In our lifetime we have seen great change in the frozen dessert industry. We find its world divided across a thin line of personal preference so delicate that the slightest mood swing send tremors through the seemingly stable world it connects. This line is drawn across two seperate but equally important specialties of the freezer: Ice Cream and Popsicles. Both entities have hundreds of components and even then subcomponents… enough to virtually control every aspect of the summer dessert fashions, but neither can mask the little holes left behind in the absence of the other, however great the frosty goodness may seem. This fact holding true, neither can truly monopolize the dessert industry while the other breathes its cold, dry freezer air.
In 1905, the Popsicle was invented on pure chance by an incredibly perceptive 11 year old boy. He went by the name of Frank Epperson. Frank was a witty boy, and for all his popularity a large ego was bestowed upon him, and so the popsicle was originally named the Epsicle, after Frank. The pure luck incident that left the World a new place with its inevitable hundreds of frozen dessert choices occurred on one chilly February afternoon, the 18th. Frank was enjoying his favorite fruit flavored soda, grape, when his friends came by the house with news from town. Harry Houdini was coming to Denver! Frank sat up with so much excitement he absentmindedly left his stirring stick in his unfinished soda can, he ran off with his chums to town. Then next day Frank emerged from his house to find that his grape soda had froze to his stirring stick, and formed some kind of delicious frosty treat. It took Frank nearly 18 years to understand the impact of his creation, when he got a patent in 1923. Epperson called it “frozen ice on a stick”, or the Epsicle ice pop, which his children later renamed the Popsicle in loving adoration of their late father.
Ice Cream is not nearly so simple to trace. Like a great tree, the longer something has been around, the more extensive its roots will grown, until they spread across the land, and the seedling who hatched the wooden beast is long forgotten; such is the story of the Iced Cream. Historians around the world have been trying unsuccessfully to pinpoint the exact place and time that ice cream was first made, without many solid theories to show for it. A few theories do stand out though. A good deal of the following information was extracted from “The History of Ice Cream”, written by the International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers, Washington DC, 1976. We trace the lineage of ice cream far baack into medieval times, into the shadows that cast themselves over the dark age, clouding our knowledge beyond inference. King Charles of England hosted a sumptuous banquet for many of his nobles and friends annually. The king always felt he should surprise his guests with new and delicious delicacies of the world, and wanted every year’s banquet to be one better than the one before. The meal served at this particular dinner however, was no ordinary meal fit for a king… it was a meal that would be fit for princes, czars, the head of the Junta, Furhers, Magistrates, and eventually, was to last through the modern age to the economic prosperity of democracy and free market capitalism, where it flourished, finally mainstream, dominating the public’s dessert preference. The King’s French Chef, as you must have speculated, came to the table with a frosty dinner delight that would one day be known as ice cream. Unfortunately that French Chef was later executed for flavoring the ice cream French Vanilla, which the King despised, as oppose to regular Vanilla.
The battle between Ice Cream and Popsicles has continued for years. Whenever each side comes up with a new variation such as fudgesicles or flintstones push up pops for popsicles, ice cream makers develop a new flavor and something new to eat the ice cream on, in, or with, such as the popular Ice cream cookie, waffle cone or klondike bars. According to Matthew Burton, owner of Good Humor Popsicle Company, “Both Ice Cream and Popsicles will always remain two American food icons though the dispute for the title of the number one frozen novelty will continue for ages.” Whether you are for quiescently frozen treats(popsicles) or overrunned frozen treats (ice cream), one must admit that both are delicious with each their own ups and downs.
