You may be feeling a little sad that summer is ending, but the best way to beat those end-of-season blues is to take a trip down memory lane by chasing聽down the ice cream truck and grabbing one of the ice cream treats you loved as a kid.
鈥淥dors and tastes have a real effect on autobiographic memories,鈥澛爏ays Steven Specht, a professor of psychology at Utica College. Specht鈥檚 research focuses on the power of nostalgia, especially how it affects our perception of taste and visual artwork. Your limbic system is where tastes and odors are processed. 鈥淭his is what people have generally referred to as the emotional part of the brain,鈥 he explains. The scent of your grandmother鈥檚 house聽or the taste of a pie just like your father made聽can instantly trigger a deep well of nostalgia. That鈥檚 a good thing.
鈥淧eople sometimes mischaracterize nostalgia as a longing for the past, but it鈥檚 not that,鈥澛爏ays Specht. Positive-psychology experiments have shown that experiencing it can actually make us feel positive emotions. A 2013 paper, for example, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,听 increased someone鈥檚 sense of optimism for the future.
See? Eating a popsicle is scientifically proven to make you feel better. Next time you hear your local ice cream truck approaching, pull your Subaru over, comb through the seats for every last wayward dime and nickel, and punch your ticket to bliss.聽As for which one to choose, we鈥檝e got you covered there, too. Since we鈥檝e gone through the real聽science of why popsicles and other ice cream treats聽rule, it鈥檚 time for a totally unscientific ranking. We polled 国产吃瓜黑料 editors, readers, and friends about their favorite ice cream truck treats. Are these rankings statistically sound? Nah. Do we have a representative sample size? Probably not,听but it鈥檒l still make you happy!
The Best as a Kid: Rocket Pops
Just over 18 percent of polltakers said that this spaceship-shaped insulin-spike delivery vessel was their childhood go-to (narrowly beating out the Creamsicle and the Chipwich, which both got 15 percent of the vote.)
I actually had to look up what flavor these are, and it turns out, they鈥檙e a mix of cherry, lemon, and blue raspberry. However, if you can pick out all three distinct flavors, you should probably consider becoming a sommelier.
Let鈥檚 face it: we did not love Rocket Pops (or Bomb Pops, if your ice cream truck carried the off-brand) because they were聽delicious. We loved them聽because they聽turned our mouths grotesque colors and continued our childhood indoctrination into a culture of revering the military-industrial complex.
The Best Popsicle as an Adult: It鈥檚 Complicated
Creamsicles and Chipwiches both received 19 percent of the vote for the best adult popsicles. In justifying your choices, you all said it better than we ever could, so we鈥檙e going to defer to you.
鈥淪oft chocolate-chip cookies are perfect, ice cream is perfect,听put together, they鈥檙e transcendent,鈥澛爏aid one respondent, describing the spiritual experience that is eating an ice cream sandwich. If that鈥檚 too poetic of a description for you, another Chipwhich devotee put it this way: 鈥淚t鈥檚 fucking cookies and ice cream, and I believe it speaks for itself. So y鈥檃ll can have fun with your red-dye 40-induced health problems, I鈥檝e got a whole-ass meal over here, and I鈥檓 not sharing.鈥
The folks over at Team Creamsicle had thoughts, too. 鈥淭he God-made mixture of sugary-orange flavor mellowed out by the warmer vanilla cream center is the true definition of synergy: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Creamsicle ascends,鈥澛爏aid one respondent. Someone else聽pointed out that this choice聽鈥渉as orange juice, hence it is healthy.鈥澛燛at your heart out.
Amazingly, 65 percent of y鈥檃ll reported that you鈥檝e remained faithful to the popsicle that held your heart as a child. (As one respondent said: 鈥淐reamsicles are forever, baby.鈥)
Monogamy is admirable. But it鈥檚 a wide, wide, frozen-treat world out there. Why limit yourself?
The Crazy-Rabid Fan Favorite: Choco Taco
Not that many folks said this was the best, but those that did would not shut up about it. For the uninitiated, a Choco Taco wraps vanilla ice cream with fudge swirls into a cone the shape of a taco shell. Then聽the top is dipped in chocolate and chopped peanuts. It鈥檚 crunchy and creamy and sweet and salty all at the same time, and by the last bite, it will be dribbling down your forearms.
The thing about Choco Tacos is that they can be hard to find. And if the ice cream truck doesn鈥檛 have them, well, sometimes the disappointment is just so all-consuming that you no longer have an appetite for ice cream at all. 鈥淚鈥檓 honestly too upset about the demise of the Chaco Taco to stand any other ice cream truck products wholeheartedly,鈥澛爓rote one respondent. Indeed, it鈥檚 better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
The Pop That Will Make Everyone Happy: Paletas
This was our poll鈥檚 most popular write-in vote, and once you try them, you鈥檒l see why.聽 are often made from real fruit juice and even have chunks of fruit in them鈥攖ake that, Rocket Pops. But even better is the range of flavors. Some are creamy, others are spicy, you can sometimes even find a corn or horchata option. Made to be eaten in blistering heat, they鈥檙e never heavy or cloying.