Eskimo Pie Day Date in the current year: January 24, 2024

Eskimo Pie was invented by the schoolteacher and candy store owner Christian Kent Nelson from Onawa, Iowa. He received the inspiration for a chocolate-covered ice cream bar when a boy in his store couldn’t decide whether to buy a chocolate bar or ice cream.

Nelson began to experiment with different ways to adhere melted chocolate to ice cream bars and eventually began to sell his invention under the name “I-Scream Bars”. In 1921, he pitched the concept of mass-producing chocolate-covered ice cream bars to the chemist and entrepreneur Russel William Stover. Stover improved the formula of the chocolate coating and renamed the product to Eskimo Pie.

On January 24, 1922, Nelson received a patent for Eskimo Pie. This day is celebrated worldwide as Eskimo Pie Day. Eskimo Pie is now marketed by Nestlé. Several companies around the world are licensed to produce chocolate-covered ice cream under the name “Eskimo Pie”. In the former Soviet republics and in France the word “Eskimo” is used as a generic name for chocolate-covered ice cream with a wooden stick.