![]() Henry III displayed heaps of ice and snow on tables when he had guests, sometimes borrowing a page from Roman emperors and chilling his wine with a heap of snow. ![]() France, borrowing the tradition from Italy, was the first country to bring ice back, but as an extravagance. In the 16th century, it was the Italians who brought back the use of ice. ![]() These ice houses, which permeated Europe at the height of the Roman Empire, fell into disuse when the mighty empire crumbled. These well-crafted buildings used tightly-packed straw and wood to keep their frozen treasures insulated. ![]() Centuries later, wealthy Romans and Greeks filled ice houses with snow and ice that came from the Alps. The underground area kept ice, as well as any other food, cool through the use of air flow. Iran developed a yakh-chal (Persian for “ice pit”), which were onion-shaped buildings up to two stories tall, with an equal amount of space underground. Indian and Egyptian cultures used rapid evaporation to cool water quickly, sometimes quickly enough to make ice. For the bulk of human history, its creation was through purely natural means. ![]() Ice, a common ingredient in many cocktails, was at one point a rare treat for only the wealthy. ![]()
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