**TL; DR: Licking ice cream is a long and labourious process that should be replaced with biting – for those strong enough to handle the teeth-freeze!** Licking an ice cream takes too long and results in a melty mess that no one can realistically keep up with. Furthermore, you’ll only ever experience a fraction of the flavour when licking as there is never a sufficient amount of ice cream in your mouth at one point in time. Biting is required in many circumstances, whether it is first getting into a Magnum or a Fab, or whether it’s needing to chew on a chocolate chunk or a caramel crunch. Therefore, it seems natural to bite throughout. Biting is more efficient, more practical and a more similar process of mastication that we’re used to.

**TL;DR – Ice-cream is *definitely* better licked than bitten, as not only does it taste better but the overall experience is also more enjoyable.** The website [phys.org]( https://phys.org/news/2008-10-ice-cream-spooned-food-expert.html) informs us that according to Massey food technology senior lecturer, Kay McMath, this is indeed, true. What’s more, while there might not be any specific scientific evidence to prove that licking one’s ice-cream is better than biting it, McMath says that “there are some physical and physiological reasons why there are likely to be differences in flavor.” More specifically, the “Flavor in ice-cream is only released when the fat content – which carries the flavor – is warmed in the mouth to at least body temperature.” So during licking, the tongue is covered with a thin layer of ice-cream which is more quickly warmed, enabling the flavor to be detected by the large surface area of the taste buds present on the tongue. Additionally, McMath also very astutely points out that while employing the licking technique certainly does take longer, this also allows one to savor the flavor more – making it more enjoyable. So while at some point there might be biting involved, *for the most part ice-cream can and should be licked* – if for no other reason than to draw out the pleasurable experience.

For the sake of this argument it's important to draw a distinction between ice creams; lollies and choc ices. Ice creams and lollies- fine. Choc ices-weird. The immediate refuting point is that biting into ice cream is very much not the one for those blessed with sensitive teeth. If you enjoy all your eating experiences tempered by pain, then bite away. All pleasure is better prolonged. Setting aside the impact eating slowly has on weight gain (1) (which is not an argument to have while discussing ice cream), it's so much better to savour and appreciate what you have. Take the time to taste, absorb...commit the experience of it to memory for solace in times of want. If you feel it's taking too long, it's time for introspection: is now the time for ice cream? Can I properly enjoy it? How susceptible am I to indigestion? Is this the treat for me? For the time pressed- consider a choc ice. 1.https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/how-to-eat-slower

**TL;DR Ice cream should be neither licked, nor bitten.** I believe the only way to eat ice cream is to either scoop it out of the tub and place it in a bowl – eaten with a spoon, or to eat it out of a small cardboard tub with a small plastic or wooden spoon (such as when you’re on holiday). Individually wrapped ice lollies, for starters, are not ice cream and as a result, there is no need to debate how to eat these, similarly, ice cream should never be eaten out of a cone – something of which I am quite passionate about; there is no real reason behind this, apart from cones are dry, bland and a bit of a pain to hold. So, when it comes down to it, ice cream should be neither licked, nor bitten.

**TL;DR - We have no choice but to bite the ice cream, as it is irrational to waste our days licking.** Biting ice cream is not only the best method for consumption without any messy casualty; it's also a demonstration of your will. Prolonged ice cream will surely melt, and doing the slow licking techniques from the past will make this outcome inevitable. The licking method of consumption is hardly rational but calculating the risk and net loss is simple: Average single scoop of ice cream is [$2.79 (USD)](https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/baskin-robbins-prices/) and the average melting time is between [10-30 at room temperature](https://www.kalscoops.com/4-quick-tips-softening-frozen-ice-cream/#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20time%2C%20soften,to%20scoop%20out%20with%20ease.) therefore you only have a limited time to enjoy optimal consumption through the slow licking process, but let's be honest no one is that fast. If it takes you longer than 30 min to lick ice cream on its entirely, it's over; you might as well have suffered a net loss of $2.79 on your bank account. This is without considering the surface area due to the quantity of air in ice cream; a higher surface area means that the ice cream will melt faster. The amount of sugar is also critical as it solutes in water, [resulting in sugar and other solute molecules lowering the freezing temperature of a solution](http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=5056). Therefore, if you bought the ice cream with the most sugar and the highest surface area, you might as well give up as it basically completely melted by the time you start licking. You must bite the ice cream; it's your only choice. As Nietzsche use to say, "Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they want their illusions to be destroyed" This could sure be true about the ice cream lickers.