Along with mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, and cookies and cream (and perpetual stalwarts chocolate and vanilla), Rocky Road is one of America’s favorite ice cream flavors. The fun, decadent dessert combines chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and nuts (usually almonds) to create a delightful, frozen masterpiece. Although it’s clear that Rocky Road is a popular flavor, exactly who invented it depends on who you ask.
In 1906, William Dreyer came to the U.S. from Germany. After a time in New York, he moved to California to learn the art of making ice cream, and in 1921, he opened an ice cream shop in Visalia, California. By 1929, he had teamed up with Joseph Edy, a candy maker, to start an ice cream and candy company in Oakland, California. Dreyer reportedly used his wife’s sewing scissors to cut up pieces of marshmallow and walnuts, then added them to chocolate ice cream. Dreyer and Edy supposedly replaced the walnuts with almonds and dubbed the flavor Rocky Road, alluding to the October 1929 stock market crash’s tumultuous effect on the economy.
Read more about the history of Rocky Road ice cream!
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