I have some fun things planned for this week… We’ll be playing games, meeting new friends and, of course, there will be lots of ice cream related prizes to be won!
Do you know why Ice Cream gives you brain freeze? Well, the blood vessels on the top palate in the mouth constrict due to the cold. As the palate warms, the blood vessels suddenly enlarge and the blood rushes back to the blood vessels. The nerves in this area send a signal for pain to the front of the brain, resulting in a brief headache, or brain freeze. Are you one of the 33% of people who experience brain freeze from ice cream?
- Leave a comment here with your piece of trivia, anytime this week. You may leave a new fact every day, if you like. You will entered in to the drawing each time you leave a separate comment.
- For an optional second entry, post your bit of trivia on your blog and leave me the url to your post.
Make sure you leave your contact info in the comment. I need to be able to contact you if you win!
Come back later today for more fun, and even more chances to win!


























{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
I love ice cream! Yum yum!
Here is my fact:
The first ice cream parlor in America opened in New York City in 1776.
This is fun!!!! yap I get brain freeze!!!!
I actually didnt know anything special about icecream excpet that I LOVE IT. So I looked up this bit of info..pretty awesome!:
The origins of ice cream can be traced back to at least the 4th century B.C. Early references include the Roman emperor Nero (A.D. 37-68) who ordered ice to be brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings, and King Tang (A.D. 618-97) of Shang, China who had a method of creating ice and milk concoctions.
I found some neat little tidbits about one of my favorite snacks:
* More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week!
* Children ages two through 12, and adults age 45 plus, eat the most ice cream per person.
* The average number of licks to polish off a single scoop ice cream cone is approximately 50.
What a fun party…And it definitely involves one of my favorite things! My mouth is watering for some Cherry Garcia right about now! LOL!
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
The top five states that produce the most ice cream.
(1) California
(2) Indiana
(3) Ohio
(4) Illinois
(5) Michigan
As a person who was born in Indiana and also lived in Michigan (before moving to Florida) it’s no wonder I love Ice Cream so much!
I did not know that.
Here’s a fact: there’s no Ben&Jerry’s in Australia.
Here’s another one: Missy will be eating her weight in Ben&Jerry’s while at BlogHer.
I didn’t realized how much milk it took, but here it is:
It takes 12 lbs. of milk to make just one gallon of ice cream.
bebemiqui82(at)yahoo(dot)com
Did you know that 80 percent of the world’s Vanilla Bean used for ice cream is grown in Madagascar? MMMM, I love vanilla!
Here’s my fact! Anybody live in Omaha?
The most avid ice cream eaters in the U.S. don’t live in Hawaii, the South, California, or any other hot clime. Instead, in 1999, it was reported that the good citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, ate more ice cream per person than any other Americans.
Each American consumes a yearly average of 23.2 quarts of ice cream, ice milk, sherbet, ices and other commercially produced frozen dairy products.
98% of all households purchase ice cream.
Here’s mine:
The way to stop brain freeze? Put your tongue to the roof of your mouth which will warm back up the blood vessels and stop the pain.
I think between my husband and my daughter, they consume about half the ice cream made in America each year!
Some ice cream trivia for ya!
The largest ice cream sundae in the world weighed 54,914 pounds. It was made in Alberta, Canada, in 1988 – by Palm Dairies Ltd.
An ice cream shop in Venezuela, Helados Coromoto, is named in the Guinness book of World Records as serving the most flavors – 550!
Plus I posted about this here:
http://cuddlecottage.blogspot.com/2008/07/ice-cream-cyber-social-some-fun-facts.html
I love ice cream! This will be a fun week… I had to look up some facts online ’cause I hadn’t really thought much more about ice cream other than how good it is!
Among the most unusual flavors of ice cream ever manufactured are avocado, garlic, azuki bean, jalapeno, and pumpkin. Perhaps the weirdest of all: dill pickle ice cream , which was marketed to expectant mothers. Sales were disappointing.
Sara (marriedroses@yahoo.com)
How fun! My family LOVES ice cream and it is so hot in TN right now, it is perfect to try and cool off with this treat!
Here is my fact:
Licking the bowl clean after eating ice cream is admitted to by approx 13% of men and 8% of women!
Another good one:
Binging on ice cream in the middle of the night is done by 1 out of 5 ice cream eaters.
All the facts I knew were already said, so I will just tell you my very favorite flavor of all time!
Chunky Chocolate Cheesecake !
The U.S. enjoys an average of 48 pints of ice cream per person, per year, more than any other country. I love homemade ice cream…oh heaven.
Top 10 Ice Cream Consuming Countries in the World
1) United States
2) New Zealand
3) Denmark
4) Austrailia
5) Belgium / Luxembourg
6) Sweden
7) Canada
9) Ireland
10) Switzerland
Seaweed is used to thicken ice cream! There is kelp (which is a type of seaweed) in store-bought icecream. Crazy, huh???
we just bought an ice cream maker and have been gorging ourselves. here’s my trivia: Ultra-premium ice creams have a low “overrun,” that is, the volume of air added to the mix. That’s why the cartons feel so heavy, because the ice cream is very dense. Some lower-grade ice creams that consist of half air, half ice cream mix have a 100% overrun. Those cartons are correspondingly light.
I will be posting this trivia on my blog on Thursday
mamikaze/at/gmail/dot/com
Yup, I get the brain freeze too!
Noticed that Wisconsin wasn’t on the list for top producers. Being a dairy state, it should be…but they server custard there instead. Don’t see custard too much anywhere else but it’s a bit like soft-serve ice cream with a buttery consistency.
Don’t tell your cardiologist if you try it:)
Here is my fact – it is absolutely impossible to eat in ice-cream cone from DQ this time of year in Phx., AZ without it melting – even inside the store!!
My fave – mint choc chip mixed w/ coffee – very very yummy!!
Here’s mine!
The most popular flavors of ice cream are:
1. Vanilla, 29%
2. Chocolate, 8.9%
3. Butter pecan, 5.3%
4. Strawberry, 5.3%
5. Neapolitan, 4.2%
6. Chocolate chip, 3.9%
7. French vanilla, 3.8%
8. Cookies and cream, 3.6%
9. Vanilla fudge ripple, 2.6%
10. Praline pecan, 1.7%
I know if you add a small package of instant vanilla pudding to any homemade ice cream recipe it adds SO much flavor!
I rarely, if ever, get brain freeze from ice cream, it’s not cold enough, but “icee” type beverages (especially Taco Bell’s new Fruitista Freeze) get me every time.
And now my trivia: Portland, OR consumes the most ice cream per capita of any city in the US.
Tip: When you get brain freeze, place your thumb (warm hopefully) to the roof of your mouth (pad side up). It will warm it immediately, stopping the pain in your brain!
Cute giveaway!
I blogged about the ice cream trivia here: http://broadhorizonsschool.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-scream-you-scream.html
My fun fact on icecream is:
In an article by Michele Dula Baum Health and Food Writer from CNN.com, she states that according to researchers, “Both genders pick ice cream as their No. 1 comfort food”.
phillipsonlygirl at gmail dot com
I have a personal experience to share. When in 8th grade my friend told the owner of the Baskin Robbins that I could eat a whole tin that they store the ice cream in. He decided to make it a contest, the newspaper came and took pics and the deal was to eat it in half an hour and I got three flavors, he chose one and I got the other two.
He picked Rocky Road, which I had not tried and it slowed me down. The outcome was either I pay for the ice cream or they give me a tin free.
I had lots of ice cream after that. I loved getting ice cream cakes for my bday. Now I get my son the Stone Cold Creamery ones. This happened in the 70s in Summit, NJ.
i have a fun fact about dippin’ dots ice cream (since it is made in my home state of kentucky
The company’s high-tech cryogenic freezing process is a highly advanced method of ice cream production, unique within the ice cream industry. A normal household freezer is not cold enough for Dippin’ Dots. The company uses special low-temperature freezers from Denmark to keep the Dots at least 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and in 2003 it constructed the largest -50˚F walk-in freezer in North America at its Kentucky facility.
Did you know…
that the name Haagen Dazs has no real meaning?
It was made up to “sound” Scandanavian!
I blogged about this yesterday, but forgot to send you the link…here it is!!!
http://seeryus.blogspot.com/2008/07/ice-creami-scream.html
Here’s my Tuesday fact…
Around 13% of men and 8% of women will admit to licking the bowl clean after eating ice cream.
Do you lick the bowl clean?
Before the edible cone they used paper and even metal cones. I saw a documentary once with pictures of ice cream stands and they used the meatal cups to serve it in, but soon discovered it wasn’t very sterile and difficult to clean all those metal cones on a little stand so the edible cone was invented!
I also wanted to leavea a trivia comment for mon. since I am late getting in on it.
Did you know that ice cream originated back to China in 618 AD when King Tang created ice and milk concoctions and was later brought over to Europe! I wonder what flavors he created?
Megan
I scream you scream we all scream for Ice cream is only part of the lyrics to a whole song- I didn’t know that, here is the song http://www.makeicecream.com/iscreamyousc.html
25% of Baskin Robbins’ ice cream sales is plain vanilla! This shocks me! i love BR, but I can’t imagine paying their prices for plain old vanilla!!!
Here’s my day 2 trivia:
Ice Cream is America’s second favorite dessert, second to Cookies…HUH???? Not to me! LOL!
This is so much fun…I have learned so many interest ing things about ice cream!
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
The favorite topping is still chocolate syrup.
The biggest ice cream sundae ever made was 12 feet high and made with 4,667 gallons of ice cream and 7,000 pounds of toppings in Anaheim, Calif., during 1985.
Fact for today:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of the term sundae is obscure. Various American localities have claimed to be the birthplace of the ice cream sundae. These claimants include Ithaca, New York; Two Rivers, Wisconsin; Plainfield, Illinois; Evanston, Illinois; New York City; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. In recent years, officials in Two Rivers and Ithaca have used the controversy to gain publicity for their cities.
I looooove ice cream. I scanned through the trivia above but didn’t see this fact about ice cream cones:
The ice cream cone became famous during the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. It was originally patented in 1903 by a man from New York, but it was in St. Louis where the rest of the world discovered the joy.
Fun stuff! I’m off to go check out your other posts…
author_erin(at)lycos(dot)com
I put a tidbit about ice cream on my blog!
Check me out!
http://thenotsoblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/tidbit-tuesday.html
Here’s another fun fact I found: Sharing ice cream with a pet cat or dog is done by approx 5% of people.
belinda_streak(at)hotmail(dot)com
In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket.
Ben and Jerrys send waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as food – Pigs love it except for Mint Oreos.
Exotic ice cream flavours exhibited at an ice cream expo in Tokyo included Fish Ice Cream, Wasabi and Beef Tongue flavoured ice cream.
The first ice cream cone was at the 1904 World’s Fair. Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
The most avid ice cream eaters in the U.S. don’t live in Hawaii, the South, California, or any other hot clime. Instead, in 1999, it was reported that the good citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, ate more ice cream per person than any other Americans
I had no idea!! In a way that thrills me, being from Nebraska and such.
seeryusfam@msn.com
A Baltimore company was the first to sell ice cream makers to stores in 1851.
Hellen Keller liked ice cream!
Here’s my Wednesday fact:
At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
(What a pity!!!LOL!)
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
Did you know… Sherbet is not the same thing as Sorbet! Sorbet has no dairy, it’s ice with natural flavoring where as Sherbet does have dairy. Some brands of sorbet may try to get fancy and add dairy, but overall sorbet is a treat all can enjoy!
~Mallori
mallorisimko@gmail.com
The smoother the ice cream, the more fat it has…and the yummier it is!
The first BANANA SPLIT was invented in 1904 by a 23-year old in Pennsylvania.
A year or 2 later, Someone in Boston came up with the same idea – almost. He didn’t know women preferred their bananas pre-peeled. He served it with the bananas unpeeled.
In France, I once went to a restaurant, and ordered a banana split. It came without bananas. Instead there peaches. The reason was, bec. bananas weren’t in season.
Approx 9% of milk produced by dairy farmers in the USA goes into producing ice cream:)
belinda_streak(at)hotmail(dot)com
Hagen Dazs uses over 1 million pounds of almonds a year! Wow.
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/
laurachilton {at} hotmail {dot} com
Here’s my Thursday fact:
Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia flavor hit stores in 1987 and continues to be one of their most popular flavors!
It’s one of my favorites for sure!
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
Brainfreeze from ice cream- put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Not sure why this works but it does work!
Elaine R
emrosser@shaw.ca
A Baltimore company was the first to sell it to stores in 1851.
The best temperature at which to serve ice cream is believed to be 8 degrees F.
belinda_streak(at)hotmail(dot)com
Both Ithaca, New York, and Two Rivers, Wisconsin claim to have invented the ice cream sundae. (My money’s on Two Rivers, but being a Wisconsinite, I might be a bit biased.)
Gelato is just ice cream with a lower fat content.
Immigrants arriving to Ellis Island in the 1920s were given ice cream as part of a typical American menu. Some new arrivals mistakenly spread this “frozen butter” on their bread.
doot65{at}comcast{dot]net
Here’s my Friday fact:
The Good Humor bar was invented in 1920 by Harry Burt, a Youngstown, Ohio candy maker.
I really love the Good Humor Fudgecicles!
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
Here’s my Saturday fact:
The ice pop was accidentally discovered by 11-year-old Frank Epperson when he left a cup containing powdered soda and water with a stirring stick on his porch. He discovered the frozen mixture the next morning!
How neat is that?!
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
And here’s Sunday’s fact:
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared July “National Ice Cream Month”!
(I was out of town this weekend, so I’m playing catch up!LOL!)
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
The most fattening ice cream flavor is Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter which contains 360 calories and 24 grams of fat per 1/2 cup serving.