A taste of Italy in Germany

Germany, typically known for beer and sausage, has been home to a long line of Italians who can boast a talent that also pleases the palate; they're ice cream makers. Italian ice cream has been enjoyed in Germany for over a century.

Italian ice cream makers in Germany were originally from the Dolomite mountains in the 1800s. In the summer, they would farm, work in the logging industry, or make nails. In the winter, they would sell hot chestnuts in Italy's northern cities. Severe storms wrecked the logging business and big companies edged out the craftsmen. Some began learning the ice cream-making trade in northern Italy.

These craftsmen eventually made their way north, to the Netherlands and Germany, where other Italian migrant workers had helped build streets and canals. Around the turn of the 20th century and into the 1950s, the ice cream makers were drawn to the industrial areas because they thought they would be lucrative.

Italian ice cream makers often couldn't afford to rent a shop so they pushed ice cream carts through the streets, like this one pictured here in Vienna, 1900. On the upside, that meant they could go where the customers were. Later, Italians sold their ice cream from the windows of their apartments, placing a board on the windowsill to create a little bar.

The real boom in the Italian ice cream business in Germany came in the 1930s. World War II sent many Italians back home, though some returned soon after. In East Germany, too, ice cream parlors, like this one near Zwickau, were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. They attracted young people in particular with a touch of Mediterranean flair in the communist state.

Ice cream-making was a family tradition passed down orally from generation to generation, with recipes kept as family secrets. While Italians didn't actually invent ice cream, they still have a particular way of making it. Gelato is normally made from whole milk, eggs, sugar and natural flavorings with 7 to 8 percent fat; ice cream often has a minimum of 10 percent.

Of the ice cream sold in Germany, 85 percent is manufactured industrially. The other 15 percent is made fresh, primarily by Italians or Germans with Italian heritage. Using milk and real fruit, they whip up creamy delights to create classics such as strawberry and stracciatella and creative delicacies such as green jasmin tea with champange sorbet or coconut and lemongrass.

According to the Association of Italian Ice Cream Makers in Germany, the top three classic flavors of ice cream in Germany in 2013 were vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, in that order. For the more adventurous at heart, the top three exotic trendsetters were caramel with salt, vineyard peaches with champagne and watermelon-peach sorbet with prosecco. And special mention: lemon with basil.

Ice cream may not be especially appealing to people who suffer from lactose intolerance and can't drink cows' milk. So some ice cream producers have taken to making ice cream from goats' milk and organic fruit. The ice cream products from the factory can be sold fresh the same afternoon.

Ice cream came to Germany around 200 years ago when sugar was a rare, luxury food, the reserve of the wealthy and titled. Today, the average German consumes around eight liters of ice cream every year - that's nothing compared to the 26 liters consumed by the average American! But forget about your waistline - what would summer be without ice cream?