The best ice cream in Hong Kong and its little-known history in the city
- Ever since On Lok Yuen began selling American-style ice cream in the 1920s, Hong Kong has had a love affair with the frozen dessert
- As America celebrates National Ice Cream Day we recall Hong Kong’s history of ice-cream making and reveal where to find the choicest servings and flavours
We all scream for ice cream, but it was former American president Ronald Reagan who declared the third Sunday in July to be dedicated to celebrating the cool treat.
National Ice Cream Day – which in 2022 falls on July 17 – has been celebrated since 1984, and July is officially known in the US as National Ice Cream Month.
Ice cream has a fascinating history in Hong Kong, beginning in the earlier part of the 20th century.
Today we may hear a lot about Hong Kong brands Dairy Farm and Appolo (the latter experiencing something of a resurgence thanks to viral videos of employees creating gravity-defying six-and-a-half twists of soft serve), but there have been plenty more sellers of ice cream down the decades.
Among the most famous is On Lok Yuen, founded in 1919 by Cheung Kat Shing as a cafe serving Western-style food and drink that eventually became the city’s first modern ice-cream manufacturer.
The forward-thinking Cheung studied ice-cream manufacturing on trips to the US, travelling to cities including New York, Chicago and San Francisco to learn more about producers’ methods, and set about ordering the necessary equipment to bring back to Hong Kong.