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You scream. I scream. We all scream for ice cream. Especially in summer and especially in the Valley.

There are many folk tales detailing the origins of this cold, sweet delicacy. Some say ice cream dates all the way back to the reign of Roman emperor Nero (circa AD 50) or Marco Polo’s return from China (circa AD 1300). And others credit the royal chef of King Charles I of England with its creation (circa AD 1645).

* In 1846, an American woman named Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked freezer to facilitate the ice cream process. And in 1851, Jacob Fussell began commercial ice cream production in Baltimore. The Web site

https://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/ichist.html offers much information on ice cream and its history.

* Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream’s founders William Dreyer and Joseph Edy concocted the first batch of chocolate ice cream combined with nuts and marshmallows. Since this occurred shortly after the October 1929 stock market crash, they named their creation Rocky Road as a comment on the time.

* Baskin-Robbins claims to have developed more than 950 ice cream flavors in its 55-year history. Baskin-Robbins’ current flavor of the month is Orange Cone Cyclone, with vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet swirled together in an orange vanilla cone.

* Ben & Jerry’s top five ice cream flavors are 5) New York Super Fudge Chunk 4) Chocolate Fudge Brownie 3) Phish Food 2) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and--cue the fanfare--1) Cherry Garcia. On the other hand, the Ben & Jerry’s Web site also has a graveyard where discontinued flavors are memorialized. Included are Chocolate Orange Cointreau Fudge, Tuskegee Chunk and Dastardly Mash.

* This summer, Haagen Dazs is introducing a new line of Italian-inspired gelato flavors, including cappuccino, hazelnut and coconut. Also new are some limited edition flavors--Coffee Toffee Crunch and Vanilla Caramel Brownie.