If it's very muggy and you're hungry, but you don't feel like eating anything hot or heavy, then maybe you want to eat ice cream! Of course you can't eat ice cream in the classroom but you can do the next best thing. Let's learn about the history of ice cream.
We know that many things have come from China, so did the Chinese also invent ice cream ? In fact they didn't, but the beginning of ice cream came from China. In about 200 B.C., they put orange or lemon juice on ice and then ate it. Later, this idea traveled to Italy. There, the Roman Emperor, Nero, liked to eat ice as a special treat between his violin lessons. It is said that he ordered his runners to go to the mountains to get snow and then quickly run back. The snow was mixed with honey, fruit juices, and nuts. Some people believe that the cooks of Queen Catherine de Medici had a recipe for ice cream and introduced it in France in 1533. That ice cream was a mixture of rich milk, honey and ice. It was called "flower of milk." Ice cream probably came to America in the early 1700s, and quickly it became the favorite dessert of American presidents.
Dolly Madison, President Madison's wife, was the first person who actually served it in the White House. The ice cream cone was invented by accident. In 1904, Ernest A. Hamwi was selling waffles. Next to him, another man was selling ice cream. That man didn't have any more dishes, so he used Hamwi's waffles and put the ice cream inside.
From about 1920, people also sold ice cream in ice boxes which they pushed on heavy carts. Soon, light ice cream bicycle carts were made. Ice cream became available everywhere. Later, ice cream trucks became as popular as the ice cream bicycle carts. When children or adults heard a tune from an ice cream truck, they quickly got money and went out of their houses to buy ice cream. This tradition still continues today. Americans continue to love ice cream, and in fact the average person eats about 8.5 kilograms of ice cream every year.