Ice cream is a dessert many people savor and enjoy the most when it is hot and sunny. Ice cream is made with milk, cream, milk solids, sugars, and flavorings mixed together. There are over 1,000 ice cream flavors, and they are all incredible!

America’s top 5 ice cream flavors are vanilla, chocolate, cookies & cream, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate chip cookie dough. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, Americans eat 20 pounds or about 4 gallons of ice cream each year. In 1984, Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month because he wanted to commemorate a treat enjoyed by over 90 percent of the US population.

There are multiple ice cream companies in America, but some have gotten a bigger reputation than others. Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s are many people’s favorite ice cream. What makes these ice creams people’s favorites?

According to Tori Avey, Reuben Mattus, the founder of Haagen-Dazs, “decided to create an ice cream that would outshine the rest by using quality ingredients, no preservatives, and a higher butterfat content-the secret to creamy, rich ice cream.

Ben and Jerry, founders of Ben & Jerry’s, stuck to the basic ingredients most ice creams have, but the amount of air pumped into the ice cream is what makes their ice cream people’s favorite.

People have tried ice cream that goes in a cup or waffle cone, but have they tried mochi or kulfi? Mochi is made by pounding steamed Japanese sticky rice with a wooden mallet, which converts into rice dough, and inside the dough goes the ice cream. Kulfi is pure milk, sugar, and saffron that gets put into a frozen cone. It is made by slowly heating milk with spices while constantly stirring until it is cooked down.

With having this many options, which ice cream, flavor, and brand are you getting next time you go to an ice cream shop or store?