The World’s Biggest Ice-Cream Eaters

On the eve of the official start of summer, New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers’ Association figures show we are among the biggest eaters of ice cream in the world – ahead of Australia and the US.

We guzzle down 23 litres per head every year, and ice cream and edible ices account for about $1 of every $44 spent on food by Kiwi households.

– quote New Zealand Herald –

A double scoop  ice cream on a hot summer day sounds tempting enough for me.  Anything more than that would be a challenge.

The Sunday Herald wrote that a local Dairy is creating a 10-scoop monster selling at $12 and a 8-scoop selling at $9.90.  Seems like word is getting out and according to the Dairy owner, people are coming all over Auckland for the challenge of trying to finish one and posting pictures on Facebook.  The 10-scooper has to be wolfed in under 20 minutes or the ice cream will melt and the structure collapse.

That sounded like a huge challenge and I bet after all the sweet licks and taking in 1840 calories, the eater would probably be off ice creams for a while.

Here’s 10 (fun) facts about ice cream that you probably may not know about.

1.    Before milk based ice creams were introduced in 10th century, this summer treat was indeed made from ice.

2.    Over her entire lifetime, one daily cow can produce enough milk for 9,000 gallons of ice cream.

3.    It takes 12 gallons of milk to create one gallon of ice cream.

4.     It takes an average of 50 licks to eat a single scoop ice-cream cone.

5.     According to Nasa, ice-cream is among the top three items most missed by astronauts on space flights. The others are pizza and fizzy drinks.

6.    New Zealanders eat more ice-cream than any other nation.

7.    Worldwide, around 15 billion litres (3.3 billion gallons) of ice-cream are consumed every year, enough to fill 5,000 Olympic swimming pools.

8.   Ice cream seems to have emerged in 17th-century France.

9.   The cone didn’t appear until 1904, when a Syrian waffle maker at the St. Louis World’s Fair began rolling his pastries into horns to help an ice cream vendor who had run out of dishes.

10.   Vanilla takes up to 20-29% of overall sales of ice cream worldwide with chocolate coming in a distant second.

Now is there anyone out there craving for an ice cream?

Image credit from We all scream for ice-cream