Happy National Chocolate Ice Cream Day
Whether you're scooping or slurping, ice cream is a pretty good way to beat the heat in the Plains on National Chocolate Ice Cream Day. (Readers in the East will be getting ice cream-melting heat this weekend.)
It turns out that there is a science to how quickly different flavors of ice cream melt. Alcohol content in the flavoring can make the ice cream softer and so too can the butter that is added to certain flavors. Theodore P. Labuza, a professor of food science at the University of Minnesota, said that surface area, tiny air bubbles and sugar also play into the drip factor.
"The higher the sugar content, the less ice that is present," Labuza said. "As soon as the structure is melted partially, that is when it begins to flow outwards."
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