Words by Iona Judd
Ice cream, gelato, soft serve, sorbet? In a cone or in a cup? With a flake or without? Syrup, sprinkles or both? Always both.
These are key questions we ask ourselves as soon as the weather starts to turn into SULA (sweaty upper lip alert) season. And with these questions, also comes a familiar sound: the evocative off-key chime of a Mr Whippy van.
Ice cream (and I’m using the blanket term here because ice cream, gelato and soft serve are in fact molecularly different due to their percentages of fat) is a global phenomenon, though its origins are unclear. I like the theory that it was created by Roman Emperors on a quest to keep cool after watching gladiators in the blistering heat. Supposedly, they’d be served a cup of snow, gathered from the mountain tops and flavoured with fruit purée. Something tells me the surviving gladiators weren’t afforded the same luxury.