The ice cream soda
During the 1874 Franklin Institute semi-centennial celebration in Philadelphia, a soda vendor named Robert McCay Green invented the ice cream soda. The legend emerged that he ran out of ice chips for cooling his soda concoctions, and with none available at the site he substituted vanilla ice cream he obtained from a nearby ice cream vendor, and the result was wildly successful. But the story is incorrect.
In fact, Mr. Green wrote in 1910 that he invented the ice cream soda in order to attract attention to his stand, which was small in comparison to other vendors at the celebration. He experimented before the event with ice cream, soda water, and several flavoring syrups and came to the celebration fully prepared to market his new use of ice cream. Nor is Mr. Green the only person to claim credit for the soda.
Nonetheless he directed that the phrase, “Originator of the Ice Cream Soda” be included on his gravestone in his will. One of Green’s employees claimed that he had invented the soda accidentally, and Green had stolen the idea and taken the credit which was rightfully his. Regardless, the beverage became instantly popular, especially among teens, and soda fountains emerged all over the country.
In small town America ice cream was often purchased at the local drug store, where soda fountains became popular. A new profession emerged in the United States; that of the soda jerk, so named because of the jerking motion necessary to operate the soda tap. Soda jerks were found in drug stores, ice cream shops, and confectioners until the 1960s, when the profession gradually faded from the scene.
In the early 1900s, drinks such as Coca-Cola and root beer were often purchased as syrup mixed with soda by the soda jerk. The addition of ice cream created the ice cream soda, also known as the root beer float, coke float, Black Cow, Pink Cow (with crème soda) and a wide variety of other names. Today the ice cream soda is a popular means of consuming ice cream around the world, with countless variations of flavors of both soda and ice cream.