Summer just wouldn’t be summer without ice cream. Even if the weather’s not playing nice (which, let’s face it, is often the case here in the UK), we do our best to fit in a cheeky scoop or two to keep us in that summery state of mind. Even during the winter, ice cream is one of those comfort foods that not only lends itself to a variety of pudding dishes but offers super-indulgent satisfaction. As you can probably tell, we’re big fans of this fantastic frozen dessert here at Graham’s. That’s why we brought out a range of six fantastic 500ml ice cream flavours. We’ve got mainstays like vanilla and raspberry ripple as well as contemporary classics such as salted caramel and lemon curd too.
But if that’s not enough to get you in the mood, here’s a few facts about ice cream that you might not have known.
One scoop or two hundred?
Can you guess which country is the world’s biggest ice cream consumer? If you had the USA – close, but no ‘99. While it’s up there in the number two spot (at 5.5 gallons per year, per capita) the biggest ice cream lovers are actually in New Zealand. They manage a whopping 7.5 gallons per year, per capita.
Brain freeze begone!
One drawback of being an ice cream enthusiast is the heightened risk of the dreaded brain freeze, or to give it it’s full name; sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. Not one to try to pronounce with a mouthful of raspberry ripple, that’s for sure. It’s a kind of nerve pain that’s caused when something cold like ice cream touches the roof of our mouth. Simply keeping the ice cream away from this part of your mouth will help you avoid ever having to suffer from brain freeze ever again!
Some key dates
5th Century B.C – The ancient Greeks begin eating a primitive form of the dessert, which came in the form of snow mixed with honey and fruit. There are no signs of incorporating any dairy products into the recipe at this stage but this is certainly where it all began.
1300’s – An early form of ice cream finally makes it to the shores of Europe thanks to explorer Marco Polo!
1880’s – The ice cream sundae is born. The world rejoices. We’ve got some great ice cream sundae recipes over in our recipes by the way, this lemon curd and lavender shortbread one is a favourite of ours.
1929 – Rocky Road becomes the most widely available flavour in North America next to vanilla – surprising perhaps given its unique mix of marshmallow, chocolate and nuts!
1984 – President Reagan announces July as National Ice Cream Month. We’ll raise a bowl to that!
Have you tried any of our ice creams? Or perhaps you’ve got a recipe that uses one of our ice creams that you’ve been dying to share. Let us know on our social channels!
