Many, but not all, countries make ice cream of one kind or another. I don’t know about you, but when I think of ice cream from the top drawer, I naturally think of Italy. This is probably thanks to all the “Italian” ice cream shops with their shiny trays behind a curved glass counter, with labels identifying exotic flavours. Sometimes the labels are even usefully aligned to the trays.

But now I know better…. it’s here. In Switzerland. Where I have been privileged to enjoy not just the ice cream but also the hospitality of Andy Kessler, as well as his bike and his routes around Basel. Having lived and cycled in the area for 32 years he knows the trails like the back of his hand.

Andy is one half of Open Cycles. The other is Gerald Vroomen (yes, of Cervélo fame) and their first production mountain bike is the rather special Open 0-1.0. A soft-hardtail which sounds weird until you ride one. Then it makes sense. And we were riding near the Schwarzee (lake), where we managed 1500m of ascent in just 36km of spectacular trail.

Turns out Andy also likes a particular ice cream.

Having made a comprehensive study (*) I can say with some authority that ice cream started way back before refrigeration. Prior to 400BC in fact. The Persians tossed some apple juice over some snow and called it ice cream. Well, maybe they didn’t actually call it ice cream, but they got the (snow)ball rolling.

Before freezers, it was a tough job to, well, freeze stuff so only the rich (it always start with the rich doesn’t it?) could stockpile ice, or import it from colder parts, to impress their friends with ice cream in the warmer summer months. Soon the Arabs improved the recipe by using milk instead of water. And of course there is a theory that the Chinese actually did it all first anyway (isn’t there always). In those days, contrary to the modern experience, Europeans ripped-off Chinese products and it is thought that Marco Polo brought the Chinese technology to Italy where ice cream boomed.

By the 1700’s it reaches England and by the 1800’s started to become affordable to the non-rich (poor?). Still no freezers though. A mid 1800’s cookery book by Agnes Marshall advocated the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze the mixture (hectic) – which is still sometimes used today as freezing cryogenically makes for the smallest ice crystals and thus the smoothest ice cream. But probably no longer in homes!

Eventually post the 1950’s ice cream became more popular worldwide thanks to the now common place – drum roll please – refrigeration.

Meanwhile in Switzerland the worlds best ice cream was being sneakily created. Starting in the 1950’s, having waited for refrigeration crafty Swiss chefs started a tradition of fine ice cream that culminated in the Swiss brand Mövenpick. You can also spell it Moevenpick if you don’t have an iDevice that can easily ådd wèîrd and ìintērêstįng glyphs to letters.

The worlds best ice cream.
As eaten at Andy’s house.

If you don’t agree with me, you probably haven’t tried it.

Footnote
America contributed by inventing the soda float (fizzy drink with a blob of ice cream – think Coke float). Typical. Their famous Ben & Jerry’s brand demonstrates the American penchant for going OTT calorie wise with their Chubby Hubby consisting of vanilla malt ice cream swirled with fudge and peanut butter, and containing pretzel nuggets covered in fudge and filled with peanut butter. Imagine spooning that straight from the tub when you feel depressed. Ew.
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(*) I Googled it.