin in 1881. George Hallauer, a regular customer at Edward C. Berner's soda fountain in Two Rivers, asked Edward to top off his dish of ice cream with the chocolate sauce used for chocolate sodas. The new concoction caught on and was originally only offered on Sundays.
   
• Malted milk...originally created in 1887 by William Horlick of Racine, Wisconsin, as an easily digested infant's food made from an extract of wheat and malted barley combined with milk and made into a powder called "diastoid" was featured by the Walgreen drugstore chain as part of a chocolate milk shake, which itself became known as a "malted" and became one of the most popular soda-fountain drinks.
   
• People who think of Madison, Wisconsin, only as the home of the state capitol may be surprised to learn that it was also the hometown of Billy Moll. He wrote the lyrics to the popular 1926 hit song, "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream."
   
• Blanchardville, Wisconsin, lays claim to being the home of the first "black cow." Robb's, a popular soda fountain and diner, claimed to have served the first root beer and ice cream soda (today commonly known as a root beer float).
   
• It takes 12 pounds of milk to make one gallon of ice cream.
   
• Most popular flavors: vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan, Neapolitan & strawberry.
   
• Air is a major ingredient in ice cream. Without it, ice cream would be as hard as a rock.
   
• More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week.
   
• Americans consume the most ice cream in the world per capita, with Australians coming in second.
   
• Milwaukee has the largest concentration of custard stands in the nation.
   
• The newest ice cream flavors are typically introduced in January and February.
   
• Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the 1920s were served vanilla ice cream as part of their Welcome to America meal.
   
• Children ages two through 12 and adults over age 45 eat the most ice cream.
   

Additional Ice Cream Information