10 things you need to know about ice cream!

When it comes to a summer’s day sweet treat, it doesn’t get much more iconic than teetering scoops of ice cream in a cone or a classic ’99.   But for sheer variety of choice, these are just the tip of the ice-cream!  Perhaps, you’re smitten by a soft ‘Mr Whippy’ style or a definitive die-hard scoop fan? Old fashioned, plain vanilla or sprinkles and sauce obsessed?  Nuts about pistachio or an all-out Knickerbocker Glory queen?

Here at Kent Life, we’re embracing ice cream in all its infinite variety and can’t wait to round off the summer season with our bank holiday ice cream festival. There’ll be no less than 60 different varieties covering 35 flavours from 8 different ice cream companies, including our ‘free from’ range catering for dietary intolerances.

In preparation, we’ve been tasting one – or two – of the new flavours from this year’s ice cream smorgasbord (well, someone has to!).  If you’re a pudding lover then Christmas Pudding and Lemon Meringue have to be on your hitlist.   Last year’s festival favourites were Bubble Gum and Candy Floss but we reckon newcomers Cherry Bakewell Ripple, White Chocolate & Raspberry, Brown Bread and Kentish Honey could all be in the running for the top spots this year?

With all this talk of cold stuff, avoid brain freeze and read our ten fascinating ice cream facts:

1. The people of Scotland and Northern Ireland eat more ice cream on average than those in England and Wales.

2. On average, each person in the UK eats 9 litres of ice cream every year; sounds a lot but the Scandinavians eat more with the Americans topping the chart at 20 litres per year!

3. Surveys have shown that men are more likely to choose ice cream as a dessert than women.

4. Ice Cream Sundaes were created when it became illegal to sell ice cream with flavoured soda on a Sunday in the American town of Evanston during the late 19th century. Some traders got round it by serving it with syrup instead, calling it an ‘Ice Cream Sunday’ and eventually replacing the final ‘y’ with an ‘e’ to avoid upsetting religious leaders.

5. Most ice cream contains more milk protein weight for weight than is present in milk itself.

6. Today most ice creams contain only around 5% fat and plenty of calcium, minerals and vitamins.

7. While many people are only aware of a handful of ice cream companies there are over 1,000 in the U.K. producing hundreds of flavours. Despite this fact, vanilla remains the favourite being chosen nine times out of ten.

8. Today more and more ice creams have savoury flavours including Smoked Bacon and Egg, Black Pepper, Chilli and even Black Pudding any plenty made using beer such as Newcastle Brown! The Japanese also have horse meat and the Koreans Green Tea … lovely!

9. If you only take a few scoops from a large tub of ice cream, protect the quality of the ice cream by preventing air getting to it by scrunching up a few pieces of greaseproof paper and put these on top of the ice cream before replacing the lid.

10. Ice crystals in ice cream show that it has been badly kept i.e. it has been allowed to thaw and then been refrozen. If you detect ice crystals you should throw the ice cream away and buy more.

 

Source: www.icecream.org – The Ice Cream Alliance.