The cold cubes in your soda deserve a hat tip. They are made of capable stuff, spawning mysterious feats like emerald green icebergs in Antarctica and ice volcanoes in space.

The frosty wonder can also move in nanoseconds, hide things for millions of years, and become the material of choice in a nuclear disaster. Ice is celebrated in a big way all over the world—from China to Norway, where festivals bring out the true splendor and weirdness of this natural wonder.

10 Long-Lasting Ice Pop

A hot day can melt an ice pop so fast that you end up licking your hand more than the snack. In 2018, a British firm announced the answer. They called it the world’s first “non-melting ice lolly.”

In truth, it does melt. To be more positive, it lasts hours longer than ordinary ones. The company, Bompas & Parr, is known for quirky foodstuffs like flavored fireworks. Their solution to the irritating ice pop drip was clever.

In World War II, Geoffrey Pyke invented pykrete, ice that contains wood pulp and sawdust. Pike envisioned that aircraft carriers could be build from the material. Winston Churchill supported him. But when the project cost too much and was shut down, Pike committed suicide. He could not have foreseen his invention’s influence on the non-melting lolly.

The pykrete inspired the snack’s main design for heat tolerance—strands of fruit fibers. Although it sounds simple, the ice pop took a year to develop and was rolled out to the public in apple flavor. Thanks to the fiber content, this ice pop is a little more chewy than ordinary ones.^[1]

9 The Giant Spinning Disk

In Maine, winter 2019 left a treat in the Presumpscot River. Near a bend in the river churned a disk of ice. It was hefty, measuring 100 meters (330 ft) in diameter.

Slowly spinning in a counterclockwise direction, the swirl was unusual but not unique. The right circumstances will spawn one right there and then. A large eddy, usually where a river kinks, traps pieces of ice.

The one in Maine probably began with ice fragments tracing the egg-like rotation of the eddy. As pieces kept arriving from upstream, the swirling and knocking against the shoreline crushed the ice together. It froze into a solid plate. As it kept turning with the eddy and chafed against the banks, the disk became circular.^[2]

Presumpscot River likely has produced similar ice wheels in the past, and in 1993, the same thing happened in North Dakota. The Sheyenne River produced a disk (smaller than the one in Maine) when ice collected at an eddy.

8 Destruction Of Larsen B

Larsen B was an ice shelf in Antarctica. Noteworthy for its stability, the structure was around 10,000 years old. In 2002, it collapsed within weeks. Around 3,250 square kilometers (1,250 mi²) of ice tumbled into the sea, the first time that this volume had vanished so quickly.

The only clue was a dramatic one. Over 2,000 lakes had sprung up all over the shelf during the months before. These meltwater lakes are normal for the summer season when ice melts and collect in basins. As one reservoir can hold over a million tons of water, researchers wondered if their combined weight caused Larsen B to break apart.

In 2016, the theory was tested. With melt season approaching, several basins on the McMurdo Ice Shelf were rigged with measuring equipment. The data showed that lakes filling with melt caused the shelf to bend.^[3]

McMurdo survived the season. But during a hypothetical test, the shelf “broke” when the lakes were slightly bigger and closer together. This was pretty much the smoking gun for Larsen B.

7 Frozen Mountain Range

Antarctica’s biggest mountain range is the Gamburtsevs. It’s about the same size as the European Alps, but nobody had ever seen the giant in the flesh, so to speak.

The whole thing is covered by a layer of ice as thick as 3,050 meters (10,000 ft). The frozen blanket is why the 100-million-year-old mountains look baby fresh. At that age, they should have been severely eroded. This natural process probably hit a pause button when ice enveloped the region, including the then-young Gamburtsevs.

During a four-week project that ended in 2009, scientists zipped over the range in planes. Radar measured everything below and revealed a stunning geography. The mountaintops were 2,700 meters (8,850 ft) above sea level. Deep valleys flowed with rivers and lakes.

Curiously, at certain points, the water flowed uphill. Heavy pressure from the ice overhead helped the liquid to move against gravity. At higher elevations, however, the water froze and provided the layer of ice that preserved the Gamburtsevs.^[4]

6 Fukushima’s Ice Wall

In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami wrecked a nuclear plant in Japan. The consequences continue to this day. One of the worst is water contamination. In 2017, the government devised a plan to stop radioactive water leaking from the Fukushima plant from reaching groundwater.

They constructed an underground wall made entirely of permafrost. Running 30 meters (100 ft) deep and 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) long, the project cost $320 million.^[5]

From the start, the ice barrier has had its critics. Soon, it became obvious that the wall slowed down the contamination, but it did not seal anything. Radioactivity continued to contaminate a frightening 500 tons of water every day. The good news was that about 300 could be pumped out to be purified. Before the ice wall was installed, the daily amount was worse.

However, the venture remains expensive. The permafrost hedge requires $9.5 million per year to maintain. For now, it remains the best solution for a plant so irradiated that not even robots can enter to clean up the uranium trapped inside.

5 Ice Volcano

Ceres is an odd duck. From the 1800s to modern times, astronomers changed its classification three times. It was discovered as a planet and then demoted to an asteroid before its recent upgrade to a dwarf planet.

This chameleon is noteworthy for something else—the first evidence of cryovolcanism. This occurs when volcanoes made of ice spew boiling salt water instead of hot lava. Scientists suspected that cryovolcanoes existed in the solar system, but they had never found one.

In 2016, NASA’S Dawn spacecraft investigated the 965-kilometer-wide (600 mi) Ceres. Of particular interest was Ahuna Mons, a massive mountain standing 3,962 meters (13,000 ft) tall and measuring 17.7 kilometers (11 mi) wide at the base.

Finding such a gargantuan cone on a small planet was weird. Even stranger, it stood alone. But the shape and the isolation were healthy signs of a volcano. (Only volcanic activity can create lone mountains.) To boot, Ahuna Mons was made entirely of ice. It even had a volcanic dome, flanks, and summit similar to Earth’s volcanoes. Everything points to Ahuna Mons being the first recorded cryovolcano.^[6]

4 Ice Instruments

The 2018 Ice Music Festival in Norway happened on a stage carved entirely from ice. Musicians also played instruments fashioned from the frozen waters of Lake Finse as well as a local glacier. Things like drums, woodwinds, guitars, trumpets, and harps are made to resemble—and sound like—the real things. The festival also created the world’s first ice double bass and saxophone with two openings.

As far as music goes, people are often surprised by how similar the ice instruments sound to traditional ones. The most notable difference is volume. The frosty pieces whistle, thump, and toot in softer tones. Musicians also face an unusual challenge. Playing with gloves hampers the quality of the music, so none are worn.

Handling an ice guitar in extremely cold conditions is enough to suck the feeling from anyone’s fingers. During a performance, musicians take turns to warm their hands or play.

The most mysterious fact about the ice instruments concerns their origins. When carved from natural ice, they produce musically accurate sounds. Instruments that come from artificial ice (the freezer type) have no acoustic properties.^[7]

3 The Harbin Festival

Every winter, China hosts a spectacular festival. The theme is all about ice. In 2019, 10 million visitors were expected to arrive at the 35th annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival.

For two months, people explored massive ice and snow sculptures. They included buildings like castles and the Colosseum constructed with giant ice bricks. However, the real magic happened at night. The replicas were lit from inside with different colors, giving a fantasy feel that almost distracted tourists from the extreme cold.

There was no chance for sightseers to get bored. The ice creations covered 743,000 square meters (8 million ft²) of the city of Harbin. Building the wonderland required around 113,000 cubic meters (4 million ft³) of material. This achievement was made within days by an army of workers in the thousands who carved the large blocks.

Apart from the icy architecture, the festival also hosted subzero swimming, mass weddings, and snow sculpture competitions.^[8]

2 Green Icebergs

The Southern Ocean has a lot of icebergs, but some of them are green. Impressively green. Scientists first boarded one in 1988 near East Antarctica. More surprising than the color was the clarity. The ice looked like solid glass without bubbles. This type of ice hails from ancient glaciers, but those are usually blue.

At first, the green wonders seemed like a quirk of nature. When researchers searched for the reason behind the hue, it became clear that the icebergs could play an important role in dispersing ocean nutrients. The green ice did not come from glaciers on land. Instead, they calved from the undersides of floating ice shelves.

A recent study found that the Amery Ice Shelf (where the 1988 iceberg was found) was packed with iron. The iron came from rocks crushed into a powder as glaciers snailed over them. Eventually, they end up in shelves and oxidize in seawater.^[9]

Iron oxide particles turn green when light shines through them. The icebergs probably disperse iron to phytoplankton, helping them survive in remote places where they normally could not.

1 Ice VII

In 2018, the world’s quickest ice was found inside diamonds. Discovered deep underground, Ice VII grows at over 1,600 kilometers per hour (1,000 mph).

Laboratory tests revealed a few characteristics about the speedy stuff. It formed when high pressure and temperatures were both present. The ice could also freeze almost all at once or work its way down from the surface.

The two variations confused scientists until they discovered that Ice VII does not freeze water in the usual way. Normally, heat must be reduced before a liquid can turn solid. This makes ice expand slowly as it cools its way into growth.

Ice VII first blooms inside molecule clusters. This bypasses the heat problem, allowing the ice to spread in nanoseconds. Whether it explodes all over the place or works downward from the surface depends on temperature differences between the water and ice crystals.^[10]

This type of ice could help to find extraterrestrial life, ironically by eliminating the dead worlds. The pressure needed to create Ice VII is several thousand atmospheres—too much to allow life. Any alien world with this kind of pressure is likely to be barren.

Your local gourmet gelato store will serve you up a delicious cone, a cup of double chocolate fudge, or if it’s really daring, goat milk lavender macchiato. The experience of ice cream itself is delightful but common and familiar. The ice cream’s texture is the same, the cone is the same, the process is the same.

But there are some great minds and cultures out there that see ice cream differently. From ancient snow recipes to new scientific innovations from culinary giants, these novel ice creams are undeniably fascinating.

10 Spaghettieis

Dario Fontanella is an Italian German and third-generation ice cream restaurateur. He is also the proud creator of Spaghettieis, stranded ice cream.

In the 1960s, Fontanella was thinking about his Italian past and how he could apply it to the German culinary style. This gave him a curious urge to put vanilla ice cream into a meat grinder to see what would happen.

The result: stranded ice cream that has become wildly popular all over Germany, Fontanella’s home country. Spaghettieis is typically covered with strawberry sauce to resemble tomato sauce and grated white chocolate or coconut to mimic Parmesan.

It is served at only a few ice cream stores outside of mainland Europe, which is unfortunate because the change in texture and eating process is said to be satisfying and a must-try.

9 Alternative Cones

Where did the first ice cream cone come from? Why was it made of a waffle?

Here’s the story. Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian immigrant, was selling zalabia, a crispy, waffle-like dessert at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The popular ice cream booth next to him ran out of cups, and Ernest, noticing the dilemma, shaped his zalabia into a cone and offered it as an alternative cup. The rest is history.

However, the idea that an ice cream cone must be a waffle was narrow-minded. People started challenging the status quo.

The Cone Guys Company based in Pennsylvania has been selling pretzel-based cones since 1986. The salty flavor and crunchy texture complements a nice scoop of chocolate. The company also has chocolate cookie cones.

Another company challenging the waffle cone tradition is Chimneys, the Torontonian food truck. Their delicious doughnut cone is warm to the touch and has a light coating of sugar and cinnamon. Swirls of ice cream land right on a cone-shaped doughnut. Simply delectable!

8 Powdered Ice Cream

Most people can’t conceive of ice cream as anything beyond a frozen block of cream, but Seiji Yamamoto, the creator of powdered ice cream, has a new point of view. He is the leading molecular gastronome of Japan and owner of the 3-Michelin-star restaurant, RyuGin.

RyuGin’s signature dessert is the “Minus 196 Degrees Celsius Candy Apple.” It is a hollowed-out, hardened toffee apple filled with powdered apple ice cream. The ice cream is made by pumping nitrous oxide into an ice cream mixture to turn it into whip cream.

The ice cream is frozen in liquid nitrogen, and then all the brittle pieces are put into a food processor and chopped into powder. The final product is so fine that sneezing would wisp it away into a swirling cloud.

Considering that Yamamoto is a Michelin-star chef, it’s no surprise that the texture and taste are heavenly.

7 Stir-Fried Ice Cream

Stir-fried ice cream (aka ice cream rolls) is a delicious concoction that you eat with your hands like a taquito or chocolate cigar. It is made by pouring ice cream mix onto a below-freezing metal plate and then finely chopping fruit into the ice cream before it freezes.

The incredibly cold temperatures result in finer ice crystal structures and smoother ice cream. Unlike regular ice cream, each serving must be made on the spot. This creates a unique experience where you see your server make the ice cream in real time with the flavors you picked. You can mix in red bean, pomegranate, dragon fruit, and more.

Stir-fried ice cream is a common street vendor food in Thailand, but it is a new and novel creation for the Western world. New York City just opened its first stir-fried ice cream store, 10Below, in 2015. Hopefully, this treat will pick up more momentum because it is worth a try.

6 Deep-Freeze Ice Cream

Traditional ice cream making requires churning air into a cream mixture while freezing takes place. The process takes minutes, which allows many ice crystals to grow large and roughen the texture.

A few specialty ice cream stores have tried to improve ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Unlike traditional freezing methods, liquid nitrogen will freeze the cream mixture in 1.5 seconds!

It produces finer, less grainy ice cream. Like stir-fried ice cream, the final product is made and customized on the spot. In addition, the liquid nitrogen turns into a gas and gives off an effect called dragon breath. You can blow fog out of your nose like a fire-breathing dragon.

Carbonated ice cream is another newer creation. Although no ice cream parlor is known to sell it, many chefs, including Cutthroat Kitchen’s Alton Brown, have ventured to make it. It is commonly made by mixing powdered dry ice into an ice cream mix. Like nitrogen ice cream, it has a finer texture. You can easily make it at home, and it also gives you dragon breath.

5 Doughball Ice Cream

Fried ice cream has become a rare but sought-after novelty because it feels as though you are eating ice cream right out of the oven. Despite the name, the ice cream itself is not fried.

Instead, a ball of ice cream is frozen at a temperature that is well below zero. Then the ice cream is coated in batter or breadcrumbs. The ball is briefly fried in hot cooking oil. If done properly, the ice cream will stay frozen. The warm dough and pie-like aroma combined with the sweetness of ice cream is beyond words.

Another dough-surrounded treat is mochi ice cream. Mochi is sweetened rice that has been mashed into dough and then steamed. It is white, tastes mildly like marshmallow, and has the consistency of Play-Doh.

The mochi is wrapped around an ice cream ball to create an ice cream dumpling. The rice dough adds a lot of flavor and turns the ice cream into finger food. The treat has become trendy in parts of the US, resulting in a few mochi boutiques selling the confection in flavors of green tea, red bean, strawberry, and more.

4 Shaved Ice Cream

Patbingsu is a Korean dessert made by taking shaved ice and topping it with sweets, fruit, syrups, or a combination of the three. It is wildly popular in Asia and is sold in most fast-food restaurants and bakeries in Korea.

Snowdays is a New York–based ice cream store that has gained notoriety through its adaptation of patbingsu. The store takes a round brick of ice cream and shaves it into a cup using a professional ice shaver. This results in a stringy, layered texture (resembling pulled pork) that dissolves quickly in your mouth.

The store serves NY Cheesecake or Green Tea Matcha flavors, among others, in regular, large, or Yeti (huge) sizes. The concept has been promising. As of 2016, Snowdays has five stores and plans on expanding.

3 Snow Ice Cream

Alexander the Great was known to eat snow that was flavored with honey and nectar, and Nero of Rome often sent men into the mountains to fetch snow for his ice treats.

Flavored ice became the basis for ice cream. Today, few, if any, places use snow as the main ingredient in their frozen snacks, but there are modernized recipes that allow you to reach back into ice cream’s history.

According to the notorious Paula Dean, a bit of flavoring, some condensed milk, and a lot of snow is enough to make your own snow cream. There is something a bit romantic about eating the same food as the great kings and emperors of the past.

Maybe even add some clover honey for a bit of a floral taste that really gives the feeling that you’re eating nature’s gift.

2 Reactive Ice Cream

Lick Me I’m Delicious is a UK company that provides molecular gastronomy booths for corporate events that include liquid nitrogen ice cream and edible vapor. In 2013, the company created a new product with a glow that is sure to light up any social gathering.

The company partnered with Chinese biologists to make glow-in-the-dark ice cream. Unlike a glow stick, this ice cream does not dimly glow when the lights are off. Its special feature is that it starts glowing when you lick it and more brightly with each slurp.

The ice cream is made using bioluminescent jellyfish proteins that glow in the presence of the acid from saliva. Despite having the intense color of nuclear waste, the product is completely safe. But it will cost you a whopping $225 per cone because jellyfish proteins are expensive.

1 Stretchy Ice Cream

Dondurma is a Turkish ice cream that stretches like mozzarella cheese, sticks like toffee, and is commonly served in Turkey by street vendors. The concoction is so malleable that it cannot be served with a regular ice cream scooper. Instead, the vendors use special paddles that can chop up the ice cream into smaller pieces.

The secret to this ice cream’s magnificent stretchiness is salep orchid flour and mastic tree gum. Both ingredients come from Mediterranean plants that are expensive and difficult to cultivate, making dondurma a rare treat outside the Middle East.

If you ever go to Turkey, you’ll be in for a surprise. The vendors enjoy joking around with tourists when serving a cone. Some will juggle cones, and some will do sleight-of-hand tricks with the ice cream. It all results in quite good fun.

Brian is a full-time student who has a fascination for science and food. It always has irked him that there are so many brilliant culinary concoctions out there that few people know of. This writing is a way for him to open the minds of people everywhere that never knew of how different food can be.

When it comes to food, what is a staple in one country may be considered bizarre in another. One country’s classic is another country’s exotic novelty treat. One’s hot trend is another’s time-honored tradition.

For example, American classics like peanut butter and root beer are considered odd and even disgusting outside the US. On the other hand, ice cream is one food that seems to enjoy worldwide popularity. Yet, so endless are its variations that there is always some new ingredient or flavor to discover.

Internet lists abound featuring weird, attention-grabbing, and faddish ice cream flavors like lobster, squid ink, or horseradish. In contrast, this list presents weird and unique ice cream flavors that are decidedly not strange in their countries of origin. Here are 10 of the most popular ice cream flavors you’ve probably never heard of.

10 Lucuma

Lucuma is a subtropical fruit which originated in the Andes and is now grown primarily in Peru and Chile. Depictions of lucuma on pottery date back to pre-Inca times. Lucuma has thin, brownish-green or yellowish-green skin and bright yellow flesh with one to five large, brown seeds that resemble the pit of an avocado.

It is sometimes called eggfruit^[1] because the flesh has the color of a raw egg yolk and the texture of a hard-boiled egg yolk. Rather than tasting fruity, its flavor is likened to maple or butterscotch.

While lucuma can be used in a number of ways, it is commonly found as an ice cream flavor in Peru. Though actual figures don’t exist, some claim that it is the most popular ice cream flavor of all in Peru, surpassing standbys like chocolate and vanilla.

It can also be found Neapolitan style, joined with vanilla and chocolate or vanilla and strawberry. Due to its soft flesh and tendency to lose water quickly, it is generally considered unfit for export.

9 Mastic

Mastic is an ancient Greek ingredient, a plant resin that is sold in the form of small crystals. These crystals can be crushed into a powder and used to flavor pastries, puddings, ice cream, and more.

Like pretty much every other item on this list, it can be used in both savory and sweet dishes. The powder is mixed with salt for savory dishes and sugar for sweet dishes. Mastic is said to be an acquired taste that is similar to pine needles—something most people (at least Americans) associate more with car air fresheners than with food.

In Greece, mastic crystals are also referred to as “tears of Chios.” On the island of Chios where the trees are cultivated, farmers make cuts in the trees, allowing the sap to seep out and harden into droplets before falling to the ground.^[2]

According to legend, when the Roman navy had a fleet moored at Chios in AD 251, an officer named Isidore confessed his Christian faith to his commander. When Isidore refused to renounce his faith, he was executed and all the trees on the south side of the island were said to weep at once.

8 Kinako

Kinako means “yellow flour” in Japanese, but this unassuming name belies a uniquely delicious ingredient. Kinako is a fine, sand-colored powder made from roasted soybeans and used primarily in Japan to give a toasty, nutty flavor to pastries and sweets.

Sometimes, it is used throughout a confection. Other times, it is simply dusted on top as a finishing touch, as is often the case with ice cream^[3] and sometimes shaved ice. Kinako pairs well with vanilla, banana, brown sugar, and nuts.

Kinako isn’t the least bit strange in Japan, where it is said to have preceded sugar. Anyone who knows of Japan’s love of Kit Kats and their insane array of flavors won’t be surprised to learn that kinako has been featured in numerous varieties of the candy as well.

If you aren’t familiar with this phenomenon, here’s the gist: The name “Kit Kat” sounds very similar to the Japanese phrase kitto katsu which translates to “you will surely win.” This coincidence has contributed to Kit Kat’s popularity in Japan, especially as a gift to schoolchildren during exam time.

7 Rosewater

Floral flavors are not very popular in the US these days, where flowers generally conjure thoughts of perfume rather than delicious treats. It hasn’t always been that way, though.

In the very first American cookbook, Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery (1796), rosewater appears in recipes for pound cake, gingerbread, and apple pie. It was a popular flavoring before vanilla was king.

Rosewater is exactly what it sounds like—a liquid made by distilling rose petals with steam. Abroad, it is an exceedingly common flavoring to this day and can be found in countless international sweets, from Turkish baklava to Indian lassi to Persian ice cream.

Bastani sonnati, meaning “classical ice cream,” is a Persian (or Iranian) ice cream flavored with rosewater and often saffron, vanilla, and/or pistachios. Most remarkable about this ice cream is its chewiness and stretchiness, which is the result of the addition of salaab, a thickening agent extracted from a wild orchid.

Another interesting feature of Persian ice cream is the addition of frozen chunks of cream. Perhaps most unusual of all, sometimes bastani sonnati is served scooped into a glass of fresh carrot juice.^[4]

6 Ube

Ube is a root vegetable (aka yam or sweet potato) that is vibrant purple in color and sweet in flavor. In the Philippines, ube is used in all manner of desserts, including cakes, cookies, and ice cream. Like lucuma, it imparts both flavor and color as an ingredient.

Ube also makes frequent appearances in another frozen treat, the traditional Filipino shaved ice dessert known as halo-halo. Halo-halo is a mixture of ice, evaporated milk, and a rainbow of toppings.

Though ube ice cream is becoming more popular—and even, unfortunately, “hipster”—due to its eye-catching and Instagrammable appearance, it’s nothing new in the Philippines. Its unique flavor has been described as an “earthy” white chocolate^[5] or a combination of vanilla and pistachio. Fresh ube is difficult to find in the US, but it can be bought as a powder, an extract, or a paste.

5 Tamarind

Tamarind may not be considered the prettiest of fruits, but what it lacks in appearance, it makes up for in flavor. It grows in long, lumpy pods and bears a sticky brown pulp.^[6] However, that pulp has a delicious sweet-and-sour flavor that is used in cuisine all around the world in dishes both sweet and savory.

One well-known application in US households is as an ingredient in Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. It’s also a fairly common ingredient in barbecue sauces.

Tamarind can be bought fresh and as a paste, powder, or syrup. Tamarind was brought from Asia to Mexico in the 16th or 17th century by the Spaniards and now is a popular and beloved flavoring for beverages, candy, ice cream, and paletas (ice pops).

4 Black Sesame

Black sesame ice cream is to Asia what vanilla ice cream is to the United States. When ground, the sesame seeds become creamy. They add a charcoal color and a rich, nutty flavor to ice cream and other dishes. The depth and complexity of black sesame seeds can also be compared to dark chocolate or coffee, flavors which are enlivened by toasting the seeds before using them.

In Japan, black sesame seeds are ground and combined with honey to make a paste called nuri goma. This paste can be found in some international markets or specialty stores.

The appearance it gives to ice cream is less like the trendy “goth” ice cream made of charcoal and squid ink and more like cookies and cream. Despite its appeal, black sesame ice cream doesn’t seem to have caught on in the US yet, at least not as well as other Asian ice cream flavors like green tea, red bean, and ginger.^[7]

3 Brown Bread

Bread may not sound like an appetizing ice cream flavor, but keep reading. Irish brown bread is known as a quick bread because it is risen with a combination of baking soda and buttermilk instead of yeast. Rather than waiting for the bread to rise or “proof,” it can be quickly assembled and baked.

Quick breads have a dense texture. The addition of baking soda is why Irish brown bread is commonly known as soda bread. It is often eaten with butter or cheese.

Brown bread, called “wheaten bread” in Northern Ireland, is a simple but hearty staple, historically associated with the Irish poor. Now it’s not uncommon to find it presented in more decadent and indulgent ways.

Brown bread ice cream can be found all over Ireland (and other parts of the UK). Toasty, crunchy crumbs of the bread are swirled into ice cream and sometimes paired with complementary flavors like butterscotch. Supposedly, this use of brown bread in frozen treats dates back to Victorian times.^[8]

2 Cardamom

Cardamom, like tamarind, grows in pods. The pods may be used whole or ground, or the seeds may be extracted and then ground. Green cardamom is suitable for use in sweet and savory dishes, while black cardamom is considered too overwhelming and smoky for desserts. In the US, it may be best known as one of the warming spices featured in chai tea, famously sold in latte form by Starbucks.

India is the largest producer of cardamom, the so-called “Queen of Spices.” It is frequently used to flavor Indian ice cream called kulfi. Pistachio, saffron, and rosewater are also used. Much of kulfi’s flavor comes from simmering the milk for hours before freezing it to create notes of caramelization.^[9]

Cardamom has also enjoyed great popularity in Scandinavia ever since the Vikings brought it back from their expeditions abroad. More cardamom is consumed in Scandinavia than anywhere in the world aside from India and the Middle East.

1 Salmonberry

Salmonberry is the least interesting thing about akutaq, sometimes spelled akutuq, a frozen treat from Alaska. Akutaq is a native Alaskan word that simply means “to stir.”

Generally, it’s made by whipping animal fats by hand and adding sea mammal oil and snow or water until the mixture achieves a silky, fluffy texture. The fat is often from caribou, bear, or musk ox, while the oil is from seals or whales. (Modern versions use Crisco and olive oil.)

Non-natives have referred to it as Eskimo ice cream. Blood, meat, and fish eggs have all been added to akutaq. When it comes to sweet additions, two favorites are blueberry and salmonberry.^[10]

Salmonberry was commonly eaten with salmon by the native peoples of the northwest coast in the area now known as Alaska. The berries do not, however, taste like fish, though their flavor can vary greatly from bush to bush and even from year to year. Though fairly common, salmonberries have not attained widespread popularity, possibly because they are described as watery and mushy.

Hannah lives in Seattle with her husband and dogs. She enjoys researching and writing.

We’ve all heard about the Ice Age which happened about 2.5 million years ago, but did you know there was also a Little Ice Age, which took place just a few centuries ago? This phenomenal change in climate saw temperatures plummeting across the globe. Rivers and seas froze, people starved to death and glaciers destroyed entire towns as they expanded at a crazy rate. This list explores some of the most incredible facts about this unusual period in time.

10 Cool Facts About The Ice Age

10 It wasn’t that little at all

The Little Ice Age lasted for over 500 years between approximately 1300 and 1850 AD. During this time, there were two especially cold periods, one lasting from 1300 to the late-1400s and the next from 1645 to the mid-1800s. During these periods, the average winter temperature in Europe and North America dropped to as low as 2°C, significantly colder than the average temperatures of these continents today.

In fact, it was so cold that the Baltic Sea froze over entirely and pack ice from the Arctic expanded so far south into the Atlantic that shipping to Iceland was made impossible. For 310 years, no ships could travel to Greenland. Many major rivers in Europe and North America froze too with heavy snowfalls lasting well into the spring months.

9 No one can agree on how or why it began

There are many differing theories as to how the Little Ice Age was triggered. Some point to the low level of sunspot observations made during this period. They claim that the lack of sunspots would have led to reduced solar radiation and, therefore, a cooler surface temperature of the earth.

Others claim that a series of massive tropical volcanic eruptions were the cause of the icy period. They suggest that these eruptions caused tiny particles called aerosols to enter the air. These aerosols reflected solar radiation from the sun back out of the Earth’s atmosphere, meaning that the sun did not have its normal warming effect on the globe.

Another theory suggests that the Little Ice Age may have actually been man-made. The arrival of European colonists in the Americas in the late-fifteenth century caused a mass spread of disease amongst native inhabitants. It is estimated that up to 56 million people died from diseases brought over by colonists. This meant that thousands of hectares of cultivated land was abandoned and reclaimed by nature. The mass reforestation led to a growth in CO2, which had a cooling effect on the Earth.

These are just some of the main theories for the occurrence of the Little Ice Age – many more exist, and scientists and historians continue to argue over which one is correct.

8 Expanding glaciers literally crushed entire towns

As the climate cooled, one of the most significant effects was the advancement of glaciers. This starkly contrasts today’s warming climate which has led to a retreat in glaciers across the globe. Glacial advancement was so strong during the Little Ice Age that glaciers also started to grow in typically warm Mediterranean regions including Albania, Spain, Greece, Turkey and even Morocco.

There is evidence that in the Alps and Scandinavia advancing glaciers caused by the Little Ice Age actually destroyed entire towns. The ice literally steamrolled over anything in its path leaving thousands homeless. The glaciers would also destroy dams, leading to floods that would wreak more havoc on communities, killing livestock and hundreds of people. Scandinavian tax records from the time indicate that many farmers had to abandon their farms as it became clear that the glacial ice slowly creeping towards their land was not going to stop.

7 Summers were not summery

“At this time there was such a great cold that we almost froze to death in our quarters,” a soldier wrote in his diary whilst traveling through Germany in 1640. “And,” he went on, “on the road, three people did freeze to death: a cavalry-man, a woman, and a boy.” What is shocking about this entry is that it was written in August!

During the Little Ice Age, summers were often cool and wet. In Scotland, people reported that the that the Cairngorm Mountains were never without snow above 1200m. During this period, oranges which were typically grown during the summer months in China’s Jiangxi Province, could no longer be harvested.

6 It caused mass starvation

The increased periods of rain and unusually cold summers meant that crops died and entire harvests failed at an alarming rate. Wine became extremely difficult to grow and even fishing was affected, as cod migrated further south to the warmer waters around Africa. More northerly regions were especially badly hit. In Iceland, very few harvests survived, leading to the deaths of over half of the island’s population due to starvation.

A particularly dreadful period of the Little Ice Age was the Great Famine of 1315-22, where torrential periods of rain waterlogged agricultural areas and made planting crops impossible. Starvation and malnutrition quickly swept across Europe and it is estimated that the continent lost between 5 and 10 percent of its population to the famine.

One crop that did well out of the Little Ice Age was the potato, which grew successfully even in particularly cold conditions. In fact, its increased use by Europeans at that time is one of the main reasons it is such a popular staple of our diets today.

5 People blamed witches and others for their troubles

As starvation and freezing temperatures continued, people began looking for a scapegoat for their troubles. They focussed on witches as they believed the weather could only be manipulated by a supernatural force. Between 1560 and 1630, it’s estimated that over 45,000 people were tried and executed for witchcraft, the vast majority of whom were women. In many cases, the primary accusation against the victim was that they had tampered with the weather in order to cause the harvests to fail. The majority of executions involved burning the accused person at the stake as this was considered the most reliable way to destroy a witch.

Other scapegoats of the time included the Jewish population and other marginalized groups who were also the victims of much discrimination and acts of cruelty during this period.

4 It had a role in some of the biggest events in European history of the time

Some of the most well-known historical events in Europe can be linked to the effects of the Little Ice Age.

For instance, it is believed that the high levels of malnutrition and starvation which were caused by the Little Ice Age weakened people’s immune systems, allowing diseases such as the Black Death to become far more prevalent than they might have been. In 1588, the Spanish Armada was almost entirely wiped out by an Arctic hurricane which was formed due to the harsh conditions of the Little Ice Age and in 1666, the Great Fire of London, which claimed over 4/5ths of the city, was worsened by the extremely dry conditions that preceded the previously bitter winter.

But the Little Ice Age didn’t only have negative effects on history. Scientists suggest it may be responsible for creating the famed Stradivarius violins, produced by Antonio Stradivari in the seventeenth century. They claim that the freezing winters and cool summers caused a slowdown in the growth of trees which created denser wood. This denser wood was used by Stradivari to make his unique violins that have superior sound qualities and which people pay tens of thousands for today.

The Little Ice Age truly left its fingerprint on European history.

3 It was so cold that ‘frost fairs’ were held on the River Thames

The River Thames in London was known to regularly freeze over during the winter months in the period of the Little Ice Age. This led to a new phenomenon called ‘frost fairs’. These fairs saw sellers set up their market stalls directly on the ice and sell to passers-by. Drinks were sold from hastily set-up pubs and children would take the opportunity to skate on the river, something that would be inconceivable in modern day London.

There was a total of seven major fairs held between 1607 and 1814 with many smaller fairs being held at other times too. Of course, holding huge fairs on ice did not come without its fair share of incidents. In 1739, a huge chunk of ice broke, swallowing many market stalls, tent’s and people. During another instance in 1789, a ship, which had been anchored to a house on the side of the Thames, was carried away by melting chunks of ice, causing it to pull the foundations from underneath the house. The building crumbled and resulted in the deaths of five people who were sleeping at the time.

2 It sparked a wave of new fashion trends

With extreme changes in the weather, people were forced to adapt their clothing. The sixteenth century saw a growth in the popularity of floor length coats and people tended to wear far more undergarments than before. Spanish dresses, which have survived until now, provide some evidence of the climate of the era. They are made up of several layers of fabric and the materials which are used are thick and heavy.

Of course, it should not be forgotten that keeping up with fashionable trends was a luxurious pastime that only the elite members of society could afford to do. Whilst they looked for new ways in which to remain warm whilst staying on-trend, peasants, which made up the majority of the population, were starving and fighting just to survive.

1 It may have caused the “Enlightenment”

There are theories that the Little Ice Age had such a significant impact on European society that it actually caused economic, social and intellectual changes that resulted in the period we now know as the Enlightenment.

German historian, Philipp Blom, argues that the freezing weather destroyed harvests and caused mass migration into cities. The quick growth in these cities led to the emergence of early capitalism. With this monumental change came a wave of new attitudes to religion, scientific thinking, society, art and culture. In order for communities to tackle the crisis together, the sharing of knowledge between different thinkers and regions became more widespread along with the trading of goods in order to survive. Blom even suggests that the sudden changes in weather and the way in which humans had to adapt is similar to the climate crisis the world is currently facing today and the adaptations people will have to make as it gets worse.

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About The Author: My name is Aidan and I am interested in history, writing, reading and climbing. I have a BA in History and American Studies and an MA in Global History. I really enjoy researching stuff and coming up with new lists so  is a great place to submit to.