Many American movies feature girls crying over a bucket of ice cream with a super-sized spoon, watching netflix or a movie. People seem to eat ice cream when sad, happy, celebrating an event, or a eating a midnight snack. Ice cream has affected our world, in more ways than one might think. Discussing its cool history, the difference between ice cream and other frozen treats, and how ice cream affects our world today will help individuals understand the significance it plays in lives across the world. Let’s scoop into this thing we call ice cream.

People today don’t seem to know the difference between ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt, and sherbet. According to recipe4living by Kathryn Steed, there are a few distinct differences between these sweet treats. Ice cream is fluffy and uses around 10% milk fat, whereas gelato uses less butterfat and sugar, and is also more dense. Frozen yogurt is exactly what it sounds like, and has a lower fat content and calories, because it uses milk instead of cream. Lastly, sherbert has a small dairy content, around 1-2% and uses fruit based flavors. The two different styles of ice cream, consist of the French style and Philadelphia. The French style according to thekitchn is made with eggs, whereas the Philadelphia or American style, is not. Traditional flavors include strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. Vanilla is the most popular, because it acts as a base and has a flavorable outcome  in the public's eye. Ice cream can have many toppings, and whether it be in a float, banana split, on a popsicle stick, for a cake, and in a sundae, ice cream can be eaten in many ways.
Ice cream has been used for coping mechanisms, for which it seems, since the beginning of time, which brings up a great question. What is the history behind it?  The name “Ice cream” was created after a farmer took the cream from the cow, flavored it, and froze it, according to foodtimeline by Lynne Olver in 2004. The literal translation means iced cream. Olver goes on to say that the first time the word iced cream showed up, was in 1688 in the Oxford Dictionary, but by 1744, it was changed to ice cream. King Tang of Shang of China, started putting syrup on snow, Alexander the Great put honey in his, and Marco Polo brought his recipe around the world. Jumping forward to 200BC, China started to freeze rice and milk which soon changed ingredients and spread around the world, according to icecreamhistory. By the year 1533 Europe got a taste of the sugary dessert, and in 1744 a Scottish colonist brought the recipe over to North America.  George Washington spent over $200 in a summer on just ice cream, which is equal to $3,000 today. In the 17th century, the first ice cream shop opened in France, using milk, butter, and eggs, according to “Today I Found Out” by Emily Upton on June 16th, 2013. King Henry II, of France soon passed the recipe to King Charles of England. King Charles loved his recipe so much, that when his chef told the public about it, he was immediately beheaded. The story of the chef being beheaded might make you churn, so instead let’s talk about the machines used to make ice cream. The Industrial Revolution inspired Nancy Johnson to invent a crank ice cream maker, according to inventricity. Her design featured two cylinder containers inside each other. The outside cylinder was used to house ice and rock salt, while the inside cylinder was used to store the ice cream. On top, would be a secure lid and a handle to mix. By mixing the rock salt and ice in the outside cylinder, it forced the ice cream liquid to freeze faster. When the ice cream would freeze faster, it not only made the ice cream colder, it also made it less work for individual making it. The crank model did help make ice cream faster and efficient, but only lasted until the electrical models were invented. Today, there are two main electrical models, which include the self refrigerating and the freezer assisted. First, the self refrigerating model has a built in freezer and though it is normally less expensive, it makes very little ice cream. Next, is the pre frozen container or the freezer assisted, which has an attachable part that goes in your freezer, according to the website Icecreamnation on Dec. 7th, 2011. Another kind of machine used, is for Mexican or fried ice cream. This model is not as common as the the self refrigerating and freezer assisted model. Fried ice cream includes an incredibly cold pan, which they then pour the liquid onto. Now that we’ve talked about the differences between ice cream and many other treats, and the history of ice cream, let’s jump to another spoontaneous topic.

Ice cream and ice cream brands, have not only affected history, but also the world we live in today. Brands such as Ben & Jerry have taken their profits and used them for local, and not so local, organizations, according to their website. Other popular brands include Blue Bunny and Dreyers, which strive to better their companies. Ice cream brands, such as Ben & Jerry, Blue Bunny, and Dreyers, have re-adjusted their prices over the past decade. Meaning a normal half gallon is approximately priced at $4.73 according to statista, whereas in 1960, the average price was 79 cents according to thepeoplehistory. The price of ice cream is growing and so is the amount of ice cream Americans are eating each year. The website fooddemocracy written on June 19th, 2011 says each American eats 24 pound of ice cream each year. Census states that approximatly 324 million people live in the US, which means, Americans combined eat over around 8 billion pounds per year! There are also other countries, other than the united states, who eat a lot of ice cream as well. According to quora written in April of 2011, there are 80,000(eighty thousand) privately owned ice cream, gelato, and frozen yogurt shops in the United States, bringing in $18 billion, and an additional $8 billion from the ice cream sold in stores. Each individual ice cream shop has multiple employees, which shows how significant it is to our economy, the workforce, and the rest of the world. The amount spent on ice cream by Americans, doesn’t include the most expensive ice cream sold. Fox News in April of 2015 says the most expensive ice cream sold, was $25,000, meaning $817 per scoop! That ice cream, has edible gold flakes along with many more expensive toppings.

In conclusion, ice cream has been around for thousands of years, and is a popular dessert today. The industrial revolution had sparked Nancy Johnson’s mind to create the crank ice cream maker, and before that George Washington would eat $3,000 of ice cream in a summer. Americans eat over 8 billion pounds of it a year, yet some still can’t tell the differences. Whether it is on a cone, popsicle stick, for a cake or in a sundae, everyone seems to enjoy this cool treat. Two popular ice cream makers are the self refrigerating and the pre frozen, and two styles of ice cream are French and Philadelphia, the French with eggs and the American with none. Ice cream has changed a lot, since first showing up in the dictionary in 1688, but one thing that will never change, is the fact that using super sized spoons while watching netflix will always be pretty sweet.