While frozen treats have been around for thousands of years, there are a few beloved warm-weather desserts that keep Americans pleasantly refreshed during the summer. The ice cream man knows better than anyone, perhaps, that America is obsessed with frozen treats. From ice pops to ice cream sandwiches, there’s hardly an icy dessert we won't eat.

• The Ice Cream Cone. Ice cream and the waffle cone were invented thousands of years apart, but they came together fortuitously at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Legend has it that when an ice cream vendor ran out of bowls, a nearby stand selling thinly pressed waffles offered up a rolled version of their dessert to support the ice cream. Just like that, America’s favorite treat was born.

• The Slurpee. In the 1950s, the owner of a Kansas City, Kansas, Dairy Queen was suffering from a machine malfunction, which forced him to place some of his sodas in the freezer. When he sold the sodas, the customers noticed that they were slightly slushy in consistency, though they certainly didn't mind. Instead, customers requested the half-frozen drinks regularly, and the owner eventually created a machine to produce the treats on a consistent basis, dubbing the drink the ICEE, which was later also sold as the Slurpee.

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  The Ice Pop. We have a child prodigy to thank for another accidental frozen treat invention, the Popsicle. In 1905, a young man left a glass of soda outside overnight with a stirring stick left in the center. When he noticed the drink had frozen, he removed it from the glass by the stick, creating a new, cool way to enjoy soda. He started making the treat for friends and eventually patented the invention in 1923.

• The Snow Cone. Also making its debut at a state fair, the snow cone was first created by a vendor at the 1919 Texas State Fair. After the success of his dessert, he decided to patent the signature crushed ice of the snow cone and eventually was able to sell more than one million per year. The snow cone is set apart from other similar treats, like classic Hawaiian shave ice, by the consistency of the ice and the large amount of flavored syrup.

• The Ice-Cream Sandwich. The ice-cream sandwich initially rose to fame in Brooklyn’s Bowery neighborhood thanks to a local treat vendor. By placing frozen cream in between two thin wafers, the vendor drew up so much buzz with local children that he only needed to charge a penny for his product. Now, you can enjoy this treat between two cookies, two waffles, or two cinnamon rolls—the combinations are pretty much endless!

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