The traditional toppings used in today's banana split include pineapple, strawberry and chocolate sauce, whipped cream, nuts, and cherries.

[4] Variations on the classic may use grilled bananas, experiment with different flavors of ice cream such as coconut or coffee, or sauces like salted caramel and warm butterscotch.

[3] The origin of the banana split is disputed, but most historians believe it was first created in 1904 by an optometrist in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, named David "Doc" Strickler.

[3] However, most historians believe the evidence for Strickler's 1904 debut is more convincing, and, in 2004, the National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified the city of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, as the birthplace of the banana split.

In Boston it is said the dessert was created at the Butler Department Store by the head soda jerk who, in 1905, served a banana split with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, topped with peaches, walnuts and pistachios.

The early drug stores operated by Charles Rudolph Walgreen in the Chicago area adopted the banana split as a signature dessert.

[2] The banana split is reputed to have inspired the longstanding debate between residents of the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England about how to correctly assemble a traditional cream tea.

Local traditions developed quickly within each county about how best to meet the tastes of their respective tourist trade, leading to differing applications of the cream in the assembly of the dish.