With about a month left of summer, perhaps it’s an appropriate time to talk about popsicles.

If you’ve never had a popsicle before, perhaps it’s time to get out of the hyperbolic time chamber or wherever you’ve been trapped for the past 120 years and try one. If you’ve had popsicles before, you can see why everyone besides the guy trapped in the time chamber loves them so much.

Ever since its invention date in 1905, popsicles have been taking the summer snack market by storm. Supermarkets display shelves, showcasing popsicle brand after popsicle brand that’ve all cropped up over the years: Bomb Pops, Talenti, Chloe’s. Even Jolly Ranchers got caught in all the popsicle craze and made their own version.

Popsicles are so popular, around two billion in total are sold annually in just the United States. And that’s just counting the major brands. Little Timmy down the block could be selling his own popsicles for five bucks a pop.

All over the world, popsicles bring people together and are enjoyed by many.

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But how did the popsicle come to be? And why does everyone love it so much today?

Popsicles: A History

Allow me to set the scene:

We go back to the aforementioned 1905, in the San Francisco Bay Area, to the house of Frank Epperson. Epperson wasn’t an inventor or a chef: He was an eleven year old who made the popsicle by accident after leaving a glass of water, some powdered soda mix, and a wooden stirring stick on the porch outside his house. The popsicle wasn’t even invented during summer: it was actually cold enough to freeze the mixture solid.

Epperson realized that this was a genius snack idea, and began selling it to his friends. His “Eppsicles” began picking up traction, and he was making bank. Epperson filed a patent for his treat in 1923, but instead of calling them Eppsicles, the name was changed to Popsicles after his children insisted. Thank God for kids.

The popsicle went through a bunch of different stages during its ongoing lifespan, kind of akin to how a teenager goes through an average of three phases during its lifespan. One of the earliest of these “phases” is the “Two-Stick Popsicle,” two popsicles connected in the middle. A new flavor called the “Creamsicle” was released in 1937, and the first chocolate-based popsicle came out in 1946, dubbed the Fudgesicle.

The chocolate based popsicle, a flavor that’s still going strong today.

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Fast forward some 120 years later, past some market deals, companies joining, and popsicles are now so popular their sales numbers surpass the entire population of China.

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Why Do We Love Popsicles?

So why do we like popsicles so much?

The first thing is that they taste good. If you don’t like popsicles, you’re missing some taste buds. They cool you down during a hot summer day, they’re sugary and sweet, and they’re quick to eat.

The options are plentiful as well. Flavor after flavor developed over the years. The classic flavors in 1920 were lemon, cherry, orange, grape, root beer, banana, and watermelon.

Nowadays, the flavors are far more outlandish and exotic. You may be content with a simple cherry pop, but the guy standing outside the mall will insist that “sweet corn” is the best flavor. I myself have gotten my hands on a coffee-flavored one. It tasted better than real coffee.

Also, popsicles are simple. Boiled down to its base components, it’s quite literally a long ice cube with a stick. You can just rip off the wrapper and chomp down.

They aren’t exactly hard to make yourself either. You can’t go wrong with the old Frank Epperson strategy: Leave a bunch of ingredients somewhere cold and let nature handle it.

It’s not just the edible part that’s great, either. Everyone’s used at least one popsicle stick in a DIY project before. I think I made a popsicle stick boat for a project in third grade.

The kid next to me made a cool paper slingshot with a big bullseye at the end, but that's irrlevant. My Gorilla Glue rainbow boat had more flair to it, anyway.

As a plus, popsicles are great for conversation and bringing people together. Sitting on the sidewalk with a few friends holding popsicles makes for excellent bonding time. No matter who you are, you're always slightly happier (and therefore more amicable) than usual when consuming such a treat.

Whether it’s summer or winter, you can’t go wrong with a popsicle.