{"id":6456,"date":"2021-08-16T15:13:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T19:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbados.org\/blog\/?p=6456"},"modified":"2024-04-09T13:24:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T17:24:50","slug":"iceonfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbados.org\/blog\/iceonfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice on Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was inspire to research the making of Ice in the tropics when writing my book Rogues in Paradise<\/strong><\/a>. I recount a fun story that happened at Chilly Mose and it got me thinking who was the ice cream maker BICO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Barbados Ice Company (BICO) is one of the oldest companies in Barbados. It began life in 1901 as the Barbados Ice Company Limited which, as you might have guessed from the name, made ice.(i) I Wrote about it in my new book Rogues in Paradise<\/strong> as part of the story on Chilly Moo’s<\/strong>, and decided to create this blog on the ad-venture of BICO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbados Ice Company – BICO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ice was big business in the early 1900s as fridges were scarce. Electricity was expensive and not readily available. Barbados Electric Supply Corporation was not created till 1909, and then was not widely used. Cold storage with ice thrived on the island for many years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact,making and storage was an inportant industry across the world back then. Natural ice stored in sawdust was shipped to much of the Caribbean all the way from Boston. And companies like BICO formed to make ice\u2014which was a tricky job in the days before electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, ice was made by boiling water and collecting evaporation in wet cloths that turned to ice on cold nights. Not a good solution for the tropics. That\u2019s why a good international trade developed, with ice being shipped from cold climates to hot ones. In 1860, Ferdinand P. E. Carre invented the ice machine using ammonia absorption and ice could be made anywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"making
making ice from hot or cold water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

– Source Scientific America<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ice Cream a Natural Diversification<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Barbados, ice was used everywhere\u2014in homes, on farms, in fishing, and in business. It was big business but, within seventy-five years of company founding, BICO closed down ice production, knowing it would be redundant once electricity was widely available. BICO saw the future in ice, and in 1949, it started making ice cream. By 2007 it was one of the largest cold storage facilities in the Caribbean, with about one million cubic feet of storage space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In 2009 the factory burned down, and BICO ice cream production had to be outsourced. The ice cream sold in Chilly Moo\u2019s Ice Cream Treatery<\/strong> is now made in Canada and shipped to the BICO storage facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say that ice cream is the second most popular food in Barbados, in second place to chicken. Bajans love chicken. Fried, stewed, barbecued, baked, and in curries. Chicken curry rotis are big here. Most places that serve chicken also serve BICO ice cream, but at Chilly Moo\u2019s<\/strong>, ice cream is a passion, and the lines can be massive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured in Rogues in Paradise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/roguesinparadise.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n