For a very long time, ice was a precious commodity. On the hot days when you would want it, it could only be acquired from afar (usually perpetually cold mountaintops) and had to be carefully insulated and transported. As far back as the Roman Empire, the wealthy imported ice and stored it in insulated storehouses to cool their drinks.

At the turn of the 19th century, however, ice started becoming much cheaper to transport. Frederic Tudor (founder of the Tudor Ice Company that still exists today) cut ice from frozen ponds and rivers, insulated it with sawdust that he could get free from lumber mills, and transported it via hired ships in Boston down to the West Indies where he built ice houses for storage. Improving technology (such as new horse-drawn cutting blades) gradually made it easier to harvest ice, and by 1833 Tudor was shipping ice as far away as India. The ice had the added benefit of being handy for preserving food, allowing perishables to be transported greater distances while the ice was reused at the destination.

By the 1840s, ice had become commonplace in America and was being shipped all over the world, and by the 1850s ice was being transported across the continent to the newly established communities in California. The sherry cobbler, so called because of the cobblestone-like pebbled ice in the glass, was the faddish drink of the decade and even popularized drinking straws! Ice still remained cheapest in America, however, as there was always wastage due to melting on long distance journeys.

As the century went on, the ice trade around the world began expanding to compete with American companies. Improving ice plant technology allowed for artificial cooling of water to create ice, and by the 20th century artificial refrigeration had made ice obsolete for cooling food.