National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day is a holiday observed on the 1st of July that encourages everyone to get creative with their ice cream flavor choices. Sure, you may enjoy strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate ice cream the rest of the year, but on this day, you’re encouraged to try something new.

How about Coffee & Donuts or Cherry Pistachio ice cream? Maybe Lemon Thyme or Oatmeal Raisin ice cream suits your style more. It doesn’t matter what you choose, just be sure to change up your ice cream choices on this day.

The History of Ice Cream

Although we were unfortunately unable to uncover the history of National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day, we did discover the history of ice cream. We think that most people would be surprised to learn that the Chinese had a dessert very similar to ice cream as far back as 200 BC when a mixture of rice and milk was frozen by packing it into snow.

Roman emperors would also have ice and snow brought down from mountaintops to be flavored—although we admit that was more like a snow cone and less like the ice cream we know today. Regardless, ice cream and ice cream-like products have been around for a very long time.

Although royalty in Europe had access to sherbet-like products, the general public wouldn’t enjoy ice cream until about the middle of the 17th century—and even then, it was expensive. Ice cream would remain a somewhat rare and exotic dessert enjoyed by the wealthy until the 19th century.

This is when ice cream production increased thanks to advances in technology. Ice cream began to become extremely popular throughout the rest of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but its popularity wouldn’t really take off until after WWII.

Observing National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day

Spend the day taking a few moments to enjoy an ice cream that you like. And remember, if you can’t find an unusual flavor that you like, then you can always create your own ice cream flavor.