I don't remember when I first tasted ice cream. I seem to have always known and loved it. It was never
new and different like, say, escargot or tequila.
But in earlier eras when some people tasted ice cream for the first time, they found it repellent, abhorrent, and just way too cold. Difficult as it may be for us to believe, some spat it out.
The English, in particular, seem to have had trouble adjusting to the idea of eating a frozen treat. Of course, since ice was a rare commodity in eighteenth century, most had never experienced that degree of cold in their mouths. It was, to say the least, unsettling.
In Frances Burney’s novel, Cecilia, published in 1782, a character called Mr. Briggs describes his first taste of ice cream:
"…a great lump of sweetmeat; found it as cold as a stone, all froze in my mouth like ice; made me jump again, and brought the tears in my eyes; forced to spit it out; believe it was nothing but a snowball, just set up for shew, and covered over with a little sugar. Pretty way to spend money!"
An English naval officer attending an elegant dinner in Italy at the beginning of the nineteenth century was served ice cream molded and tinted to resemble a peach. Thinking it was the actual fruit, he took a bite and was astounded by its coldness. He spit it out, exclaiming “A painted snowball, by God!” He was so upset that he had to be stopped from throwing the painted snowball at one of the servants.
As late as 1851, Henry Mayhew described the experience of people who tried the ice cream sold on the streets of London for the first time:
"The Smithfield [Market] man sold them in very small glasses, which he merely dipped into a vessel at his feet, and so filled them with cream. The consumers had to use their fingers instead of a spoon, and no few seemed puzzled how to eat their ice, and were grievously troubled by its getting among their teeth. I heard one drover mutter that he felt ‘as if it had snowed in his belly!’"
At least he didn’t spit it out.