Vanilla is the most popular flavor of ice cream, making up about 30 percent of all ice cream sales. It accounts for about one-fourth of all sales at Baskin Robbin's. The next most popular flavor is, of course, chocolate, followed by butter pecan, strawberry and neapolitan.
More facts about ice cream:
- Americans consume more than a 1.5 billion gallons (about 5.7 billion liters) of ice cream a year. That's about 25 pounds (11 kg) of ice cream per American per year.
- The cities that buy the most ice cream per capita are Portland, Oregon; St. Louis, Missouri; and Seattle, Washington. The countries that consume the most ice cream (after the U.S.) are New Zealand, Denmark and Australia.
- Odd ice cream flavors from around the world include eggplant, silk, tulip, red wine, tomato and fried pork rind.
- Iced treats have been around since ancient times, but modern ice cream was invented in the early 1700s. Both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were known to be fans of ice cream.