What iconic frozen treat — enjoyed by Taylor Swift — was invented in Kansas City?

We’ve been thinking a lot about ice cream during this insufferable heat wave, specifically about Bomb Pops ever since seeing that Fourth of July photo of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez, tongues out, licking one of the iconic red, white and blue summer treats.

Swift posted the photo just hours before she performed the first of two concerts in Kansas City that week. Foodies wondered/predicted that Swift had made Bomb Pops the snack of the summer.

Well, we were today years old when we learned that Bomb Pops were created right here in Kansas City by D.S. Abernethy and James S. Merritt of Merritt Foods on July 30, 1955. Sunday will be the frozen treat’s 68th birthday.

(Eskimo Pies also have a KC connection: An Iowa schoolteacher and candy shop owner created the chocolate-coated ice cream bars in 1921; candyman Russell Stover then marketed them.)

The Bomb Pop is a product of its time, created in the thick of the Cold War — oh, the irony — between the United States and the Soviet Union.

“It seems almost poetic that amidst the threat of nuclear warfare, Abernethy and Merritt came up with a frozen treat to cool down temperaments all over the nation,” notes the website of National Bomb Pop Day, celebrated the last Thursday of June since 2005.

“The pop was shaped like a bomb with six fins, hence the name Bomb Pop, and its color scheme reflected the patriotic zeitgeist of America during the Cold War.”

After Merritt Foods closed in 1991, the recipe and branding rights for Bomb Pops were obtained by Wells Dairy in Le Mars, Iowa — known as the ice cream capital of the world. Wells Enterprises continues to make Bomb Pops today.

The original Bomb Pop flavors still exist — cherry, lime and blue raspberry. There are more flavors today, including watermelon, banana fudge, Nerds and Hawaiian Punch.

Bomb pops come with a warning: “This product, when extremely cold, may stick to warm lips or tongue. Allow to warm slightly before eating.”

In jumbo size, Bomb Pops are still standard fare on ice cream trucks.

Last summer, Wells CEO Mike Wells told the epicurean experts at Delish that his father, Fred, a leader in the ice cream biz who died three years ago, “hated the Bomb Pop (ice cream) trucks” with their ringing bells.

But they’re still rolling through neighborhoods, blasting music that makes kids, and some adults, within earshot salivate like Pavlovian dogs.

It’s fitting for these dog days of summer.

On Friday, Twitter user Melissa in Missouri declared that with the temperature soaring past 100, it’s time.

“It’s officially Bomb Pop time,” she wrote. “Stop what you are doing and head to the freezer.”