The first ice creams were a right royal treat, and ice cream continued to be an expensive luxury until American dairyman Jacob Fussell set up the first ice-cream factory, in 1851. Since then the introduction of cones, wafers and choc-ices have made ice cream ever more popular.

The first frozen desserts were invented by the Chinese and Arabs over 2000 years ago. The Khalifs of Baghdad were trailblazers who drank syrups cooled with snow. This delicious drink was originally called "sharbet" (fruit ice, in Arabic.)

Alexander the Great and the Roman Emperor Nero ate flavoured snow or ice, but these were precursors of sorbet rather than ice cream, and probably the first people to enjoy dairy ice cream were English.

In 1660 a Sicilian named Procopio di Coltelli opened the first café in Paris. There he sold coffee, of course, and… ice cream! He offered 80 varieties, each with a flavor more amazing than the last: rose, elderberry, toasted orange flower. In response to the public's enthusiasm, in 1676 la corporation des limonadiers - the café owners' guild - was officially granted the right to make ice cream.

King Charles I and his courtiers during the 17th century. This delicacy was
prepared by Charles's French chef, Gerald Tissain, the first person known to have made iced desserts using milk or cream. For the next 200 years ice cream remained the preserve of the wealthy, until in 1851 dairyman Jacob Fussell of Baltimore, USA, realized the best way of avoiding wastage of cream was to freeze the excess. His iced cream was so popular that he set up a factory, and on 15 June 1851 he made the world's first delivery of mass-produced ice cream, at less than a third of the price of his competitor's hand-made ice cream. Within a year Fussell had set up factories in New York and Washington, and the popularity of ice cream soon spread across North America.

The first ice cream cones made their appearance at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Twenty years later, the first ice pops, invented by the American Christian Nelson, debuted in France.
_{image source : freeschoolclipart.com}

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Tags: frozen, eat, ice-cream

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Category: Food  - ( Food Archive)

Date Added: 27 February '08

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