How many licks to finish a scoop of ice cream

According to the International Ice Cream Association, it takes the average person about 50 licks to demolish one scoop of ice cream on a cone. At Wright’s Place in Stratham (formerly Hodgie’s), where the scoops are super hero size, it would probably take far more licks than that.

Although last summer’s local ice cream eaters showed a remarkable variation in the way they ate ice cream cones (from the bottom up, from the top down, actually biting in with the teeth), this year’s informal poll of variations in frozen dairy product enjoyment showed a disturbing trend — more cups than cones.

Over at The Beach Plum in North Hampton, George Larson from Derry dove into his cup of chocolate chip ice cream with gusto.

?I get a cup ?cuz when I come here and it’s warm outside, I always wind up wearing it!?

There were many more fastidious Felix Ungers of the ice cream world out there. In the Larson’s case, it ran in the family. George’s grandson, Benjamin William Larson, 4, also ate from a cup, but showed off the contents of his mouth filled with soft-serve vanilla with pride.

Mom Suzi supplied Joshua Larson, 1, with his ice cream with a ?feed and wipe? technique. One spoonful for Josh, a wipe of the face with a napkin, followed by one spoonful for Mom.

Grandma Joyce Larson broke ranks with a cone of coffee and the ?swirl and contain? maneuver ?so it won’t drip and fall down all over my hand.?

More neatniks were found at The Beach Plum, where along with a running poll of presidential candidate-to-be support on the sign outside, Marlene Tucker of Rye maintained her dignity with strawberry ice cream in a cup as she delicately and slowly relished each spoonful.

Thankfully, Gary and Sue LaPlante of Hooksett showed some interesting, yet still deliberate ice-cream-eating techniques. Gary’s coffee almond cone was eaten from the bottom up to offset any melting.

Wife Sue had a huge chocolate walnut fudge cone and used a method not seen last year.

?I take the chunks out first so they don’t fall out,? she said as she meticulously picked out each piece of walnut and hunk of chocolate. And so the ?dechunkification? method of eating ice cream had its first documented sighting on the Seacoast.

At the American Independence Festival in Exeter on July 17, soft serve was sold from the food trucks, and there were plenty of takers — again many in cups owing to the heat. Little did anyone know that although ice cream may have been invented in China and brought to Europe by Marco Polo centuries ago, America’s first ice-cream parlor opened in New York City in 1770, according to the What’s Cooking America Web site, and that the fourth first lady, Dolley Madison, served ice cream as a dessert in the White House at the second inaugural ball in 1812. Ice cream, like Exeter, has a Colonial connection.

No one at Memories Ice Cream in Kingston was thinking about history or lactose intolerance as they loaded up on scoops of vanilla and chocolate. In cups.

Frank Scofield of Plaistow mashed and mixed his cup of mint chocolate chip with his spoon.

?I don’t use a cone because it’s too hot outside,? he said. ?And I don’t like soft serve, but the ice cream is too hard so I just mix it around until it gets softer like a mousse.?

There were plenty of cone/cup combos at Memories, a trend carried over from last year. It goes like this: place scoop in cup, place sugar or waffle cone atop scoop like a dunce’s cap. The sub-techniques after that do have variations.

Manny De Marlo, 14, from Epping nipped off the top of his cone on scoop combo.

?I just eat a little of the cone, then take spoonful of the ice cream, eat that, then nip a bit more cone.?

All this while the cone is still in the cup. Look, Ma, no hands! Mom Debra looked on in laughter.

?He’s been doing that since he was 3. No one else in our family does it so I have no idea how he came up with it. But he likes the taste of the cone but not the mess. I wish he’d be neater at home!?

Others just used the cup as a holding place for a fresh supply of ice cream to be placed on the cone as needed.

Cone and cup slingers at Memories were at a loss to explain or even identify any trends toward the recently witnessed explosion in cup over cone usage at at least three area ice cream stands.

Back at Wright’s in Stratham, 8 out of 11 people sitting outside on the lawn or at tables or leaning on cars were eating from cups rather than cones recently. An anomaly? Perhaps. But successive days of observation revealed similar practices.

?The cones are huge here! Have you seen them?? said Lila Sodenberg of Exeter. ?You can’t eat it in time before it melts without a cup. It’s just not possible.?

Husband Murray agreed. ?And this way you just put a lid on it and take it home for later. I can never eat a whole scoop of ice cream here. I have no idea how people can eat the larger sizes in one sitting, although I have seen it even with a cone. It’s messy though with a cone.?

Therefore, contrary to Lila Sodenberg’s theory, it is possible to eat large amounts of ice cream from a cone and still stave off the melting process via a variety of eating techniques, but if this summer’s unscientific study is correct, it’s not preferred to eat huge amounts of ice cream from a cone. The cone is out, the cup is in this year on the Seacoast.

Top 7 how many licks to finish a scoop of ice cream edited by Family Cuisine