A museum to tell ice cream story

NOIDA: From which country did ice cream originate? What is the recipe of your favourite ice cream? What does your favourite flavour say about your personality? If your 'ice cream quotient' is low then a visit to the country's first ice cream museum, launched at Noida on Wednesday, is a must.

"Ice cream and children have a long lasting and intrinsic relationship. This initiative is an attempt to do something unique and ever lasting for our young patrons," Samir Kuckreja, CEO and managing director of Nirula's group, one of country's leading restaurant and ice cream parlour chain, said.

Located inside the company's ice cream factory, the way to the museum has strawberry pink and butterscotch yellow coloured walls with huge cutouts of ice cream cones and message boards on it.
 
The wall facing the entrance is a colourful world map. Dotted lines and ice cream cones trace the journey of this frozen dessert through various countries.

A flowchart of ice cream history tells us that it is believed to have originated in Persia and even the high and mighty has fallen to its charms.

Greek king Alexander used to love his iced wines and Roman emperor Nero would send men to collect snow, which was then flavoured with honey and nuts.

The wall also tells us that the Arabs were the first to add sugar to ice cream to make it commercial. While Chinese started freezing fruit juices and mix milk with rice for a better taste.

Ice cream debuted in India in the 16th century when Mughal emperors asked their horsemen to get snow from the Hindukush mountains to Delhi. Mughal chefs later invented 'kulfi'.

One of Marco polo's find, on his trip to China, was the ice cream, which he took back with him to Italy. Later the recipe reached France, Germany and the US.

Entrance leads to the mixing room, a heaven for the ice cream lover. In this room thousands of litres of milk, sugar and emulsifier is mixed in huge containers and converted into ice cream.

The room is covered with posters of the group's every single flavour of the month since 1970.

Below the mixing room is the plant, where one can 'play' with ice cream. Here one can mix the flavours, add nuts to your favourite flavour and fill them into tubs.

The posters in this room tell you that your favourite flavour is not just a matter of taste but is actually a reflection of your character, strawberry - artistic, chocolate - naughty and vanilla - sincere.

"This is the only ice cream factory of our chain restaurant. It presently makes 10,000 litres of ice cream every day and supplies it all our outlets. By end of next month we will start producing 20,000 litres of ice cream," said Kuckreja.

"What could have been better than an ice cream museum, which not only indulges kids with their relished treat but also teaches them a lot more about history, culture and tradition weaved in with the journey of the ice cream across different nations."