How did ancient civilizations make ice cream? - Vivian Jiang

by Panzer
On a hot spring afternoon in 1963,
two men, sent by the American CIA,
snuck into the cafeteria of the Havana Libre Hotel.
Their directive was to retrieve a poison pill from the freezer
and slip it into the chocolate milkshake of Fidel Castro,
the Cuban leader who was known to devour up to 18 scoops of ice cream after lunch.
While exact details of the story are contested, it's rumored that the pill,
however, froze to the freezer coils and broke,
foiling the CIA’s plan and granting Castro many more days to satiate his sweet tooth.
Ice cream has held a unique role in our world’s history, culture, and cravings—
but where did it come from?
The first accounts of cold desserts and iced drinks date back
as early as the first century.
In civilizations including ancient Rome, Mughal India, and Tang dynasty China,
these icy treats were mainly enjoyed by the royal elites.
And finding the means to freeze these delicacies wasn’t always easy.
Wealthy Mediterranean nobility sent laborers to trek up high mountains
to harvest glacial ice and snow.
Meanwhile, ancient Persians built shallow insulated pools of water
and utilized a technique known as sky cooling.
At night, the shallow pools would naturally radiate heat
into the dry desert skies,
causing them to dip below the ambient temperature and freeze.
Yet the cream-based treat we know today made a much later debut.
It was originally inspired by sherbet, or sharbat in Arabic,
an icy drink believed to have originated in Persia,
and subsequently gained popularity in the Middle Ages.
European travelers brought sharbat recipes home,
and began creating their own chocolate, pinecone,
and even eggplant flavored takes on the refreshment.
In 1692, Antonio Latini, a Neapolitan chef,
recorded a recipe for a unique milk-based version,
which some historians dub the first ice cream.
In the 18th century, ice cream expanded its reach
as these recipes set sail alongside European settlers to North America.
Yet it was still mainly enjoyed by the upper classes
as the process to make it was quite laborious,
and its main ingredients— sugar, salt, and cream— were expensive.
George Washington is said to have spent the equivalent of $6,600