cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
Why Ice Cream Soared in Popularity During Prohibition - History
No beer? No problem. Better refrigeration, together with innovations in making and selling frozen treats, helped steer people toward this 'refreshing and palatable food.'
When Congress passed the Volstead Act in 1920, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, the law nearly decimated the alcohol industry. But it helped give the nascent ice cream business a sweet boost.
Between 1919 and 1929, federal tax revenues from distilled spirits plummeted from $365 million to less than $13 million, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The few breweries that survived to the end of Prohibition in 1933 did so by pivoting—producing everything from ceramics and farm equipment to American cheese, candy and malt syrup. Iconic breweries such as Anheuser-Busch and Yuengling turned, in part, to ice cream production.
“As men sought alternatives to having a drink at the local saloon, many ate ice cream more often,” wrote Anne Cooper Funderburg, the author of Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream, driving an estimated 40 percent growth in consumption between 1920 and 1929. A song from a Pacific Ice Cream Manufacturers Convention in 1920 declared, “Gone are the days when Father was a souse,” and that now, instead of beer, he brings home a brick of ice cream.
No beer? No problem. Better refrigeration, together with innovations in making and selling frozen treats, helped steer people toward this 'refreshing and palatable food.'
When Congress passed the Volstead Act in 1920, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, the law nearly decimated the alcohol industry. But it helped give the nascent ice cream business a sweet boost.
Between 1919 and 1929, federal tax revenues from distilled spirits plummeted from $365 million to less than $13 million, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The few breweries that survived to the end of Prohibition in 1933 did so by pivoting—producing everything from ceramics and farm equipment to American cheese, candy and malt syrup. Iconic breweries such as Anheuser-Busch and Yuengling turned, in part, to ice cream production.
“As men sought alternatives to having a drink at the local saloon, many ate ice cream more often,” wrote Anne Cooper Funderburg, the author of Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream, driving an estimated 40 percent growth in consumption between 1920 and 1929. A song from a Pacific Ice Cream Manufacturers Convention in 1920 declared, “Gone are the days when Father was a souse,” and that now, instead of beer, he brings home a brick of ice cream.