Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Kristen from AL. Kristen Wonders, “How do you make a new flavor of ice cream?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Kristen !

Some people celebrate September 22 as Ice Cream Cone Day because they believe that the ice cream cone was invented on September 22, 1903. As it turns out, though, the history of the ice cream cone isn't quite so clear.

Many people have believed for years that the ice cream cone was invented in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair. As the story goes, ice cream vendors at the fair ran out of bowls and turned to a waffle-like pastry they could roll up and scoop ice cream into.

Months before the fair, on December 13, 1903, a New York resident named Italo Marchiony received a patent for an invention that was described as being “like a waffle iron and producing several small pastry cups with sloping sides." Marchiony had apparently been selling lemon ice in his homemade cones since 1896.

The ice cream cone may be even older than that, though! Waffle-like edible cones were mentioned in French cooking books as early as 1825. No matter who first had the idea, we can all agree that it was excellent.

Cones come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and flavors, but let's be honest. It's what's inside the cone that really matters. That's right. We're talking about the ice cream!

No one knows for sure when ice cream was first invented or by whom, but that doesn't matter. It tastes great regardless of its history.

In the United States, vanilla ice cream is the most popular flavor based on sales. Vanilla outsells chocolate ice cream by a margin of three to one.

Some believe the popularity of vanilla is due in part to the fact that it's used in so many other ice cream treats, such as milkshakes and sundaes.

The wide variety of ice cream flavors is limited only by the imagination of ice cream makers. From cookie dough to rocky road to butter pecan to cherry vanilla, ice cream comes in all sorts of flavors that appeal to all sorts of different tastes.

For example, Baskin-Robbins® touted its 31 flavors for years. Since 1945, though, Baskin-Robbins® has actually introduced more than 1,000 different ice cream flavors.

Can you imagine walking into an ice-cream shop with more than 1,000 flavors to choose from? That would be a difficult choice!

Or maybe not… we all have our favorites. And some flavors just might not be that appealing.

Here are a few real ice cream flavors that you might need a bit of courage to give a try:

  • Spaghetti and cheese ice cream
  • Yam and coconut ice cream
  • Garlic ice cream
  • Octopus ice cream

Wonder What's Next?

Grab your pruning shears! Tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day will take a look at how you can make bushes less “bush”-y!