Ice cream makers, eaters and quirks
Summer means it's time for ice cream. The hotter it gets, the longer the lines grow in front of the ice cream shops. Producers continue to come up with new flavors - including some for animals.
The inventor of spaghetti ice cream
We owe Dario Fontanella a yummy treat - spaghetti ice cream. It's vanilla ice cream squeezed through a pasta press over whipped cream, then covered with strawberry sauce and white chocolate shavings. Fontanella is a third-generation ice cream maker and lives in the German city of Mannheim - the hometown of "Spätzle," a German pasta specialty. In 1969, he invented his spaghetti ice cream wonder.
Germany's craziest ice cream parlor
Matthias Münz's fame has long spread outside of Munich. The name of his parlor is telling - "Der verrückte Eismacher" mean "the crazy ice cream maker." Among his unique flavors are plum cake and boiled egg, as well as ice creams made from veal sausage, French fries or brown ale. With such a spectrum of flavors, it's not surprising that his shop also draws a very diverse crowd.
Keep napkins on hand
When kids eat ice cream cones, they tend to devour it with their entire face, as millions of parents armed with napkins can confirm. The ice cream seems to melt particularly fast in the hands of a child. In Germany, however, ice cream cones are popular among all ages - and even grown-ups can be seen strolling through town, cone in hand, as soon as the temperatures warm up.
Ice cream for a song
Dolomiti is a fruit-based sorbet in the colors of the Italian flag. When this ice cream celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2015, German folk pop star Heino presented his hit song "Like Ice in the Sunshine," which is closely associated with the ice cream's producer, Langnese. Its eternal rival named Schöller celebrated its anniversary in June 2017.
A heavenly mess
There is a reason why soft-serve ice cream really does taste softerl. It was invented by an American who stirred milk in a freezing cylinder, thus creating a thin layer of ice cream that was scraped off the machine while being frothed up with air. In Germany, the best location for soft-serve is said to be the island of Fehmarn on the Baltic Sea.
Treat fit for a polar bear
Yes, it's ice cream! When Tonja the polar bear dives into her pool at the Berlin Zoo during the heat, her caretakers sometimes add a special treat - an ice cream weighing 10 kilos! What looks like yoghurt with fruit is likely to contain a herring or two. Some zoo animals are given special chilled treats because they enjoy them just as much as humans do.