The history of American Ice Cream

[@JeffNippard]

You leaked my new workout routine!! 2:30 lol thanks for including me and great video as usual man 👍🏼

[@pauloguga]

The last person I expected to see in a JJ video lol

[@bac0nfac3]

Most unexpected crossover I've seen

[@luisblack6852]

kiwi ice cream i assume?

[@JoaoSantos-mr6nk]

Finally the crossover I was waiting for

[@paulharris4780]

Bro I knew it 😂 “is that… Jeff Nippard??” 💀😂

[@adanactnomew7085]

The fact that there's no "regular" or "original" flavor is so fascinating. Even more interesting that "vanilla" has come to fill that void despite being its own distinctive flavor.

[@f1scherman]

There is technically an original flavor, which would be "Sweet Cream" ice cream. Literally just sugar and your cream mixture. That said, it's rare enough nowadays for what you said to still hold up.

[@RadarHawk]

Always found it weird that vanilla is considered the basic or bland flavor. Considering that chocolate is put into and on to anything and everything, I feel chocolate should be considered the basic flavor

[@HOTD108_]

@@f1scherman It's pretty common in a lot of ice cream shops to sell "vanilla" ice cream that is actually completely unflavoured. The word "vanilla" has become so interchangeable with plain that some places straight up just label their "original" ice cream with the name.

[@benjabby]

Clotted cream is also probably a good "default" flavour. Bad clotted cream ice cream tastes of nothing, but good clotted cream ice cream can taste way better than other flavours

[@adanactnomew7085]

@@RadarHawk probably because vanilla is white which is seen as default and chocolate is brown which isn't

[@thegooseisin6910]

I think something that should belong to the American cultural canon is breakfast cereal. We have a whole lot of it especially in Battle Creek, MI.

[@bennyboiart7781]

Ah yes, birthplace of the “No Nut” Grape Nuts.

[@Attempt62]

I agree! Though that could be part of a bigger video on American breakfast in general- though I suppose much of that history has origins in the UK, but that's half the fun. Breakfast really is the most marketed meal to me- anything you eat for lunch and dinner can basically happen at either meal but breakfast is for breakfast- unless you're having breakfast later in the day, but then it's still called breakfast.

[@kimberlywilson7929]

I second this. I would nominate Corn Flakes, Cheerios, Froot Loops, Rice Krispies, and Lucky Charms.

[@Attempt62]

Cap'n Crunch, Cinimmon Toast Crunch, and Fruity Pebbles

[@michaelbodell7740]

Johnny Harris did a video 2 years back "Why Americans Eat Dessert for Breakfast" which sort of covers a little of this, although not specifically which cereals are the "canon" cereals. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oX_Sp6qGfrylabM

[@eelvis1674]

Popular Condiments would be a good fit for this series I feel: Ketchup, Mustards, Mayo, BBQ, Hot Sauce etc...

[@ReyndOut]

Ranch would be a quite interesting addition...

[@Glass-vf8il]

Relish

[@jakatalbot]

@@ReyndOut the history and rise of the cult of Ranch Dressing....

[@yomomz3921]

Until recently, I would have suggested fry sauce... It started as a curiosity of the Salt Lake City area, though I don't know if the secret's out. But then I discovered bottled chik fil a sauce. 🤤

[@TheKelsey]

@@ReyndOut ranch outsells ketchup

[@richardsternesky8132]

I feel like a good addition to the canon series would be one on sandwiches. There's the iconic PB&J, grilled cheese, BLT, Reuben, meatball sub. So many sandwiches to dominate America's collective fascination yet no one to explain their origins to us.

[@Shawnz7]

what about the club! I (think I) already know the history of it, but definitely would want that included.

[@craydussy]

Can't forget about the Philly cheesesteak!

[@fr00tloops]

This is a great idea. Especially since I think the philly cheese steak and Reuben are replicated globally as "American food"

[@rogerknights857]

H.L. Mencken wrote a fantastic paean to the great improvements to the three basic sandwiches of his youth by Jewish immigrants. It would be a good element in an episode on the topic.

[@Mr.TrUnrBrigs-oo4yz]

Jams & Jellies were readily available in america. Later Goerge Washington Carver made peanut butter easily malleable. And once dl7ced bread was a thing it was pretty obvious. I imagine people were already spreading jam and jellies on bread the whole time even before slices.

[@michaellee4276]

Vanilla ice cream with crushed Oreo cookies ground up WAS called "Oreo" Flavor by various ice cream shops. They were forced to stop. (Or were warned that they would soon be forced to stop.) I remember as a young child when a local ice cream shop introduced us to the brand new "Oreo" flavor, then we were told they weren't going to be allowed to have an Oreo flavor, then they changed the name to Cookies and Cream. It was very dramatic and worrisome. (This would have been around 1981 when I was too young to be aware of the date but was aware of Trademark law. Between the age of 4-7.) It was in an area 200-400 miles to any big city (New Orleans or Atlanta). So that process probably happened 5 years earlier in the Northeast.

[@remcon559]

So is that flavour still called Cookies and Cream up until this day? Because here in Europe (or Germany and the Netherlands at least) you do often find the flavour "Oreo" in ice cream shops, although it's not at all one of the basic flavours and feels like a newer addition along with all the other branded ice creams (like Kinder, I think Snickers exists and those kinds of brands). So I assume the "modern" Oreo flavour will be different than the classic American Cookies and Cream flavour

[@michaellee4276]

@@remcon559 Oreo ice cream is the same as Cookies and Cream. It is just made with Oreo brand cookies with the name licensed from Nabisco/Mondeleez (or made by Mondeleez if they make Ice Cream--I couldn't find their ice cream brand). The Ice cream shops in Europe you mentioned may be using the name unlicensed just to describe the ingredients they use. There may be a loophole that lets them do that. But you can definitely find branded Oreo ice cream in stores and those pay money to Mondeleez/Nabisco. But Oreo Ice cream is just a branded type of Cookies and Cream. Most ice creams use generic or other-brand Oreo/Hydrox cookies. In the US Cookies and Cream or Oreo has been very popular since at least the early 80's.

[@leullakew9579]

Speedyrem From what I’ve seen in the United States, most places call it Cookies and Cream but places that have a partnership with Oreo would use the name Oreo if they use Oreo cookies.

[@Gmackematix]

I've never understood the appeal of an Oreo cookie. The cream in the middle is tasteless and the bitter dark chocolate bit is so dry it sucks the moisture out of your mouth. I had one once, but haven't ever been keen to have a second and I like most biscuits or, as Americans tend to call them, cookies.

[@cuntseyes]

This is where North America is messed up. I couldn't imagine being aware of trademark/copyright law before keeping track of the date

[@hughjass1044]

Vanilla is more or less considered to be the basic, default, starting point flavour of ice cream the way white is considered to be the basic paint colour. In both cases, it's not hard to find people who consider them to be "non-flavoured" or "non-coloured." What's also interesting is that vanilla is among the most expensive natural flavours and white is among the most difficult colours to mix.

[@tomasroma2333]

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice which is why most Vanilla doesn't actually include Vanilla but a chemical substitute

[@ALuimes]

Is there such a thing as "plain" ice cream?

[@pqrstsma2011]

@@ALuimes i suppose if you took heavy cream and sugar, and mixed them in an ice cream machine, you'd get 'plain' ice cream; but i doubt you'd easily find that in your local supermarket. the public's gotten used to so-called Vanilla as the basic flavor, so that's what the dairies manufacture

[@lukasdenboer7175]

@@ALuimes I've seen it sold before, called 'Panna.' Which is Italian for 'cream' - cream flavored ice cream. So the branding likely has to do with the mistaken Italian/Ice Cream association JJ addresses in this video! This was at an expensive luxury Gelato shop that probably sourced some fancy bespoke cream or some such. (It was fantastic)

[@21Kyzix12]

@@ALuimes Yes, here in Japan, usually the default white ice cream is milk flavor rather than vanilla, which is essentially just plain ice cream.

[@SchwarbageTruck]

One of the other interesting things about the rise of ice cream in the US: At least here in the Midwest, a TON of breweries frantically switched to making ice cream during prohibition. In fact, some of them still continued to make ice cream after prohibition, such as Strohs.

[@JJMcCullough]

Yes! Even Anheuser Busch made ice cream for a while

[@spacemanapeinc7202]

Apparently Stroh’s no longer owns its Ice Cream subsidiary.

[@SchwarbageTruck]

@@spacemanapeinc7202 I keep forgetting that Strohs basically sold off everything, even their random real estate holdings. I do bump into random members of the Stroh family on the east side of Metro Detroit.

[@SobiTheRobot]

I feel like this is where classic malt shops came to be, where you'd go to hang out and get ice cream and milkshakes instead of alcohol.

[@S404_44]

As a European I literally never heard of pecans before this video. Always learning something new with JJ

[@DoctorCyan]

WHAT?! You've never heard of a pecan????

[@DoctorCyan]

I am so shocked to discover how exclusive to America the pecan is. They're delicious.

[@cherisefillinger9995]

If you want to try pecans, you should try and find some pralines online. They are pecans cooked with sugar and vanilla and have a great texture to the candy. The best ones are made by Southern Grannies and Grandpas and mailed to you at Christmas.

[@tomrogue13]

I didn't know pecans were so exclusive to the Americas.

[@potatoarmadillo8531]

there kinda soft like walnuts and can usually break into 3 pieces

[@llamennfarce4104]

It’s actually fascinating because here in Poland we have a different ‘basic flavour’, which is called lody śmietankowe, so ‘cream ice cream’. However vanilla ice cream is often confusingly called lody śmietankowe, so it’s a bit of a mess

[@atti3102]

here in italy we also sometime have a base flavor different from vanilla "fior di latte"

[@Sundog1985]

There is a recent trend in Scotland to have milk ice cream - I wonder if these are all similar.

[@ScribeAwoken]

Here in the US you can get "sweet cream" ice cream that's just sweetened without any added flavors. It's the thing that is normally only available from specialty shops, and it's usually used as a base for mixing in other flavorings. "blue moon" is a common flavor of ice cream in the Midwest that's just sweet cream ice cream that's been dyed blue

[@hanzquejano7112]

In the Philippines, "ube" is a popular and common flavor. It's a sweet purple yam. Also, I noticed that we also like to put cheese on our ice cream. I bought a mango flavored ice cream from an ice cream man once and noticed that it had cheese.

[@snapdragon6601]

What does you're basic flavor taste like if not vanilla? I'm curious about all the countries mentioned here in the above posts..👍🙂

[@johnbeauvais3159]

One thing I would like to add, during WWII ice cream was so crucial to troop moral that they converted an entire ship to a floating ice cream production facility. American aircraft carriers had their own ice cream makers and smaller vessels that didn’t have such facilities would fight over rescuing downed pilots because they would hold them hostage for an exchange of ice cream. There were even Marine pilots who modified aircraft components and flew high altitude excursions to freeze a mixture of condensed milk and cocoa powder into an ice cream mixture. There’s even a hilarious story about when the US had to borrow a British aircraft carrier while theirs were being constructed. The crews would swap between the ships because the British had rum and beer rations, and the US had ice cream. The Americans initially got a kick out of having a weekly booze ration but came to miss having their ice cream and were requesting to swap back.

[@teogonzalez7957]

POV: you’re a Nazi soldier having to use a horse instead of a car because of lack of fuel watching the Americans pull up with their designated ice cream ship.

[@haberak3310]

One of my favorite stories is that smaller American ships, when rescuing downed pilots, would "demand" the carriers provide them ice cream for the pilot's return

[@craigslistpreditor1552]

The little sound bits that JJ has all over his videos are really satisfying

[@GreatCdn59]

I agree. I really like it too!

[@Viraus2]

A nice little treat for the SNES kids out there

[@kimberlywilson7929]

I like it tool

[@georgeiii2998]

@Kimberly Wilson That's not very nice.

[@zachdavisson6110]

@@Viraus2 I never get tired of him using FF VI for anything industrial related.

[@dudbolt2719]

Never stop doing these food history videos

[@ColonelMetus]

I want to know more about soda flavors, who decided cola was a flavor?

[@kingding-a-ling9794]

What about how international foods that have been changed into American icons to the point Americans don't realize they come from elsewhere

[@Zariel_999]

@@ColonelMetus i'm not sure exactly what you mean by your question but i'll give this answer: cola flavor comes from cola nuts.

[@rafaelzamudio354]

Here in my state (Michoacan, Mexico) we have a very popular ice cream flavor: pasta. It's weird, but it's not the pasta used for spaghetti, it's just a mix of vanilla and corn syrup (so the taste it's like a more sweet and sugary vanilla ice cream). The name pasta comes from the color and texture that are similar to classic pasta. Also, we have a very popular ice cream franchise called "La Michoacana". It's so popular that it's basically a synonim for ice cream store through Mexico.

[@AlizarinCrimsonClovis]

I read about a flavor in Mexico called Angel's Kiss. Wonder what that tastes like!

[@jacobforsman3897]

I live in Utah, in the US, and I've seen La Michoacana in different Latin American markets many times, although I've never tried any of it, as I prefer to avoid anything with a large amount of refined sugar in it, due to health reasons. Nevertheless, many of the flavors that I've seen there do sound quite good.

[@definitelynotobama6851]

@@jacobforsman3897 I was just about to mention that La Michoacana is super common in Utah! I see it in my local Rancho Market all the time.

[@zerjiozerjio]

Mexican flavors also have 2 major divisions: water vs. milk. So sherbet is much more valid as a form of “nieve” or “snow”, which is our word for ice cream/frozen treat. Lemon and tamarind sherbet are very popular treats sold by both stores and street vendors.

[@ismaelgarcia-alvarez2247]

Pasta as in paste

[@mitchellbanks197]

I'd love to see a video on foods that become popular because of, or in conjuction with, other forms of entertainment. Popcorn and cinema, hot dogs and amusement parks (or baseball games), funnel cakes and fairs, etc. Always fascinated me how some of those foods seem to be everywhere now and some are only thrive in their native environments.

[@Shawnz7]

Incredible topic suggestion. I agree.

[@dibsdibs3495]

Here you go, JJ: 🏆 You now have an award winning series.

[@3322pie]

I would love to see one for cookies, how chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and snikerdoodle came to be

[@gerardacronin334]

If you are interested in food and baking history, check out another Canadian channel, Glen and Friends Cooking. One of his series is The Old Cookbook Show. He posts new “old cookbook” videos every Sunday.

[@stevethepocket]

One interesting thing about chocolate chip cookies is that they're actually called "cookies" in Britain rather than "biscuits", probably owing to the same sort of logic that has Americans referring to gelato as "gelato" rather than "Italian ice cream".

[@kimberlywilson7929]

I like this idea, although I think I would replace snickerdoodle with sugar cookie.

[@jrurbbehdidiwdnndjduw85eos73]

Chocolate chip came about when these bakers were trying to make pure choclate cookies but only had chunks of chocolates and put them in thinking they'd melt.

[@dispergosum]

In variety packs I see white chocolate macadamia nuts a lot more often than peanut butter or snickerdoodle

[@harshsawant5891]

When I visited Canada, the greatest culture shock I faced was by seeing the sheer variety of ice creams and by large quantities it was sold in. Ice cream is very popular in India as well, but is eaten in self serving sizes and the flavours are kept really basic unless you really want to pay extremely high prices at niche ice cream parlors. However, recently due to globalisation many new ice cream parlours have been bringing a greater variety to India. I assume if I were to go there in the 80s or 90s, I would have had no idea such types of ice cream even existed while today I can atleast have an idea of the existence of such ice creams due to youtube videos.

[@LeoMidori]

What kinds of flavours are typical in India?

[@mihirgoyal]

@@LeoMidori mango, almond, pistachio, and carmadon although the more recent times I went to India, chocolate and vanilla are popping up more.

[@muhilan8540]

@@mihirgoyal chocolate and vanilla have always been there

[@joncarroll2040]

I've had indian ice cream in an american restaurant and while it was really good, I was shocked by how hard it was. Like only slightly softer than a block of solid ice, almost as if someone churned the cream until it became butter and then froze it.

[@adrianoropeza8558]

In Mexico the most common flavors are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and of course mexican fruity classics: lime and mango (people obviously add hot sauce on those last two flavors) PD: apparently pecan flavored stuff (including ice cream) is sold in Mexico as walnut flavored, i personally didnt knew what a pecan was until now and thats probably why they are advertised that way

[@Dylanlemay]

I love this! Thanks for taking the time to make this 🍨

[@EatingBuilders]

Yoo it's the ice cream man

[@tinahalder8416]

Not surprised to see ya here

[@theprofessionalfence-sitter]

For Germany, I'd guess the most popular ice cream flavours are probably chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, Stracciatella, pistachio, coffee, and lemon. Spaghetti ice cream is also incredibly popular, though it is more a way to prepare ice cream than a flavour (vanilla ice extruded into spaghetti shape, topped with strawberry sauce and sprinkled with white chocolate so it looks like spaghetti with tomato sauce and parmigiano)

[@DoctorCyan]

Thank you for explaining what Spaghetti ice cream really is, I almost threw up generating the flavor in my head.

[@ijustlikebees]

@@DoctorCyan oh noooo😭

[@travbofetty]

In america pistachio and coffee are also pretty common and accessible. We also have things called "gelato" and "italian ice" which are basically ice creams with lower and no cream content respectively. From what I've heard, american ice cream has a lot more cream than most european stuff. Lemon is definitely a more common flavor for gelato or italian ice in America, as I think the flavor of sour fruits would contrast poorly with high cream content.

[@lisaebbers6836]

@@travbofetty Actually, I always combine a fruit gelato with a cream-based flavour if I buy ice-cream. Because I like the contrast. It makes both taste better

[@TheBluverde]

Don't forget Smurf ice cream aka azzurro or bubble gum.

[@violinda.]

Took my English-learning students to the grocery store, and asked them to guess what flavor the green-with-chocolate-flecks was. They guessed melon and tea and pear. So, of course we bought some to try. They were very sad that it was "toothpaste" flavor. (More for me, I guess. 🤷‍♀️)

[@Victor1139]

As someone who is not American, I can confirm that anytime I try anything "mint" flavored I associate it with toothpaste and I get grossed out

[@salty7631]

Where do you teach?

[@caramelvictim193]

I've never tried mint chocolate chip ice cream, but I imagine it tastes like after 8s, which is a big fat no for me lol

[@JimmyMon666]

LOL, if they don't want it, I'll eat it.

[@Zombie-lp8bx]

I am eating that right now!!! With M&Ms murica

[@suorastas1]

As I kid I always thought vanilla was the “base flavor” of ice cream. I would mix in cocoa powder or strawberry jam with vanilla ice cream to make it into those flavors. Then I discovered ice cream made with actual vanilla and my little mind was blown. Edit: Now that I think about it I basically ended up just adding more sugar. No wonder I loved it.

[@TheTimeMage]

tried madagascar vanilla ice cream once it had those seeds, every vanilla scoop to date tastes like pig feed T_T

[@philomenaxr460]

@@TheTimeMage opposite for me ! I am obsessed with shitty soft ice vanillas and the most bland vanillas satisfy me. Although I live in a country with a big company whom only gets real vanilla and not vanillin and those dots have always been in our vanillas

[@JJMcCullough]

More like BASED flavor

[@rachel_sj]

I also mentally default to Vanilla being a base flavor for ice cream, with the exception of Basil Vanilla, an extremely rare flavor of Vanilla served by a local ice cream parlor in the city I live in. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m eager for the taste of it already!! It’s also my not-so-controversial opinion that Butter Pecan/Maple Pecan and Rum Raisin will forever be the “Parent” or “Grandparent” flavors of the Ice Cream Flavor Rainbow

[@pepintheshort7913]

There’s a dairy near where I live that actually makes an unflavored ice cream (Nelson’s Sweet Cream, from Royersford, PA). Never tried it though, just looked at the ingredients. Seemed odd, like something Maude Flanders would ask for.

[@MajoraZ]

Small corrections/clarifications: While chocolate was indeed domesticated in South America, it's use as a crop spread up through Central America and Mesoamerica, and it is the Mesoamericans whose use of it was most extensive, and indeed, I believe that's a Kieth Henderson piece showing an Aztec lord that you used. Also, the practices and customs of who could drink chocolate and in what context and how it was prepared could differ from culture to culture or even city to city: A lot of primary sources assert that chocolate drinks limited to royalty or nobles for the Aztec, but excavations in the Aztec city of Yautepec have found chocolate goblets in the homes of commoners ("Aztec" itself is a bit of a horrifically imprecise term). I'm less familiar with the history of evolution and domestication of Vanilla then I am chocolate, but a cursory look at some scholarly papers and the genetics of vanilla seem to only mention cultivated varieties in Mesoamerica and Central America (as well as then varieties in Asia after the Columbian exchange), with no mention of South America, so tentatively it seems like it was at least first domesticated in those areas (originally in the Maya area, not amongst the Totonac civilization as oft claimed) not South America; and a search online also seems to yield sources which specifically state it's (at least Vanilla planifolia specifically) is native to Mexico... but again, this is a cursory look from me.

[@salamanderman1296]

Liar

[@Mimi.1001]

I believe he struggles a bit to view Mexico as North America, as he usually only lumps the USA and Canada in there. While Central America or Mesoamerica isn't really considered a separate continent and "Latin America" as a term not fitting either, using South America seemed like a viable option. Especially because at least cocoa was also cultivated in South America, like you stated.

[@Antanana_Rivo]

@@Mimi.1001 Since latin america by definition means "the part of America in which a language originating from the Latin language is spoken" this should fit the non-US/Canada-America description rather neatly. Ignoring the English speaking parts of the Carribbean, that is.

[@Mimi.1001]

@@Antanana_Rivo Quebec might be a bit of a problem since French is of course considered a Latin/Romance-Language too. While JJ has his issues with Quebec, he would consider it undoubtedly Canadian/American. Well, I guess you could consider the French-Canadians a (sizeable) minority concentrated around a specific area within an English (therefore non-Latin) speaking-country. Oh, and of course there are some countries in continental Central and South America that aren't Latin either, i.e. Belize, Guyana (colonized by the British) and Suriname (colonized by the Dutch). But overall, Latin America is certainly a better option than just South America.

[@frogwithafez3977]

I think a rundown over the "fast food cultural canon" (i.e. the standard American fast food menu items, burgers, fries, onions rings, chicken nuggets etc) would be really interesting

[@bes03c]

I am glad cookie dough made the cut. I am an American living in Korea. When I try to convince my Korean friends that cookie dough is a common flavor in the US, they do not believe me.

[@oaf-77]

In your face, doubtful Koreans!

[@georgeiii2998]

JJ, you really must do cake flavours. Why is it chocolate and vanilla, but not strawberry? Why is there no minty cake? Carrot cake is an oddity. Fruit flavours are rarely seen, apart from of course "fruitcake". Banana bread: cake or not? The possibilities are endless.

[@LurpakSpreadableButter]

I mean, strawberry cake is not that rare. And fruits on top of cakes are pretty common as well. And if muffins count as cakes, fruit flavored cakes are not uncommon

[@catarinamelchiorgomes8750]

Carrot cakes here in Brazil are pretty common, corn flour cakes too

[@swampdonkey1567]

@@catarinamelchiorgomes8750 carrot cakes are litterally the best cake even if you count icecream cake. Hard to find though in the US. Never heard of corn flour cakes is that a flavor or the flour like tortillas? I do personally prefer cooking and the taste of corn tortillas so I could see it being much better.

[@georgeiii2998]

@Jeremy Chong Really? I have never seen a strawberry cake. And no, I'm not counting sponge cake with strawberry jam or with fruit on top, because that's not the actual flavour of the cake. I mean a cake that's actually strawberry flavoured, like a chocolate cake.

[@GermansLikeBeer]

@@swampdonkey1567 Carrot cake is extremely common in the US, though; it's one of the classic staples. You can find it everywhere

[@arifshahabuddin8888]

Actually, ginger ice cream is very tasty. Of course, it is full of sugar, but the same could be said of chocolate ice cream. By itself, chocolate tastes a bit like black coffee (mocha coffee actually mixes both flavors). I'd give ginger ice cream a try. Ginger certainly gives ginger ale, ginger beer, gingerbread cookies and a bunch of other desserts their bite.

[@infamoussphere7228]

I love ginger flavoured everything. Ginger ice cream is spectacular.

[@butsukete1806]

Mocha is the capital of Yemen and the region produces some of my favorite coffee beans, how it got to be associated with chocolate is something I need to research.

[@CalliopeFive]

Rosewater as well would be amazing too!

[@Perririri]

Biden **Watches Gilligan's Island** Biden: Mmm, ginger ice cream!

[@pepintheshort7913]

A bunch of folks have made comments about vanilla being the “base” flavor. Now, I don’t know how widespread this is, but there’s such a thing a Sweet Cream ice cream. Cream, sugar, that’s it. Nelson’s Dairy in Royersford, Pennsylvania makes it. Truly “plain” ice cream. Never tried it, but I imagine a dollop in the coffee or tea would be good.

[@snacctime]

Pour coffee liqueur on it mmm

[@AdamYJ]

They have Sweet Cream ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery.

[@pepintheshort7913]

@@AdamYJ someone in another comment line mentioned that to me. I’ve never been to a Coldstone, so I wasn’t aware of it. But I would love to know if other ice cream companies make this flavor. Near me we have Turkey Hill, Breyers (big producers), and Nelson’s, Heisler’s, Leiby’s, WayHar and Oley Valley, and I think only Nelson’s makes it. I wonder if it’s more widespread throughout the US and Canada. Is “plain” ice cream, like Maude Flanders in the Simpsons asked for, a bigger thing than I realized?

[@LibraSnakeLibraSnake1018]

Fun fact: the original Neapolitan ice cream used the flavors pistachio, vanilla, and cherry, making the three colors of the Italian flag. The practice of combining three flavors of ice cream into one layered treat is called spumoni and originated in Italy’s Apulia region, but the chocolate/vanilla/strawberry variant is an American creation simply because those were the three most popular flavors in America when ice cream was first mass-produced.

[@iamvirginiarise8936]

I love that the man who teaches us about American culture is Canadian! Love your videos man. Glad to see you take off!

[@JJMcCullough]

It’s our culture too!

[@Pr0blemzend2132]

Imagine if he explained that Australian culture is secretly More American than you think

[@ungranjeroviejo9652]

Hey JJ, hope you recover swiftly from covid! I'm also sick with it and it's currently kicking my butt, but thankfully I don't have to go to the hospital. Have a good week!

[@barrankobama4840]

It deserves mention that, despite Italy being a poor country (or maybe because of that, since labour was cheaper), in Naples Ice Cream was relatively cheap in the XIX century. We have testimony of foreign visitors reporting this and stressing how more affordable it was compared to the rest of Europe and could be regularly consumed by city bourgeois (doctors, lawyers, merchants). So it was pretty typical, at least in Naples, to see Ice Creams. Same goes for pizza. And, as it goes for pizza, it was not the US that made pizza or gelato popular in the rest of Italy, but the assumption, during the late XIX century, of a lot of culinary habits from Naples as national standards (another example is spaghetti). Even to the disdain of some. In general the cultural influence of Italo-Americans on Italy only became a relevant thing after the Second World War. Before that communication was minimal, migrant communities send letters and money, but rarely came back and not to open a business.

[@barrankobama4840]

Also to mention, Italy is full of mountains with glaciers, even the far south (now they are of course retreating because of the rising temperatures), so bring ice to cities like Palermo, Naples, Rome, Florence, Turin, Milan, Genoa was tens if not hundreds of times cheaper than bring ice to Paris or London.

[@MrCrashDavi]

+

[@TheRagingPlatypus]

I made Pecan Pie here in Germany for friends. They loved it but finding the pecans was difficult and expensive...and no, walnuts and pecans are not the same. Now, I can find pecans in pretty much any store here.

[@robertgronewold3326]

Fortunately they're becoming more common all around the world.

[@neatoman5367]

Lately, there's been a big boom in Mexican/Latin American ice cream flavors in America due to large amounts of Mexican/Latin American immigrants coming into America. A big ice cream flavor that has took the ice cream industry by storm is mango flavored ice cream due to the fruit being uber popular in Mexico/Latin America. Great video!

[@julianbeltran4200]

Here in Argentina we are very fond of ice cream, and we produce one of the best in the world. In part because of our huge Italian immigration. Anyway, our typical flavours are pretty much the same like in the US: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, "crema americana" (american cream=cream), and DULCE DE LECHE. We love dulce de leche, we put dulce de leche in everything: chocolate with dulce de leche, dulce de leche ice cream with dulce de leche, cream with dulce de leche, flan ice cream with dulce de leche. Even at McDonald's the ice cream flavours they sell are: vanilla and dulce de leche (yes, we don't have chocolate ice cream in McDonald's and I've never try it in my life).

[@DoctorCyan]

Most McDonald's in America only have vanilla ice cream, for what it's worth. Most soft serve places do have at least vanilla and chocolate, not McDonalds.

[@Annie_Annie__]

I live in Texas, near Mexico and dulce de leche ice cream is popular here too. It’s odd because local shops and local ice cream companies in stores will sell dulce de leche, but the national shops and brands don’t. Also, fruit flavored ice creams seem to be more popular in Mexico than in most of the US, so it’s very common here to see mango, pineapple, and of course strawberry ice cream and paletas. Sometimes you can even find tamarind or mamey ice cream.

[@julianbeltran4200]

@@Annie_Annie__ here fruit flavours are popular, but not soooo much as chocolate, dulce de leche and dessert-type options. Our fruit flavours are: strawberry, cherry (my personal favourite), passion fruit, "frutos rojos" (a mix of cream and different berries) and banana split, more unusual ones are orange and peach.

[@Alex-fv2qs]

Banana split ice cream with dulce de leche, tramontana with dulce de leche (crema armericana with dulce de leche amd either chocolate chips or little round cookies), coconut ice cream with dulce de leche And dozens of dulce de leche based flavors (dulce de leche with chocolate chips, with brownies, with walnuts and with dulce de leche among man6 others)

[@LucasRu476]

did you seriously excluded sambayon? thats the best flavour we have and pretty common

[@YelloWord]

The tangentially related thing that still blows my mind a little: 3 Musketeers was originally neopolitan too. Hence the 3 in the name. Around WWII, they realized that chocolate was the only good flavor and haven't - aside from the odd limited edition - look back.

[@onijester56]

So...Imagine...Cherry and Banana flavors for 3 Musketeers. Yum.

[@nobodyvfjfs]

It wasn't that I think they had supply problems and cut back to only chocolate

[@Darkbunnyess]

I thought the 3 was nuts, chocolate, and caramel and there was a mix up with milky way and packaging

[@pablocasas5906]

Here in Argentina we have similar favorite flavors, with the exception of cookies and cream and pecan. If I had to add one distinct flavor from my country that would be "dulce de leche", which would be translated as caramel milk, we use it in many desserts, candies and pastries, I'd say is the equivalent of what peanut butter is to North Americans

[@lelandunruh7896]

The week after my wife got her green card and emigrated from Switzerland to Texas I bought her some cookie dough ice cream. She thought the idea was crazy and didn't want to try it. Now she averages three pints (1.4 liters) of it a week!

[@georgeiii2998]

Probably loves the cookie dough ice-cream more than she loves you.

[@matthew_natividad]

I never knew I needed cookie dough in my ice cream till I was in high school

[@mouthwaterin]

The American dream

[@JudeDefensor]

I've always found it curious that some Westerners find cheese-flavored ice cream strange, but think cheesecake is perfectly ordinary. They're pretty much the same flavor profile, just with a different texture.

[@GarrettMerkin]

Never stop making these videos, my guy. Rough coupla days and these are gold. Love the kind of a nice and lighthearted history bits like this.

[@zobristen]

For Turkey, the traditional Maras ice cream is always made from orchid roots (sahlep). It reminds me of an intense vanilla aroma. Also, almost all commercial brands will have pistachio, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavours. Even if it is not one of the most commercialized ones, black mulberry is quite popular too.

[@DoctorCyan]

I love pistachio, and I am surprised to learn how popular it is in the Old World. You rarely find pistachio flavor in America, and I think it has a reputation for being mocked as a D-Tier flavor of ice cream

[@zobristen]

@@DoctorCyan Really? Pistachio has always been the go to flavour for me and my family, i think the public opinion is really positive in the rest of Europe too. I'm in France right now and got out to buy some ice cream after watching this video, the flavours in the market were vanilla chocolate pistachio raspberry and weirdly enough crème brûlée. (and of course I bought pistachio, if only orchid ice cream was a thing outside of Turkey) I think pistachio is popular all across Europe.

[@maninredhelm]

@@DoctorCyan Pistachio was relatively common in the US in the 1970s. More of a B-Tier flavor then. It got pushed to the end of the flavor bin in the 80s and by the 90s had disappeared.

[@LeoMidori]

@@maninredhelm We have it here in Canada still, but it's rare to find one of quality. Ice cream making really is an art and a science, but all the pistachio flavoured ice creams I have here are just so fatty and bland.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@DoctorCyan I'm not that fond of pistachio ice cream but I like pistachios, so maybe I should be.

[@barx]

11:12 That's because the flavor of vanilla actually is chemically more simple than a lot of other flavors, as it has one major flavoring component: vanillin. Although real vanilla beans have a lot more chemicals which contribute more to its full flavor, vanillin has most of the vanilla flavor, making it easily replicable. The same cannot be said for flavors like strawberry, which rely on a multitude of different chemicals for flavor, which is partially why strawberry flavored foods tend to not taste like actual strawberries.

[@DarthCalculus]

I just remembered the line from Chicago's "Saturday in the Park": "... A man selling ice cream, singing Italian songs"

[@pattongilbert]

Gosh, I absolutely adore your editing. Always wonderful use of sound effects along with some great prop usage this episode. And your art! Consistently appealing every single time. You really are a fantastic KZbinr, J.J. Keep doing the amazing work that you do!😊

[@19DannyBoy65]

15:50 Just to be a bit of a stickler, and I know this probably isn’t even what you meant, but wild strawberries are already more than palatable; having had them before, I’d even argue that they’re better tasting than most farm-grown strawberries. All the bioengineering was required to make them feasible for any large scale cultivation as the wild variety simply has too small a yield due to the size of the individual fruits

[@LeoMidori]

It's true. It's like the flavour and sugars are more concentrated!

[@llamennfarce4104]

In Poland the wild strawberry has a different name and is absolutely delicious. It’s sweeter and fruitier than strawberries. I like strawberries but they always feel a bit watery compared to wild strawberries

[@jamesmacinnes8397]

The seven distinct ice cream flavours are really interesting. In the UK, we don't really have pecan ice cream, but caramel/fudge flavour ice cream is very common.

[@Croz89]

Salted Caramel seems to be very popular here. It's amazing that in the last decade or so, the simple idea of adding salt to caramel to temper its sweetness has taken off so much. Probably our more unique contribution is ice cream made with clotted cream, which you tend to find a lot in Devon and Cornwall.

[@residentalien818]

carmel/fudge is popular in the us too i actually see it way more then pecan idk why he hypes up pecans so much in this video

[@robertgronewold3326]

My English friend visited the US a few years ago, and he and his parents had pecan ice cream for the first time, and have pined for it ever since. They occasionally will buy pecans and just mix them into vanilla ice cream.

[@alfredosauce3727]

I think the pecan ice cream is probably more just a southern US thing. I live in the midwest (basically the center of the states) and have probably only had butter pecan ice cream once if at all. A flavor I would think is way more popular than pecan would be "rocky road" which is chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and nuts in it.

[@residentalien818]

@@alfredosauce3727 idk man in nc and i almost never see pecan icecream

[@kacpergalik609]

I really like mint ice cream, however in Poland they are not really a thing. We don't really have a distinct flavor here, but we have something called "warm ice cream" which is basically a dollop of foam on a piece of wafer which is covered with chocolate. The foam can also be inside a wafer cup. It was invented in the Communist times.

[@theonlydiego1]

I must know more of this warm ice cream

[@Hadar1991]

Lidl has mint ice cream in Poland. In Lidl you can also buy my favourite: Jamaican rum ice cream.

[@kacpergalik609]

@@Hadar1991 I have seen mint ones here and there, it's true, but never the rum ones. I'd love to try them, but the closest Lidl is 40 km away.

[@adrianolkowski7694]

I would also point out that in Poland cream flavor is probably more popular than vanilla flavor

[@kacpergalik609]

@@adrianolkowski7694 yes, I can agree

[@MrLeeJimi]

My great grandfather ran a grocer store in regional Australia. He was the first in the region to get a freezer, and people would travel 3 or 4 hours just to get a scoop of icecream as a special day out.

[@torysciacca6907]

It’s absolutely insane to think about how much the world has changed in just the last few hundred years. Great video as always JJ, all the best with your covid recovery.

[@SiddharthS96]

Really interesting video! The most common icecream flavours in India are: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, butterscotch, black currant, pistachio and mango

[@JJMcCullough]

What is “ball ice cream”?

[@SiddharthS96]

@@JJMcCullough those are just regular icecream that are sold in plastic balls, kids loved them as they looked fancy and were sort of like toys/collectibles, similar to how Happy Meal toys are liked :)

[@dharmani_youtube]

@@JJMcCullough I'm guessing you are talking of frozen ice balls and not a flavour? It's called "Gola" and it's basically plain crushed ice and add any syrup to it

[@SiddharthS96]

@@dharmani_youtube oh yes, these are another thing: they're similar to sorbets or crushed ice in the West

[@SiddharthS96]

@@JJMcCullough there's also another form of icecream that's traditional here in India called kulfi, which are sold on sticks and come in Indian flavours like pistachio, cream, saffron, mango etc. They're also quite popular here and across the subcontinent, they're actually from Iran originally I believe, along with another icecream dessert from there called Falooda (which is like a sundae).

[@foxygrandpa5064]

The history of artificial flavors would definitely be interesting. I mean so many of them have thier own unique flavors that we all just accept replicate the real thing. You can't tell me you ever had a banana that tasted like banana candy before. And what in the hell is a "blue raspberry"?

[@oanaomg7298]

Food Science Babe had a few videos on the history of artificial flavourings, from a scientific pov. As I remember, the banana one was developed after a now-extinct variety of banana called Gros Michele, while the bananas most common nowadays are Cavendish. But it would be interesting to se JJ’s cultural perspective.

[@DOCTOR.DEADHEAD]

(Even though I'm 90% sure it was a rhetorical question) Blue raspberry only exists as a flavor for candy. It's weird because seeing as the fruit isn't even real, you would think all the many candies with "blue raspberry" flavoring would taste different yet they always share the same distinct flavor, at least to me.

[@PixelatedH2O]

Blue raspberry, according to lore, exists because of the ICEE. Because cherry was also red, blue was picked for raspberry to lessen confusion at a glance.

[@robertgronewold3326]

Artificial banana flavor is actually formulated for a different variety of banana. Banana trees are essentially all clones, as the fruits have been bred to have no seeds any longer, so they cut off a branch and plant it to grow a new tree. But this makes the trees very susceptible to disease, and back in the 1940's, the most common variety of banana was almost wiped out and today a different breed is the common one in stores. So when you taste artificial banana candy, you're tasting what that old breed of banana that is now less common tasted like.

[@whatcanidooo]

I’m pretty sure blue raspberry is just normal raspberry but colored blue instead of red. If you get a candy that is just plain raspberry flavor it tastes pretty much the same

[@jimmysnickles9642]

I love how JJ poses questions in his video titles that I had never thought about before and yet still desperately need to know the answer to

[@Moonlitwatersofaqua]

I had no idea other countries didn't eat pecans. This just like finding out non americans don't know what lemonade is. :')

[@inwalters]

When I was young, I remember my Mom making snow ice cream on those rare occasions when South Carolina got enough snow to do something with. As I recall it was a mix of some snow, milk or cream , sugar and vanilla flavoring. Beaten for a short time and voila - ice cream. Actually it was pretty good. [FYI - your pronunciation of pecans is spot on]

[@pghrpg4065]

Of the thousands of things that weren't around when my grandparents were children, I never thought of chocolate chips as one them.

[@robertgronewold3326]

Yeah, back in the day they just straight up made full chocolate cookies. When the woman accidentally invented chocolate chip cookies, she thought the chocolate would evenly melt through the cookie dough, but it didn't.

[@GarretRB]

Your videos on things we take for granted in culture are always my favorite

[@slothfulcobra]

Vanilla is an underrated great flavor that we've been trained not to notice because it's so good it's put in everything. Including chocolate ice cream. On an ice cream lid you get little bits of ice cream stuck there that dries out to be extra-concentrated vanilla flavor.

[@compatriot852]

When I used to live in Europe and Mexico, I used to love getting ice cream over there due to the unique flavors only found there. My family's house in Mexico has a Michoacana with a ton of flavors and I always spend time there whenever I visit

[@kimberlywilson7929]

I love those paletas!

[@Alexx1083]

Sure, I can watch people talk about food, but the JJ experience is that he will go get that food RIGHT NOW for a few seconds of the video - just so it's there on screen while he talks about it. That's the JJ Difference.

[@BlastedRodent]

In Denmark, I’d say the “basic” ice cream flavors you can always expect to find are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, nougat and pistacchio. Caramel, stracciatella and liquorice are also pretty common, as are various fruit sherbets.

[@GoogelyeyesSaysHej]

In sweden, according to one of our food companies, it is the following: Vanilla Chocolate Pecan Licorice Strawberry Pistage Pear

[@lanzsibelius]

That is material for a whole new video!! In Mexico I'm pretty sure the most popular flavor has to be lemon (or should I say lime since it's the green one??) with no doubt. Then others unique might include mamey, chewing gum, cheese (more commonly combined with blackberry or something else), though I doubt they are more popular than chocolate, vanilla or cookies and cream. And then of course we have some really exotic, but traditional ice cream flavor names that I don't even know what they actually are: "tiger's tail", "angel's kiss", "rose's petals"

[@salty7631]

What is a nougat? Is it pronounced "No ugh at" or "now get?"

[@dylan_1884]

@@salty7631 New-git if you're an American, and New-gah if you're from the UK. It's a confection made of beaten egg whites, honey, and nuts. It's got a chewy texture and a creamy, sugary-y flavor, really tasty stuff.

[@LeoMidori]

@@lanzsibelius We have Tiger Tail here in Canada too, ours is orange with black licorice "stripes". Is it the same in Mexico? Many of the others you listed sound very good and interesting!

[@chasm4787]

Always love to see a new J.J. culture canon videos!

[@AlwaysAmTired]

The part about ice cream not being as Italian as Americans think kind of blew my mind because I definitely always thought it originated somehow in Italy

[@remcon559]

I think there must be something Italian about it though, because even across Europe we associate ice cream with Italy, which could not be explained by the whole "immigrants sell ice cream" story

[@salamanderman1296]

He literally said that it started in the 1500s by European elites. Mostly in Italy…

[@Zombie-lp8bx]

Ice cream was invented by China, introduced to the Western world by Italy, and made accessible to the general public by France-xiè xie, grazie, merci!

[@matilde_5]

It still is more Italian than American for sure.

[@barrankobama4840]

Italian ice cream is indeed from Italy.

[@adambennett805]

For those interested, the UK most popular are as followed: 1. Vanilla 2. Chocolate 3. Strawberry 4. Mint choc chip 5. Caramel/salted caramel 6. Rum and raisin 7. Pistachio 8. Raspberry 9. Coffee 10. Cookies and cream

[@tnt-boom]

I give all of your videos the "Neat!" Award. Thus they are now award winning.

[@KingDanOfBarr]

I'd love to have an hour to chat with jj about culture and north American history. Sounds like a great time!

[@matthewbanta3240]

It is amazing how fast some of these went from being specialty flavors to being part of the North American flavor canon. I am gen-x so I remember a time before cookie dough was a thing. In the 80's or so they started marketing premixed cookie dough. There was an episode of the Simpsons that referenced the fact that people were just eating the dough right out of the package (not the best idea but some did it anyway). Then I remember hearing about a new brand of ice cream so outrageous that they had a raw cookie dough flavor (Ben and Jerry's). My mom has a similar story with mint chocolate chip and Baskin Robbins. Now these are just regular flavors and brands.

[@jakatalbot]

Back before cookie dough ice cream Rocky Road was popular, and while you can still find it, it's a grampa flavor like Butterscotch. I'm a Moose Tracks fan, but that's harder to find outside the Northeast.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@jakatalbot There seem to be a lot of "chocolate or vanilla with random stuff mixed in" flavors that just have whimsical specific names. That's most of Ben and Jerry's repertoire.

[@whotoobe]

A follow up on savory ice cream would be interesting. As an American, I remember a time before soy bean and green tea ice cream were relatively popular.

[@solarmoth4628]

Is green tea considered savory? I’ve grown up with matcha flavored deserts though so maybe my perspective is different.

[@Zariel_999]

maybe not savory, but definitely bitter

[@georgeiii2998]

We have goat's cheese ice cream in France.

[@BOABModels]

My favourite has and always will be Mint Choc Chip. I remember being on holiday in France as a child, seeing the green ice cream in the chiller and then being crushingly disappointed when learning it was actually pistachio, which was more popular in France than mint.

[@thevoidmostly]

Thank you for being a channel on KZbin that actually tries to teach me something rather than just depressing me.

[@georgeiii2998]

Over 18 minutes of JJ? It's a good day.

[@salewasagoose]

Mint chocolate chip seems to be the 'default' the same way vanilla is in some places in new york. My childhood was filled with mint chocolate chip and chocolate ice cream cakes, vanilla was extremely rare and considered bland despite being my favorite flavor.

[@Blue_Star_Child]

My favorite shake is a mint chocolate chip shake with a scoop of chocolate ice cream on top. Mmmmm

[@d3th2m3rikkka]

I live in NYC and I’ve never heard of this. It that an upstate thing?

[@Zariel_999]

i love mint chocolate chip isn't though it isn't the best flavor because of it's association with my childhood. eating a cone of it is one of my earliest childhood memories.

[@moblinmajorgeneral]

One flavor you missed, that's actually one of the 3 first flavors of ice cream, is coffee. Though coffee isn't nearly as popular as a flavor of ice cream now as it once was, it's still notable as one of the first commercially sold ones.

[@MattMcIrvin]

Like chocolate and vanilla, it's also a base for a lot of more complicated flavors with other stuff mixed in.

[@FluffyEmmy1116]

9:10 _(angry fish voice)_ Now that I've got you right where I want you, _(sincerely)_ I'd like to watch your upcoming chocolate video

[@huggleton]

As a Brit my most common encounter with pecans are maple and pecan danish pastries, which are really nice btw

[@KnowingBetter]

This guy leaving all his ice cream out on his desk.

[@donaldbaird7849]

They're probably empty

[@Rampala]

I kind of think of vanilla cream as the base for all ice creams, though it's so funny that it's come to mean "plain" when it's so decadent. We have a local ice creamery that makes a "sweet cream honeycomb" that's to die for. Once you try it you can never go back. As for future videos, I would love to see one on the history of chocolate. Also, I'm a little obsessed with how other countries interpret American foods (or how other countries interpret each other's foods to make the best dishes in the world), so more of those please! Maybe something on the history of street foods? Oh! Or more videos about cultural propaganda. I can't believe how strong the association between Italians and ice cream is considering it's reverse engineered. In Boston, the Italian part of the city is synonymous with the ice cream/ dessert district. Also, I would totally take a whole video on the transatlantic accent.

[@Zariel_999]

and it's always been weird to me that vanilla colored things are beige when vanilla is actually black. i think it's because vanilla ice cream is so ubiquitous that people associate the color of the ice cream with the color of vanilla.

[@vampire_juicebox]

A bit disappointed you didn't mention the invention of the waffle/ice cream cone, because as someone who is from St. Louis, the fact that the waffle cone was invented here is one of our very few achievements

[@JJMcCullough]

I’m sorry to say that story is disputed by ice cream historians

[@gerardacronin334]

@@JJMcCullough Ice cream historian: the job I didn’t know about, but now want! 🍦 I could see you were having fun making this video!

[@vampire_juicebox]

@@JJMcCullough Everything I know is a lie

[@salamanderman1296]

It was invented by a Syrian guy. What are you talking about lol?

[@michaelcurtis756]

History of TV and how that's shaped American culture would be a cool topic, perhaps identifying the quintessential channels. Big networks, cable, early internet, youtube, etc

[@nationalplate4127]

As jj was talking about how ice cream was this reminded me of a scene from Indian movie 'Paan Singh Tomar' in which the protagonist fondly described soft serve ice cream when he went to attend atheletic event in toyko years back in late 1950s. However, he was describing it in 1980s when these soft serve ice cream had made their way to India, he just wasn't aware of this development as he had become a decoit and a maoist in central India by that time.

[@ajastory]

This definitely needs a follow-up with worldly ice cream flavors! Asia especially has some notable ones.

[@sunvieightmaster88]

Disclaimer: The Best Way to watch this video is to watch it while eating Ice Cream.

[@robgronotte1]

I want to eat that huge ice cream cone! Hope it didn't go to waste... Also, it's hard for me to imagine thinking that Pecans taste the same as Walnuts. Pecans are delicious, while Walnuts taste like dirt.

[@cedartheyeah.justyeah.3967]

OH MY GOD the thing about the ice cream maker at the beginning of the video brought up memories! I don't know what the heck happened to it, but way back in my childhood we had an ice cream maker that looked like the historical one but made of plastic and I think there was a button or two on it.

[@TheLordZoka]

I would love to see a video on how American coffee traditions have evolved over the years. Like how did espresso only catch on so late in the 1980s but Italians were drinking them all over the US much earlier? And also why do people mostly only get coffee in to-go cups even when they sit down in the cafe?

[@soundpreacher]

Most coffee shops only use disposable cups whether you are drinking it there or taking it to go, so they don’t need to wash them.

[@briantaylorkinney1655]

It was certainly not fun when my grandfather made us "take turns" churning that round bucket with that thing on top. Horrible! Exhausting! But thanks JJ for another awesome video

[@cfv7461]

Really interesting. There are some really common flavours in my country (Chile) that i never thought of as idiosincratic. I would say that blueberry cream and "joyful cherimoya" (cherimoya and orange) are the most comon canonical ice creams around here, outside of the ones mentioned in the video.

[@AlexTenThousand]

It's incredible how all the "iconic" American foods have absolutely nothing to do with North America, like, at all. Chips are either French or Belgian, Hamburgers and hot dogs are German and Pizza and Ice Cream (in its modern form) are Italian.

[@JJMcCullough]

It's almost like America is some kinda melting pot of the world!

[@colltonrighem]

That’s true for the most part, but consider foods such as succotash and cornbread which are actually native to North America

[@AlexTenThousand]

@@JJMcCullough Yup, and it's also amazing that this reflected on the world - the combination of a hamburger with a side of chips is as American as it can be thanks to McDonalds, and New York's hot dog carts are an icon of the city.

[@kacpergalik609]

@@JJMcCullough the case of pizza is striking for me as a person who has been to Italy and thus, I have tried the original version and it made me aware of how it has been changed over time. And gelato is perhaps one of my favorite desserts.

[@HOTD108_]

Just wait until you find out that tea and biscuits don't actually originate from Britian.

[@sapphire1740]

I love how much energy he has in his speech

[@CopperScott]

Hey JJ can you do a video about walkability and car centric infrastructure in the US and Canada? It's a topic that a lot more people are talking about nowadays

[@SomasAcademy]

~1:25 Ginger and rosewater are great ice cream flavors, I've made ice cream with both of them. Sugar too, of course, I can't imagine they'd be as good unsweetened.

[@implodingcoding]

Agree, and these are pretty common flavors at the ice cream shops in the bay area. Would be curious which flavors are the "standards" at higher end ice cream shops. I feel like i consistently see salted caramel, honey lavender, cinnamon and/or cardamon, matcha, and some form of coffee (sometimes w toffee, caramel, or chocolate chips added). Taro, coconut, and black sesame are also quite popular, as is some form of chocolate w peanut butter swirl.

[@michaelbcohen]

Also dont forget the revolution of the "interesting flavors". When the Ice Cream boom happened, the stores like Baskin Robbins, while a wide variety of flavors, but nothing too crazy from a flavoring standpoint. In the 1980s Ben & Jerry's started to innovate with some more unique flavors, leading to others copying (though not as far as B&J), but still they didnt go too crazy. It was an Ice Cream store in NYC called "Max & Mina's" who in 1997 opened up and inspired the crazy flavor craze we know today. Between 1997-1999 they made international news, with TV Crews and media there all the time (and celebrities'), over all their crazy flavors (like Lox and Cream Cheese, Merlot, Beer, Cajun Spice, Pizza, Halva, Corn on the Cobb, and many more. Soon B&J and other big Ice Cream companies went scrambling for crazy unique flavors, and also dozens of copy-cat ice cream stores popped up across the USA, as they tried to each outdo each other for crazy flavors. Today Max & Mina's has a rotation of 6,000 Flavors, with new ones being created all the time (throughout the week as soon as one flavor runs out they swap it with one from the rotation or new flavor, but they also have the core standard flavors always on). It is considered a Ice Cream lovers number one stop when the arrive in NYC, and tour groups visit it all the time. Also some celebs like Kevin James still are seen in there when they are in the area. One little Kosher Ice Cream store in Queens, NY, led a revolution in American Ice Cream. Also when traveling the world you can see what Ice Cream flavors are the standard there, when I visit Israel the fact every place has Banana Ice Cream as a standard flavor, is interesting.

[@t_ylr]

Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia is my absolute favorite ice cream. I think generally chocolate + fruit flavors are criminally underrated. They're almost always good.

[@kimberlywilson7929]

@@t_ylr Cherry Garcia is sooooo good.

[@LangThoughts]

@@t_ylr ɴɑzɨ

[@LangThoughts]

@@kimberlywilson7929 ɴɑzɨ

[@Zariel_999]

@@t_ylr that's funny because i think chocolate + fruit is kinda disgusting. unless you're talking about white chocolate too, i love that on fruit.

[@ihaverabies17]

Wow it blows my mind how something that was once a rare or infrequent treat for the ultra-wealthy is now a commonplace and mundane dessert. And we barely even spare it a thought. It makes me think of how things like hot showers would have been an unimaginable luxury to almost every human in history, up until only a short while ago. Seems like we take a lot of things for granted these days!

[@benjaminrobinson3842]

How long ago would it have been unimaginable to watch some guys slickly made video about ice cream on your home computing device?

[@rhiannebyron1889]

Sugar beets changed everything.

[@gerardacronin334]

Conversely, in past centuries, oysters were a cheap source of protein for poor people, and now they have become an expensive delicacy.

[@EnigmaticLucas]

@@benjaminrobinson3842 I'm too young to actually know, but I'd imagine as recently as the 80s

[@EnigmaticLucas]

@@gerardacronin334 Same for lobsters

[@TheJimmyp427]

5:05 I'm from York county and i always notice my hometown coming up in trivia-type history. I've also been thinking about how many junk food companies came out of Pennsylvania in general, the most popular being Hershey's and now Snyder's. Pennsylvanias history and influence on American culture is really overlooked

[@AlexBerman]

I formally give you the McCollough Award for Best Series Now it is officially award winning

[@joemungusphart]

I love hearing Shane Mesa's Mother 4/Oddity soundtrack used in your videos! Phenomenal stuff!

[@RobMidder]

Most ice did not in fact come from mountains and glaciers as you said in this awarding-winning video. Instead it was harvested from lakes in northern North America during the winter. The ice would then be send and stored in icehouses around the world packed in sawdust to be distributed well into the summer. Many New Englanders have stories of their grand-parents going out in the winter to make some extra cash cutting ice.

[@belg4mit]

The mention of mountain-sourced ice was about classical desserts, e.g; Romans, not the U.S.

[@pghrpg4065]

Pittsburgh's History Center is in a building that was formerly the Chautauqua Lake Ice Company. The ice was harvested from Lake Chautauqua in western NY and shipped down to Pittsburgh. I was thinking about this when JJ talked about mountains and glaciers.

[@robertgronewold3326]

Oh, that's just not an American thing. They did that all over the world. The Persians even invented 'ice towers' which could keep ice in the desert all through the summer months. A bunch are still used to this day.

[@HOTD108_]

I'll always find it hilarious that Oreo's are actually a rip-off brand.

[@MyBoomStick1]

On paper these ideas of videos aren’t something I’d be interested in but I find myself watching almost every video. 10/10

[@jsheav]

The Jeff Nippard ice cream making was a great touch. Represent those fellow Canadians.