The inside scoop on ice cream

What doesn't thrill McGarry is the use of mix-ins. "At a lot of ice cream chains, the ice cream isn't that great unless you throw in a Snickers bar," he says.

This is just one of the lessons McGarry plans to teach his son, who is 15 months old. The little boy got his first ice cream when he turned 1. Not surprisingly, "his eyes lit up."

What excites his father, though, is the idea of passing along the ice cream parlor experience. "Each stand has such a great story," he says. "Certain parlors have been around for 100-plus years, and I don't think the community could get along without them."

That sense of community is one reason many people tend to buy from the same place again and again, McGarry says, rather than expanding their range. But he encourages folks to add ice cream to their travel itineraries this summer. "It doesn't take a reservation, it's a cheap little treat, and everyone is equal."

How much ice cream is produced annually in the United States?

A. Enough to fill the Queen Mary.

B. Enough to fill the Rose Bowl.

C. Enough to fill the Grand Canyon.

If you answered C, you're probably a consumer of some of the 1.4 billion gallons of ice cream produced yearly in the US. The sweet treat - and its equally popular cousins gelato, frozen custard, sherbet, and frozen yogurt - is a lucrative industry that racks up more than $20 billion a year in sales.

From its origins in ancient Mesopotamia and Nero's Rome, to its popularity in Renaissance courts and 17th-century Parisian cafes, ice cream was served in many countries long before its first recorded US appearance in the 1700s. But while it may not have been an American invention, it has certainly become an institution here. Dolley Madison made it all-American, Baskin-Robbins popularized inventive flavors, and Ben & Jerry's put super-premium on the map. In 1984, President Reagan declared July to be National Ice Cream Month.

Here are some other ice cream facts:

• The United States produces more ice cream per year than any other country.

• Per capita, New Zealanders eat the most ice cream - 55.5 pints per person annually.

• California makes more ice cream than any other state.

• Residents of Portland, Ore., eat more ice cream than those of any other US city.

• The most popular flavor of ice cream is vanilla, followed by chocolate, butter pecan, strawberry, and Neapolitan.

• The favorite ice cream topping is chocolate syrup.

• It takes approximately 50 licks to polish off an average single-scoop cone.

• The largest ice cream sundae in the world was made in 1988 in Alberta, Canada, and weighed 54,914 pounds.

• An ice cream shop in Venezuela, Helados Coromoto, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as serving the most flavors: 550.

• Ninety-eight percent of all US households purchase ice cream.

• More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week.

Sources: www.icecream.com, International Dairy Foods Association

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