It is that time of year again, or so it should be, when Simon Sunshine makes a long overdue appearance and yours truly, grumpily, traipses down to the local Sainsburys to stock up on what is, to me, a year-round staple: ice cream.

Now call me petty or incandescent with rage, as many do, but little irks me more than when, having bought Mars ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s and other frozen niceties throughout the winter months, then popping into said retail outlet to see the Johnny-come-lately, fair weather cold snack fans having decided now is their time to strike.

Yes, sugary ice creams are bad for one’s health, as my pot-bellied appearance will testify, yet they keep the local diabetes clinic and dentist in fine fettle so every cloud and all that.

Ice cream and its origins (sounds like an idea for a new Marvel franchise?) are hotly disputed yet ice cream is now a global product success story. Widely thought to have been borne circa 4000 BC, ice creams, loosely disguised as ‘snow’, were sold to cool down the Athenian locals.

Brett Ellis has looked into the history of ice creamBrett Ellis has looked into the history of ice cream

The Turkish and Indians also muster up a claim with the Turks inventing Faloodeh -noodles in chilled syrup - which sounds rancid, whereas the Indian brothers enjoyed Kulfi - an ice cream made from condensed milk.

But then along came the Italians in the early 1600s to claim the mantle as the originators of ice cream as we know it.

Even today, instead of a bog-standard coastal town ice cream ‘parlour,’ we have ‘gelateria’ which is nice ice cream, albeit with a premium price.

The real boon to the industry came, peculiarly, thanks to prohibition in the U S of A.

The Volstead Act in 1920 ensured the annihilation of the alcohol industry meaning that distilleries had to change tack, which many did with aplomb, ensuring a 40% increase in ice cream consumption in the states from 1920 to 1929.

Where I have real truck however is the popularity of flavours: In the UK, the favourite by far is the bland vanilla, followed by chocolate, strawberry, mint chop chip and salted caramel (my favourite).

As a connoisseur, and with my opening gambit in mind regarding the fair-weather fans, all that I can do is spend 15 grand on a new Howdens kitchen so I can purchase a freezer worthy of my ice cream fetish.

I plan to stock up during the winter months with Spotty Dotties, Mars, Magnums, and cookie dough concoctions to ensure I never run out, which leaves but one item on my ice cream wish list: The Gelato Flake.

Produced by Maestro Gelatiere, the handmade wafer cone is dipped in organic Madagascan chocolate and covered in gold pearls and, at the princely sum of £99 per cone, is currently the most expensive ice cream available in Blighty!

  • Brett Ellis is a teacher.