Every Country’s Favorite Ice Cream Flavor . . . Including Pineapple and Licorice
Today is National Soft Serve Ice Cream Day . . . and while EVERYTHING can probably be made into soft-serve, most Americans would probably prefer vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. Or a TWIST.
In one poll, 70% of people said they prefer soft-serve ice cream over hard ice cream . . . and it can be a little healthier. Soft-serve usually has 3 to 6% milkfat, while regular ice cream is more likely to have between 10% and 18%.
Here’s a fun fact: In some parts of Europe, it isn’t called “soft-serve,” it’s called “American ice cream.” In Greece and Romania, it’s called “machine ice cream,” and in Ireland, it’s “soft whip.”
Speaking of other countries, there’s a new map out that shows the favorite ice cream flavor of almost every COUNTRY . . . whether soft-serve or regular.
Here are FIVE interesting takeaways:
1. Neapolitan . . . vanilla-chocolate-strawberry . . . is #1 in America, along with Canada, Mexico, most of Central America, England, and Australia.
2. Overall, vanilla is the most popular, with 46 countries choosing it over other options . . . and the data included 80 possible flavors. Some notable vanilla fans include: India, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, and half of Africa.
3. Some big countries have flavors that are less common in the U.S. The top flavor in China and Japan is matcha . . . in Brazil, it’s pistachio . . . in Argentina, it’s dulce de leche, and in Saudi Arabia, it’s mango.
4. The results were captured through internet search data, but they don’t have data for EVERY part of the world.
There’s no word on the ice cream preferences of Russia . . . Ukraine . . . North Korea . . . Iran . . . Afghanistan . . . Cuba . . . and a handful of other countries.
5. There were some STRANGE picks, at least compared to American preferences. Here were a few:
Bolivia loves cinnamon ice cream.
Chile loves pineapple.
Iceland loves coffee ice cream above all else.
Ethiopians are into maple walnut. (Which seems more Canadian.)
Indonesians love fig ice cream.
New Zealand loves “Hokey Pokey” ice cream, which is vanilla with lumps of honeycomb toffee.
And Denmark loves LICORICE ice cream. (I knew the world had to have one BLACK JELLYBEAN out there. And now we know where it is.)
(There’s a close-up of the map, here.)