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July was National Ice Cream Month.

Forget to celebrate?

Don't worry-- August offers more opportunities to savor a scoop (or two) of your favorite flavor. This month, ice cream lovers can pay homage to both the ice cream soda and the ice cream sandwich (Aug. 2), the creamsicle (Aug. 14) and spumoni (Aug. 21).

But who needs an official holiday? Ninety percent of Americans already enjoy a scoop without pomp and circumstance, says the International Dairy Foods Association. The United States also leads the world in ice cream production, churning out 1.6 billion gallons of the cold stuff. That's 5.4 gallons per person.

Maryland holds a special place in the annals of ice cream history. The earliest record of ice cream in America dates to 1744, when Maryland Gov. Thomas Bladen served strawberry ice cream to a group of visiting Virginians. Over 100 years later in 1851, Maryland dairyman Jacob Fussell began using surplus milk to mass-produce the frozen confection, giving rise to today's multibillion-dollar industry.

You'll have to run to Baltimore to catch up with Fussell's ice cream truck (it's displayed at the city's Museum of Industry), but you can stroll into any of these local shops.

York Castle Tropical Ice Cream

This brightly lit shop sits just inside the Beltway, but its flavors stem from the island of Jamaica. Alongside drums of vanilla and chocolate ice cream are tropical flavors like coconut, mango, banana and pineapple. More exotic flavors include guava, papaya, lychee and soursop (or guanabana).

If you're not familiar with these flavors, you can study the shop's wall-mounted posters, which serve as pictorial guides to Caribbean, South American and Asian fruits. (There's also a map of Jamaica for planning your next vacation.) Samples are available, though they're limited to two per person.

In addition to tropical flavors, York Castle sells premium ice cream flavored with Guinness. That's right--beer, a frozen chaser for one of York Castle's spicy beef patties.

York Castle Tropical Ice Cream 9324 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring (301-589-1616)

Greg's Summer Delights

This family-owned Takoma Park eatery is part ice cream shop, part deli and all Elvis. From the gyrating Jailhouse Rock wall clock behind the counter, to the corpulent white plaster bust perched above the dining area, the shop is a shrine to the King.

Beneath Presley's countenance, rattling freezer cases hold deep trays of homemade ice cream. Chocolate is treated with almonds, peanut butter, bananas, cookie dough or coconut. Other flavors include banana-nut-rum, cinnamon-coffee and Peach Melba.

For the lactose intolerant, Summer Delights serves a variety of sorbets, as well as bagels, deli sandwiches, hot dogs and fresh popped corn.

Greg's Summer Delights 6939 Laurel Ave, Takoma Park (301-891-2880)

Moorenko's Ice Cream Café

Warhol-esque silkscreens of a Holstein cow give Moorenko's an art-gallery feel that complements its location along SilverSpring's Art Walk. But beneath its minimalist décor is a base of at least 17-percent butterfat--the concentration required to make its ultra-premium ice cream thick enough to suspend hunks of fruit, nuts or candy.

The "cherries with the works" is a dense cherry-vanilla ice cream that erupts with chocolate chunks and nuts. For overgrown kids, there's cotton candy-gummy bear, heath bar and "cookie overload."

Moorenko's also has a children's music hour to help burn off that creative energy, and validated valet parking.

Moorenko's Ice Cream Café 8030b Georgia Ave, Silver Spring (301-588-5656)

Also in Silver Spring, Ben and Jerry's City Place now serves "American pie," cinnamon-brown sugar ice cream with apples and pieces of piecrust (903 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring, phone: 589-8224). At the Cold Stone Creamery, families can try two new flavors: bubble gum and cotton candy (821 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring, 301-565-0126). And Baskin-Robbins goes for the "triple play," a baseball-inspired concoction of popcorn, peanuts and pretzels in caramel ice cream (Multiple locations).

Gelato

Gelato is a frozen dessert flavored with fruit, chocolate or nuts and served by the scoop. But that's where its similarities with ice cream end.

Unlike ice cream, gelato is made with milk only, which contains less butterfat than cream. Gelato also contains relatively little air.

The result: a light taste and smooth consistency that intensifies the flavor of other ingredients, such as chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio and lemon.

Gelato is not frozen as solidly as ice cream and, as a result, melts quickly. But don't worry about getting messy--gelato is served in cups, not cones.

At Silver Spring's Mamma Lucia (1302 East-West Hwy., phone: 301-562-0693), you'll find other flavors like tiramisu, Grand Marnier and stracciatella--vanilla gelato drizzled with chocolate sauce.

And don't forget Kefa Café (963 Bonifant St. phone: 301-589-9337), reopening on August 14. Sisters Lene and Abeba have been serving up superb gelato to Silver Spring for several years.  

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