Who made the first ice cream is hotly debated and there are as many stories as there are flavors, including the recently rediscovered mare's milk ice cream.
And why we love ice cream so much is actually a serious scientific topic.
Researchers have studied the nutritional value of this icy dessert and its less healthy consequences for the human body.
There are even studies on how ice cream can change our mood.
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The Institute of Psychiatry in London discovered in 2021 that the orbitofrontal cortex in humans (the part of the brain involved in the cognitive decision-making process) begins to react after just one lick of ice cream.
Other studies show that nutrients like protein and fat, which are abundant in good ice cream, improve our mood and raise our serotonin (a natural mood enhancer).
And evolution plays a big role here.
She explains why people constantly crave sweets.
And the mixture of sugar, fat and cold temperature in the ice cream gives the consumer a pleasant feeling in the mouth.
The origin of this frozen dessert is the subject of heated debates among food historians.
One thing that everyone agrees on when discussing the origin of ice cream is that it was created before electricity and storing food in the fridge.
It has been discovered that many of the cultures blessed with snow and ice invented some form of ice dessert or drink, which are considered to be the forerunners of ice cream.
It is said that in the 1st century, the Roman emperor Nero sent runners to the mountains to bring ice for his fruit juice.
There are records of emperors in ancient China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) feasting on the icy milk drink.
In the book Ice Cream: A World History, Laura B. Weiss writes of a mixture "made from cow, goat, or buffalo milk that has been fermented and heated, with flour and camphor added for flavor and texture...".
"The freezing of the mixture was achieved by enclosing it in metal tubes and then lowering it into an ice pool - similar to today's Indian kulfi."
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Ice cream, gelato or sorbet?
Robin Vir, author of the book Ice Creams, Sorbets and Gelatos: The Definitive Guide, suggested that we could follow two clues that might help identify the first inventors of the frozen dessert.
First, you need to define what exactly ice cream is.
"Simply put," Weir said on BBC Radio 2022 in XNUMX, "ice cream has dairy or cream in it, while sorbet has neither."
"Gelato, which originated in Italy, has very little or no cream. Its churning process is slower, which results in less air in the final product."
"For me, the subject of ice cream is fascinating because there are very few ingredients involved - sugar, water, maybe milk or cream, and the flavors - it's all about how you mix them."
Vir's second suggestion for finding the true origin of ice cream is to find out when people discovered the endothermic effect - the principle of adding salt to ice to reduce the temperature of ice below freezing, or 0 degrees Celsius.
The preferred temperature for forming ice cream is between -10 and -20 degrees Celsius.
Laura B. Weiss writes that at some point in history the Chinese, Arabs, and Indians demonstrated an understanding of the principle of the endothermic effect.
But the exact time is still unknown to historians.
In Iran, a yakchal - a dome-shaped structure with an underground space built around 400 BC is considered a storage for ice.
There are more than a hundred of them, but the question remains why the ancient Persians built them to hold ice.
Did they know about the endothermic effect and use the ice stored inside to make an ice dessert?
Kitty Travers, founder of La Grotta Isis in London, specializes in "natural flavors" in ice cream making, using fruits, vegetables and herbs to flavor ice creams.
She describes how she experimented with traditional endothermic methods of making ice cream.
"Many years ago, I went on a course in historical ice cream making," she tells the BBC.
"We had a wooden bucket with layers of ice cubes and salt. We put a metal canister full of Parmesan cheese in a bucket, and then manually churned the mixture.
"It worked faster than my electric blender. The ice cream tasted fantastic.
"So in theory, if you could make ice cubes in nature, you didn't need electricity to make ice cream."
In Europe, the story of Marco Polo (1254-1324) who brought recipes for ice dessert, among other foods, from a trip to China is often told.
It is disputed that he even reached China at all.
But numerous culinary publications, including the Oxford Handbook of Sugar and Confectionery, point out that the endothermic effect on food was not known to Europeans until the 16th century.
Once refrigeration became available in the West in the second half of the 20th century, ice cream making began to develop into an industrial-scale business.
Flavors inspired by local ingredients
Today, ice cream is a global industry that will bring in $103,4 billion in 2024, according to business information platform Statista.
By comparison, revenues from chocolate candy and coffee were $133,6 and $93,46 billion.
The flavors on offer are increasingly diverse, branching out from conventional vanilla and chocolate, and some are made to reflect the local food culture.
Tapiva Guža, who runs a cafe with a kitchen in Cape Town, South Africa, attracted attention on social networks in 2022 with salted dried fish and chili pepper ice cream.
This Zimbabwean-born molecular biologist describes himself as a chef with the brain of a scientist.
He told the BBC: “I didn't set out to make twisty or different flavors, I just made flavors that reflect the local food system on the African continent.
"My food wants to show both the intersection and the common themes across the different tribes of the continent."
Mare's milk ice cream
And the latest development in the field of ice cream came from Poland.
Researchers from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin managed to make a contingent of mare's milk yogurt ice cream that has a similar consistency and appearance to cow's milk ice cream.
A study published in August also suggests that donkey milk may help improve human gut health, but more research is needed.
Fermented horse milk has been used in Central Asia for a long time, but making an iced dessert from it is a relatively new experiment.
Kitty Travers tried the Polish researchers' recipe, but for her the result was "thin and a bit grainy".
When the BBC visited her at the end of August, she had made another batch using pear peel, pollen and fennel seeds to flavor mare's milk.
A week later, she served the new flavor at a party and received positive reactions from her friends.
And so, get ready for new flavors and new types of ice cream in your nearby stores!
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