Official Kids Mag

July 7 - World Chocolate Day Do you love chocolate? Whether you prefer milk chocolate, chocolate pudding, hot chocolate, dark chocolate or even white chocolate, this is the perfect day to eat your favorite form of this sweet treat (see our S'mores recipes on page 8 for ways to enjoy chocolate around the campfire!) Did you know that chocolate has been around, in some form or another, for 2,000 years— some even say about 4,000 years? Chocolate starts in a tree… the pods of the cacao tree, to be exact. Ancient Aztecs and Mayans celebrated chocolate and considered it a very special treat. Drinks made of cacao beans would be given as presents to important people. Chocolates also would be offered to the gods as a token of appreciation. Cacao beans were even used as money and traded for goods. Thousands of years later, a man named Milton Hershey created one of the most successful brands of chocolate here in the United States, which included the famous Hershey bar. In 1907, Hershey started making tear-drop shaped "kisses." (The chocolates were given that name name because of the "smooching" noise made by the chocolate when being manufactured). In order to make chocolate, seeds from a cacao tree are covered with banana leaves and left to ferment, at which point they are called cocoa beans. The cocoa beans are roasted, ground up, and separated into cocoa powder and cocoa butter. Much of the chocolate we eat today is sweet chocolate. Chocolate makers add a lot of sugar and milk for taste. That means that chocolate can be bad for your teeth and your health, so don't eat too much of it! July 18 - National Ice Cream Day I scream, you scream, we all scream for …. Speaking of things you shouldn't eat too much of, this is the day we celebrate ice cream! In 1984, President Reagan first decreed a day devoted to this frozen delight, which is enjoyed by over 90 percent of Americans. We are, in fact, world leaders when it comes to ice cream consumption. We eat an average of four gallons, per person, per year. Do you eat that much ice cream? About one in five (17%) Americans say that chocolate is their favorite ice cream flavor. That's followed closely by vanilla (15%), strawberry (8%), mint chocolate chip (8%), butter pecan (8%), chocolate chip cookie dough (6%), and cookies n creme (6%). What's your favorite flavor? Ice cream history! -> Americans were not the first to enjoy ice cream. An ice cream-like food was first eaten in China sometime between 618-97 AD. It was made from flour, buffalo milk, and camphor. Sounds yucky! Alexander the Great loved to eat ice and snow flavored with nectar and honey. (Sounds better.) During the Roman Empire, Caesar would send people to gather snow from the mountains, just to cover it in fruit and juices. "Go fetch me some snow!" Close to a thousand years later in Italy, Marco Polo bought back a recipe from the Far East for what we now know as sherbet. This recipe was probably developed into what we now know as ice cream, which was once called ''Cream Ice." Ice cream became really popular in the U.S. after the American Revolution. Apparently, along with declaring our freedom from British rule, we also declared our freedom to eat ice cream! Here are some more ice cream facts: • It takes 12 pounds of milk to produce just 1 gallon of ice cream • The average number of licks to finish a scoop of ice cream is 50 • The United States consumes more ice cream than any other country. • Ice cream headaches or "brain freeze" is the result of the nerve endings in the roof of your mouth sending a message to your brain of the loss of heat • The ice cream cone reportedly was invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, when an ice cream vendor ran out of dishes in which to serve his ice cream. He asked a waffle vendor to roll waffles into "cornucopias." The first ice cream cone was born! 6 • July 2021 • www.OfficialKidsMag.com Name: Kids Mag 4 x 3" Customer Name: ARK MISSOURI RAILROAD Ad Number: 062721NWR2581 Summer Time Excursion Train Rides Visit www.amtrainrides.com to book your seat! SaturdayS departure 8:00 a.m. Springdale to Van Buren 3 hour layover in Van Buren departure 11:00 a.m. Van Buren to Winslow SundayS departure 1:00 p.m. Springdale to Winslow

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