Rocky Road ice cream was created in 1929 by William Dreyer, with chocolate, marshmallows, and almonds. There are variations of the flavor, and it remains popular today, inspiring other desserts and contributing to Dreyer’s annual sales of $2 billion.
While 1929 might go down in American history as the year of the great stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression, ice cream aficionados may remember the year for an entirely different reason. 1929 is the birth year of Rocky Road ice cream, chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and almonds (formerly walnuts) as created by William Dreyer, one of the founders of Dreyer’s very popular Grand Ice Cream Holding, Inc. Actually, there there are some relationship between depression and this ice cream flavor because Dreyer actually coined the name as a bit of allusion to the tough road ahead.
There is an alternate origin story for Rocky Road ice cream. Some claim that ice cream was originally invented in Fenton’s cake shop and featured crushed candy bars containing chocolate, nuts, and marshmallows. However, William Dreyer quickly switched from walnuts to almonds. Both Dreyer and Fenton were located in Oakland, California, so it might be hard to say which origin story is more accurate, though certainly to this day Dreyer claims the rights to the invention, as does Fenton.
Although the original rocky road was thought to contain three components — chocolate cream, tiny marshmallows, and toasted almonds — there are many variations on the flavor today. Some companies use marshmallow creme instead of marshmallow, which can be a good choice for people who don’t eat meat. Marshmallows typically contain gelatin, while cream usually doesn’t.
Other varieties on the flavor have added things like chocolate chips, and a similar flavor is Swiss Vanilla Almond, which has whole almonds covered in chocolate in vanilla ice cream. Numerous things are now mixed into a variety of ice cream flavors.
Rocky Road ice cream has inspired many other Rocky Road desserts. Rocky Road Fondant may contain chopped nuts and marshmallows. People can make rock cakes or cupcakes and for total decadence top them with ice cream too.
There is no doubt that the popularity of this flavor continues. It usually makes top ten lists every year in various ice cream flavor charts and contests. Dreyer certainly owes some of its $2 billion dollars (USD) in annual sales to the popularity of this flavor. It remains one of ice cream’s enduring flavors and is still likely to create smiles and pleasure today, even if times are tough otherwise.
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