National Vanilla Ice Cream Day 2021

National Vanilla Ice Cream Day on July 23rd tips its hat at the second most popular flavor in America. Take a bow, vanilla. I scream, you scream, we all scream for…VANILLA ICE CREAM!! Of course, the day is part of  National Ice Cream Month and not too far behind National Ice Cream Day.

Since Americans love vanilla ice cream so much, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that vanilla is the most common flavoring in North America for ice cream. In fact, many people consider vanilla ice cream to be the default flavor. 

Many may be familiar with Thomas Jefferson’s vanilla ice cream recipe. The third president of the United States may have discovered vanilla flavor while visiting France. While he wouldn’t have been the first to savor the delicious taste of vanilla ice cream, Jefferson enjoyed jotting down recipes. The same applied to ice cream. He also produced a handwritten copy of a vanilla ice cream recipe in the 1780s. Only ten copies remain. In fact, the Library of Congress houses one copy that has a cookie recipe on the flip side. Today, the ice cream parlor at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota serves the same recipe so that anyone can have a taste.