Ice cream just wouldn’t be the same without the cone. Waffle cones, sugar cones, pretzel cones, any cone will do. On September 22nd, we celebrate National Ice Cream Cone Day. As if we needed an excuse to pick up a pint of Harmony Valley Creamery’s udderly awesome ice cream and some cones to honor our favorite dessert!
The ice cream cone was first mentioned in French cookbooks in the early 1800s but it wasn’t until 1902 that a patent was issued to an Italian ice cream merchant named Antonio Valvona for a machine that turned biscuits into ice cream cups. His invention spread across the U.K. but it was a another Italian entrepreneur that introduced the ice cream cup to America. Italo Marchiony was an ice cream vendor in New York City and he applied for a patent in 1903 for his machine that made edible ice cream cups.
The idea really took off in 1907 when Abe Doumar, a quintessential salesman trading in all sorts of oddities twisted a Belgian waffle into a cone and topped it with ice cream to sell at the St. Louis Exhibition of the World’s Fair. His ice cream cones were such a hit that Abe stopped selling his other merchandise and focused solely on waffle cones. He bought a waffle iron that could make 36 waffles at a time and went into the ice cream cone business at a foundry in Virginia.
The ice cream cone changed ice cream forever, giving us the opportunity to take our scoop on the go and sans (without) spoon. So why not celebrate the innovative figures who helped us lick our way through a scoop year in and year out? Buy a pint (or two) of Harmony Valley Creamery’s delicious craft ice cream and don’t forget the cone!
