Product Review

Five illustrations: a double scoop ice cream cone, an egg cream, a banana split, a root beer float, and a hot fudge sundae. The stamp booklet includes four of each design. By the late 1800s, Americans had long since begun drinking carbonated beverages for their pleasant taste, rather than their supposed health benefits. Soda jerks, the skilled operators of the nation's bustling soda fountains, offered a wide variety of syrups to flavor their product. The ice cream soda's precise origin is not clear, but by the turn of the 20th century it had become a fountain staple. The rise of refrigeration helped establishments produce, serve, and store frozen confections, whose popularity surged. By the 1960s, the number of soda fountains had dramatically decreased, but today soda fountain culture lives on in homes, restaurants, and ice cream parlors across America. Artist Nancy Stahl created the illustrations of the soda fountain treats. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamps, which are being issued as a First-Class Mail Forever booklet of 20. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.