Ice cream is a frozen treat that comes in hundreds of flavors. What’s your favorite flavor? Is it vanilla? That’s the most popular flavor by far. Chocolate ranks second in popularity.

Ice cream is especially popular in the United States. In fact, Americans eat more ice cream than people in any other country.

MAKING ICE CREAM

Making ice cream is pretty simple. It’s usually made from milk, cream, sugar, and flavorings. Mix it all together as you freeze it and you get ice cream. As the mixture begins to freeze you can then add extra ingredients like fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips. If you freeze the mixture, you get regular ice cream. Soft ice cream is just regular ice cream that isn’t fully frozen yet.

Some people make ice cream at home in an ice-cream mixer, a special kind of home freezer. But nearly all ice cream produced today is made by machines in ice-cream factories.

CONES, BARS, SHAKES, AND MORE

How many ways are there to eat ice cream? There’s the ice-cream cone, which was made popular at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. How about the ice-cream bar or the ice-cream sandwich? Do you like milkshakes? They’re made by blending milk with ice cream.

A fancier dessert is the ice-cream sundae. A classic sundae is ice cream served with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry on top. A banana split is a sundae served with a slice of banana on each side. You can even eat deep-fried ice cream. Yes, it’s really fried! Or you can just eat ice cream all by itself.

OTHER FROZEN DESSERTS

There are many other popular frozen desserts that are similar to ice cream. Sherbet is made from fruit syrup that has milk or egg white added to it. Spumoni is an extra-rich ice cream with fruits and nuts. Ice milk, also called low-fat ice cream, is made with milk instead of cream. Soft-serve ice cream is served before it’s fully frozen.

You can even get ice cream made without milk or cream. Soy ice cream and rice ice cream are made without dairy products. They’re made using soybean milk or rice milk instead.

MANY FLAVORS

You’ve probably eaten vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Other favorite flavors include strawberry, cherry, peach, butter pecan, and chocolate mint. But have you ever eaten ice cream flavored with garlic or green tea? Some people do.

Ice cream comes in countless flavors. Imagine tasting burnt-caramel ice cream. How about coffee- or molasses-flavored ice cream? You can even buy ice cream flavored with rose petals!