Ice cream is one of the best treats. Some countries have special ice cream recipes that offer flavours you won't try anywhere else. Here are the countries that are famous for their delicious, original ice cream.

Italy

Italians are real ice cream experts. After all, Italian explorer Marco Polo brought ice cream to Europe. The first treatise on ice cream appeared in Italy in 1690. The following ingredients were used to make ice cream: snow, sugar, salt, lemon juice, strawberries, cherries, chocolate and cinnamon. Italians are constantly indulging in ice cream, so in every major city you can find many ice cream parlors that are open until late at night. Many of them make ice cream by hand, according to ancient recipes. Italians love gelato so much that they even serve it with meat dishes.

Italian ice cream is made from eggs, whole milk, sugar and flavorings - always natural. Ice cream in Italy contains less fat than ice cream in other countries, 7-8 per cent instead of 10 per cent. In Italy, ice cream comes in a myriad of flavors, including extremely gourmet ones - carrot, tomato, cheese, for example. Someone once reckoned that there are almost 600 flavors of ice cream in Italy!

In Florence you should visit Perchè No! on Via dei Tavolini, where the gelato is prepared in front of customers, and in Rome you can't miss the best Italian gelato at Giolitti, one of the oldest ice-cream parlors in Rome.

Turkey

In Turkey, the tradition of eating ice cream dates back to ancient times. Turkish ice cream is dondurma. Traditional Turkish ice cream differs significantly in flavor and consistency from its European counterparts. The texture of Turkish ice cream is more compact, dense and sticky. Turkish ice cream melts much slower.

They owe their density to the addition of two specific ingredients. The first is salep and the second is mastic. Salep is a type of flour made from the tubers of two varieties of wild orchids, while mastic is a resin with a distinctive flavor obtained from a shrub growing in the Aegean region. Such authentic Turkish ice cream can be tasted in the town of Kahramanmaraş in Southeastern Anatolia. Of course, there are many flavors and the most popular among them are lemon, hazelnut and almond.

Greece

Ice cream was eaten as far back as ancient Greece. They called it ‘snow from Olympus’ and it was a favorite treat of the social elite. The chopped ice was then flavored with honey, fruit juice and wine. Modern Greeks also love ice cream. Greek ice cream is famous for its unique flavours and ingredients. Examples are ice cream with olive oil and figs or Pogoto Kaimaki, which is ice cream with resin from mastic wood. Pagoto Loukoumi with pieces of fried dough and Pagoto Kataifi Chocolate with grated fillo dough are also worth trying. Mavrodaphne also deserves a special mention, a Greek dessert wine ice cream.

Mexico

In Mexico, ice cream is fried. First the ice cream ball is frozen at a very low temperature, then it is coated with raw egg and covered with e.g. cornflakes, ground almonds. Then it is fried for about 30 seconds. The dessert can be sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar or served with whipped cream and honey. This ice cream is often wrapped in tortillas. In Mexico, you can also eat typical ‘cold’ ice cream.