Popsicles were invented...by accident.

We all love popsicles. Our kids all love popsicles. We have popsicles on our hot summer days and at every birthday party. Plus, popsicles pretty invented any frozen dessert with a stick in it. A handheld frozen dessert on a stick! What a magical invention. Yet was invented by accident by an 11-year old boy who left his cup of water with powdered soda mix in it, along with a stick to stir it, outside in the cold weather overnight.

I can just imagine the look on this kids face when he's like..."I NEED to share this with my friends".

Then again when he started selling them, and realized that he can make money with this idea! I would have been very careful with who I shared that idea with...especially since inventions are easily stolen.

His name is Frank Epperson. It happened in Oakland, California. He thought it was such a cool idea, that he started selling them to his friends, then eventually, he sold it to a carnival! I am sure that in 1905, this little boy had no money problems. He decided to call this invention of his "Eppsicles". But, remember what soda was called back in the day? Soda...pop? He of course, wanted the name Eppsicles. But, later on, his kids really thought "Pop sicles" would sound better, because Soda Pop!

It was not until 1923, a whole 18 years later, that he finally patented his idea, and popsicles were born!

Then, in just 1925, he decided to sell his rights of the Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company in New York. It got famous pretty quickly...Not even too much longer, and the 2 stick popsicle was created too, for the same price of around 5 cents.

I don't even know where we would be without popsicles...if only this child cleaned up after himself, and didn't leave his food outside. We would not know what to serve at birthday parties, and what would we eat during the summer when we are driving in our car on the way to the beach? Or when we get to the beach and can't eat anything because our hands are all sandy?

Frank Epperson is a name nobody knows. Yet, we use his invention all too often. Remember that name next time you are craving something cold and delicious on a hot summer day and go to grab a popsicle!

I found a really old article about the Popsicle, that one of his children helped to publish and it seems as though the whole thing was the narrative of the child themselves.

I'll say one thing I'm thankful for...fudgsicles. I used to be obsessed with my frozen chocolate pops. I could eat an entire box. Guess I have this guy to thank! I mean..."frank". Ha-Ha...

Now, from the popsicle...we can make so many other frozen deserts, and we can do fun things like add alcohol. Do you think that every frozen dessert was created because of the Popsicle?

Not ice cream, since ice cream type food was eaten back in China in 618-97AD! And what's interesting, they used buffalo milk for it! In 200BC, milk and rice was frozen after being packed into the snow, which must have been pretty delicious, since it was eaten quite a lot after that. Then, soon, they started freezing everything with every kind of milk they had. Now today, we create our own milk out of nuts and grains, like Almond milk and Oat milk. We get dairy free ice cream now, although, I think we stopped using buffalo milk quite a long time ago...I wonder what that would have tasted like.

Also, soda was being used in ice cream too, creating ice cream sodas, kind of reminds me of today's "root beer float" huh?

Also, fun fact, an "ice-cream sundae", was invented because it became illegal to sell ice-cream sodas on Sunday in an American town of Evanston, in the late 19th century. So, traders, decided to replace soda with syrup, changing the recipe just enough so it was something different. Then, they called it "ice cream Sunday". However, they did not want to upset the religious leaders, since they already made ice cream sodas illegal. So, they changed the Y in Sunday to an E, creating "Ice Cream Sundaes" as we know them today.

So, Ice Cream went from buffalo milk, flour, and camphor. Camphor, by the way, is a waxy and flammable solid that kind of looks like a soft, white crystal. It is found in a large evergreen tree, inside the wood, only found in East Asia. Also, it is found in a tall timber tree from South East Asia, too! They use Camphor topically to relieve pain, irritation, and itching now a days. Makes me wonder why they used it in ice cream way back when...gross! It is also illegal in many stores, depending on how they are being sold and in what form.

Now, it is made from sugar, milk, and flavoring, and whipped and frozen of course. Not too far off from Popsicles, huh? Flavored syrup, ice, and sugar make a popsicle!

Oh man...thank god for frozen desserts!