Hey everybody! Private Event Specialist Greg here, to dip in with another food-and-drink themed Know-It-All. Today, I'm here to help you beat the heat (we have a 96-degree forecast in Omaha today) with a brief snack break all about frozen treats!

This fascination actually started from a private event (hint: you should book us!) for an ice cream company. I wanted to give them a fun and unique experience, so I prepared a custom round in which they had to match the distorted visage of some novelty ice cream bars to the character they were meant to represent. Predictably, they were up to the challenge.

But as we often do after completing our work, I did some digging in the freezer-burned history of frozen novelties!

The progenitor of the form is shaved ice, with a wide variety of names throughout many Asian countries and cultures. In the Philippines it goes by halo-halo, kakigori in Japan, bao bing in China, and patbingsu in Korea, where sweet red beans often join the fruit and fruit juices that lend it color and flavor. These came into the world centuries before the Sno Cone hit the scene at the State Fair of Texas in 1919, with it's more granular crushed ice model. They're distinctive for the freshly-fallen-snow texture of the ice, which is often made with beautiful (and pricey) hand-cranked machines.

I don't need to tell you that almost any food can be improved, though, by putting it on a stick. Frozen treats are no different! Popsicles got their start as Eppsicles, named for Frank Epperson. As a boy, the story goes, he left a glass of water, drink mix, and the stir stick outside on a particularly cold night. I think we can all relate to the "making potions" phase of childhood. After finding the mixture frozen the next day, he started making these ice pops for his friends and eventually, his own children. "Pop's 'sicles," then, became Popsicles.

They were a natural fit for summer fun, so Epps sold them at Neptune Beach, a bay area amusement park. He was forced to liquidate his assets (melting pun not intended) in the 1920s, and popsicles roared to nationwide popularity under the new ownership of the Lowe Company. They eventually had to battle things out in court with Good Humor, which brought ice cream pops to the world around the same time. In brief, Lowe was ordered to stick to water, Good Humor to dairy. For the pedants, you can dig into a rich history (and part 2!) of the two companies battling over what defines ice cream, sherbet, and more. This heated war of cold treats was put to an abrupt stop when Unilever eventually bought them both. Ah, nevertheless: capitalism!

Speaking of, the two-stick variety of Popsicles rose to prominence in The Great Depression. The price stayed the same (five cents!) but this innovation allowed two kids to share the treat for the price of one.

One last thing: I was particularly tickled by the language from Frank Epperson's original patent: "frozen confection of attractive appearance, which can be conveniently consumed without contamination by contact with the hand and without the need for a plate, spoon, fork or other implement." Think of that the next time you enjoy one of these classic confections, even if they don't get SpongeBob's "attractive appearance" just right. And tip a dripping Popsicle (or Eppsicle) to the memory of Frank Epperson for keeping your hands "uncontaminated."

Just eat fast!