National Ice Cream Day

We all scream for ice-cream

July is National Ice-Cream Month

July is National Ice-Cream Month and Sunday was National Ice Cream Day.

And while no one really needs a special reason to enjoy ice cream when traveling, here’s how some airports and airlines marked National Ice Cream Day. Plus some bonus ice cream images from the National Archives.

Boys eating ice cream. Courtesy National Archives

“People have been eating and making ice cream innovations since cold storage became more commercially affordable,” the National Archives reminds us. “Early founders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson regularly enjoyed ice cream, and it was a featured dessert at James Madison’s inauguration ball in 1813.”

Ice cream-related inventions have proliferated over time, “as ice cream manufacturers and other dairy businesses constantly tinkered with new inventions to help mix, freeze, store, and transport ice cream while keeping its flavor and temperature perfect for the market.”

Find free ice-cream on National Ice Cream Day

National Ice Cream Day is Sunday, July 15 and there will be plenty of opportunities for people – and pets – to score free frozen treats and great deals on ice cream creations.

Here are some of the free offers and events planned.

On Sunday, July 15 participating Carvel shops will offer a buy one-get one (BOGO) free deal on any size soft ice cream cup or cone.

Dippin’ Dots is celebrating its 30th anniversary on National Ice Cream Day by giving away prizes and free mini cups of Dippin’ Dots during a two-hour window at participating locations.

Ice-cream fans who download the Baskin-Robbins Mobile App will get special offers for use only on National Ice Cream Day, including BOGO Cone offer for 99-cent sundaes and $2 off a medium Milkshake. To cap off National Ice Cream Month, on Tuesday, July 31, all regular and kid-sized ice scream scoops will be $1.50.

For the fourth year running, participating Your Pie fast-casual pizza locations around the country will be offering customers a fee scoop of Italian gelato on National Ice Cream Day. (Use the hashtag #ypfreegelato to share your gelato experience for a chance to win free gelato for a year.)

In New York City, which has experienced record high temperatures this summer, there are several special deals on tap for National Ice Cream Day:

Camp Arlo, located in the courtyard of the Arlo Soho in Lower Manhattan, is partnering with Tipsy Scoop to offer complimentary scoops of the limited edition “Frosè All Day” (white Peach sorbet infused with Notorious Pink Rosè) to the first 50 guests (21 and over) starting at noon. (After that, the slightly boozy scoops are $5 each).

Also in New York City, on July 15, My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream and Winky Lux cosmetics are teaming to give away free mochi ice cream to in flavors such as Ripe Strawberry, Sweet Mango, Green Tea and Salted Caramel. (Register for this free event here.) New York’s Nickel & Diner will be offering complimentary mini home ice cream cones to brunch customers from 11 AM to 4 PM.

Lucky pups in New York City get free treats too: On National Ice Cream Day, Wag!, the on-demand pet walking and boarding app will roll a cart into the Central Park Dog Park area to serve up free dog-friendly treats from 2 to 6 pm.

Nationwide, PetSmart is celebrating National Ice Cream Day on both Saturday July 14 and Sunday July 15 with complimentary four-ounce servings of dog-safe ice cream at PetSmart stores with PetsHotel facilities.

Head out on the Ice-Cream Trail

In Utica, Ohio, Velvet Ice Cream and its Ye Old Mill attraction are celebrating National Ice Cream Month throughout July, with specials and events including free entertainment each Sunday and $1 single-dip sugar or cake cones on National Ice Cream Day (July 15)

Velvet Ice Cream is just one of the stops on the newly launched 15-stop Ohio Ice Cream Trail.

The Buckeye State, which boasts to being where both banana splits and ice cream cones were created, is inviting ice-cream fans to cast a vote for their favorite stop on the ice-cream trail for a chance to win a year’s worth of Velvet Ice Cream.

Ohio isn’t the only state with an Ice Cream Trail. New Hampshire’s ice-cream trail including about 50 ice-cream shops in the Granite State and Indiana’s I Scream for Ice Cream Trail has more than 20 stops listed. Maryland, which lays claim to being the first place on the continent where ice-cream was served (1744) and the first state to boast an ice cream factory (1853) issues an ice cream passport. And New York State has an ice cream trail that winds through the Adirondacks.