Snow Cone Maker?

[HLAuburn]

One of our favorite things about of warmer weather is the opening of snow cone stands, but believe it or not, we moved to Florida, and we can't find any nearby! (Maybe I need to open one )

Anyway, we saw a little snow cone maker and all the "fixins" at Walmart yesterday, so I was wondering how they work. Does anyone have one they recommend? I'm guessing the key is to shave the ice nice and fine so its fluffy and not chunky, but do some machines do that better than others?

Thanks!

 

[Crystal0608]

If they were the pink or green Rivals at WM with the tangerine, grape, green apple, and cherry syrups don't buy. It crushes the ice like a regular fridge does, not shaving it and the syrups are bleh. They had a fundraiser at ours Sat and used those as their advertising products for $1 ea and I had to throw mine away.

 

[scrapquitler]

One of our favorite things about of warmer weather is the opening of snow cone stands, but believe it or not, we moved to Florida, and we can't find any nearby! (Maybe I need to open one )

Anyway, we saw a little snow cone maker and all the "fixins" at Walmart yesterday, so I was wondering how they work. Does anyone have one they recommend? I'm guessing the key is to shave the ice nice and fine so its fluffy and not chunky, but do some machines do that better than others?

Thanks!

I've never seen a snowcone stand anywhere but at a carnival/fair or an amusement park.

I don't know the difference from one machine to another, but we have one of the $15 ones from Walmart. I buy the syrups at Walmart or Target and I keep about 4-5 flavors in the fridge, the kids love when I make them snowcones in the summer. What they don't know is that I have an ulterior motive in doing so. I keep a bottle of mudslides in the fridge all summer, and every time they have snowcones, I have a nice mudslide flavor snowcone myself

 

[krcit]

I bought my son one at Target. It was only about $30. He loves it. I ordered syrup and cups from Hawaiian Shaved Ice and they love the blue raspberry syrup.

 

[HLAuburn]

I've never seen a snowcone stand anywhere but at a carnival/fair or an amusement park.

When we lived in Mississippi, come hot weather, there was one on every corner! They were usually just freestanding "sheds" with a little walk up (or drive up) window. There was even one in the Walmart parking lot! I miss them!

 

[HLAuburn]

I bought my son one at Target. It was only about $30. He loves it. I ordered syrup and cups from Hawaiian Shaved Ice and they love the blue raspberry syrup.

Do you happen to know the brand?? Thanks!

 

[krcit]

Do you happen to know the brand?? Thanks!

Just went and looked. Sunbeam. I make no claims that it makes them like you are used to...my kids idea of a snow cone is the ones you buy premade from the ice cream truck This has 2 settings 'slushie' and 'snowcone' My 10 year old makes them by himself all the time.

 

[HLAuburn]

Just went and looked. Sunbeam. I make no claims that it makes them like you are used to...my kids idea of a snow cone is the ones you buy premade from the ice cream truck This has 2 settings 'slushie' and 'snowcone' My 10 year old makes them by himself all the time.

LOL, maybe I did make myself sound like a bit of a snow cone connesiour! Thanks for letting me know the brand...I'll check it out.

 

[scrapquitler]

When we lived in Mississippi, come hot weather, there was one on every corner! They were usually just freestanding "sheds" with a little walk up (or drive up) window. There was even one in the Walmart parking lot! I miss them!

That sounds awesome!

 

[NotUrsula]

If you want the real thing you're going to have to invest. SnoWizard of New Orleans makes home machines, but they are not cheap; it will set you back about the price of a long weekend onsite at WDW.

http://snowizard.com/shavers/cube/

(I think what I'd do first is call SnoWizard and see if they have any business customers in your area; you might just have not found the stand.) Personally, in your shoes I'd be tempted to go with a pro machine and set your kids up in a garden shed out front -- they can pay for college. (Pro machines are darn near indestructible, btw; I know people in Louisiana who have been using the same one daily seven months out of the year for fifty years; all you have to do is replace the motor and belt once in a while. You can find used machines in the New Orleans area pretty easily, but those are hard to come by elsewhere. I wasn't kidding about college; my best friend and I used to work her family's stand -- we started in second grade, standing on a crate.)

Snowballs are an odd thing, and you'll only find them in certain places, usually places that have a lot of connections to New Orleans (though the Hawaiians have a similar tradition that they call a shaved ice, and their machines are differently made.) We do have them locally; it is one of the things that makes living in this (midwestern) city bearable in summertime. I hear that they are very popular around Baltimore, too.

I've noticed that in Florida good snowballs do tend to be kind of hard to find except in the Destin-Pensacola corridor. Ponte Vedra may well zone against them; my guess is that you'd have better luck finding a stand in an older neighborhood in Jacksonville. ... YEP -- I looked. There is apparently a stand that operates at the corner of Hartley and St. Augustine Hwy. in Jacksonville; it's called Snoballs. There are apparently two others at the Beaches that use the Hawaiian-style machines, one in Atlantic Beach and one in Jacksonville Beach.)

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

You could buy one of these!


www.snobiz.com


There's a permanent snobiz set up in a shopping center down the street from us. They close during the winter, from late October until March. Maybe you could corner the Florida market??

 

[tiggger1]

I have the Hamilton beach icy treats ice shaver. It make snow cones, slushies margaritas. It has 2 different settings, one for snow cones and one for slushes

 

[HLAuburn]

If you want the real thing you're going to have to invest. SnoWizard of New Orleans makes home machines, but they are not cheap; it will set you back about the price of a long weekend onsite at WDW.

http://snowizard.com/shavers/cube/

(I think what I'd do first is call SnoWizard and see if they have any business customers in your area; you might just have not found the stand.) Personally, in your shoes I'd be tempted to go with a pro machine and set your kids up in a garden shed out front -- they can pay for college. (Pro machines are darn near indestructible, btw; I know people in Louisiana who have been using the same one daily seven months out of the year for fifty years; all you have to do is replace the motor and belt once in a while. You can find used machines in the New Orleans area pretty easily, but those are hard to come by elsewhere. I wasn't kidding about college; my best friend and I used to work her family's stand -- we started in second grade, standing on a crate.)

Snowballs are an odd thing, and you'll only find them in certain places, usually places that have a lot of connections to New Orleans (though the Hawaiians have a similar tradition that they call a shaved ice, and their machines are differently made.) We do have them locally; it is one of the things that makes living in this (midwestern) city bearable in summertime. I hear that they are very popular around Baltimore, too.

I've noticed that in Florida good snowballs do tend to be kind of hard to find except in the Destin-Pensacola corridor. Ponte Vedra may well zone against them; my guess is that you'd have better luck finding a stand in an older neighborhood in Jacksonville. ... YEP -- I looked. There is apparently a stand that operates at the corner of Hartley and St. Augustine Hwy. in Jacksonville; it's called Snoballs. There are apparently two others at the Beaches that use the Hawaiian-style machines, one in Atlantic Beach and one in Jacksonville Beach.)

Really interesting! And now that I think about it, the New Orleans connection makes sense. We lived in Mandeville, LA and they were everywhere and in MS, we were only a couple hours away, so they were popular there too.

Just seems like such an inexpensive but popular treat, especially with the FL heat - I'm surprised there aren't more here. They have 2 carts at the zoo that are always packed, but just driving around, I haven't seen any. Where did you find the info abou the Jax locations? I'm willing to drive to Jax Beach to get one!

 

[HLAuburn]

You could buy one of these!


www.snobiz.com


There's a permanent snobiz set up in a shopping center down the street from us. They close during the winter, from late October until March. Maybe you could corner the Florida market??

I'm thinking about it! I love SnoBiz! Anyone want to finance me?

 

[NotUrsula]

Really interesting! And now that I think about it, the New Orleans connection makes sense. We lived in Mandeville, LA and they were everywhere and in MS, we were only a couple hours away, so they were popular there too.

Just seems like such an inexpensive but popular treat, especially with the FL heat - I'm surprised there aren't more here. They have 2 carts at the zoo that are always packed, but just driving around, I haven't seen any. Where did you find the info abou the Jax locations? I'm willing to drive to Jax Beach to get one!

YELP is your friend when it comes to mobile and seasonal food stands.

 

[Iri920]

I also have the Hamilton Beach one and we like it.
http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-68050-Treats-Shaver/dp/B000JCGUDK/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
The ice in our freezer does make the machine jam sometimes but it's usually no big deal, the bagged ice we get works really good with it though. The kids like to do snowcone stands in the summer and they run it all by themselves and they've made a good amount of money doing it. As for they syrups we tried the ones they sell at Walmart and we didn't care for them so I found this recipe which taste much better and it's cheaper. Snowcone Syrup

 

[Jeniferdwn]

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.htm...324560&ci_sku=B0002MFGFU&ref=tgt_adv_XSN10001
we have this one and love it!

 

[Jeniferdwn]

oops. I got a message that it didn't go through and it did twice. Sorry!!!

 

[heatherleigh]

I need to purchase a new machine for my kids. My son has the cheap, red, Rival one and it doesn't work very well.

 

[lillygator]

here they have a sno co machine at the softball field concession stands!