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We tackled this cool challenge by searching on "neapolitan ice cream." The search for the tri-flavor ice cream proved fruitful, and we headed to the first web page result. The Food Network summed up the sweet treat, "Brick-shaped ice cream made up of three differently flavored ice creams (usually vanilla, chocolate and strawberry)." While this definition was helpful, it didn't bring us any closer to the origin of the dessert's distinctive name. Next, we tried searches on "neapolitan history" and "history
of ice cream," only to learn more than we ever dreamed possible about the city of Naples, Italy, and churning cream. In desperation, we tried a search on Google Groups for Neapolitan ice cream. The first result pointed us in the right direction. A message thread debated the origins of the dessert and its name. One post directed us to Best of Sicily, where we found this definition for spumoni: a tricolored, three-flavored (usually cherry, chocolate and pistachio) Neapolitan ice cream virtually unknown in
Italy today but still made in the United States, where it was introduced in the 1890s. (The American term "Neapolitan" for vanilla, chocolate and strawberry tricolored ice cream is based on its former identification with spumoni.) Apparently, American tastebuds weren't ready for the flavor sensation of authentic spumoni, so an ingenious marketer combined three of America's favorite flavors and named the ice cream after the region where the original treat was created.
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