National Rocky Road Day Date in the current year: June 2, 2026

Before the invention of rocky road ice cream, there was a confectionery item of the same name believed to have originated in Australia during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. It is made by combining melted chocolate with other ingredients, such as marshmallows, nuts, dried fruit, coconut, Turkish delight, and gummy bears, letting the mixture set, and breaking or cutting it into pieces.

According to the most common origin story, rocky road was created in an attempt to salvage confectionery that arrived from Europe stale or damaged after the long sea voyage. Merchants supposedly mixed the stale sweets with chocolate and local nuts to make them more appealing to customers. The name “rocky road” refers to either the rough journey the confectionery endured or the difficult roads leading to the goldfields.

However, there is little evidence to support this story. The first reliable written mentions of rocky road date to the 1920s in the United States. Around the same time, rocky road ice cream emerged, and its origin story is slightly clearer. The popular ice cream flavor is typically credited to William Dreyer, the co-founder of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream.

In 1928, ice cream maker William Dreyer and confectioner Joseph Edy joined forces to produce ice cream. At the time, most ice cream came in only three flavors (vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate) and was always served as sundaes.

Wanting to offer his customers something new, Dreyer based his new ice cream on Edy’s chocolate candy with marshmallow pieces and walnuts. He added walnuts (which were later replaced with almonds) to chocolate ice cream and topped it with bite-sized pieces of marshmallow cut with his wife’s sewing shears. The partners started selling their new flavor in 1929, naming it rocky road to bring smiles to people’s faces after the Wall Street crash that led to the Great Depression.

However, there is a competing claim to the origins of this popular ice cream flavor. Fentons Creamery in Oakland, California, claims to be the birthplace of rocky road ice cream. According to their account, the ice cream was invented by their candy maker, George Farren. He was making a rocky road candy bar and decided to create an ice cream flavor based on it. Farren was friends with Dreyer and Edy at the time, and they soon began serving Farren’s ice cream to their customers, but with almonds instead of walnuts.

Regardless of its exact origins, rocky road is one of the most popular ice cream flavors and definitely deserves its own holiday. Although the origins of National Rocky Road Day are unclear, that shouldn’t stop you from celebrating. June 2 is the perfect day to enjoy a bowl of rocky road ice cream and encourage your friends to do the same by posting about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #NationalRockyRoadDay and #RockyRoadDay.