Sno-ball facts for kids
A sno-ball from Hansen's Sno-Bliz in New Orleans
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| Type | Frozen dessert |
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| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Created by | Ernest Hansen |
| Main ingredients | Water, cane syrup, flavoring |
A sno-ball is a Louisiana confection made with finely shaved ice and flavored cane sugar syrup. Commonly confused with the snow cone or snowball, the ice of a sno-ball is fine and fluffy; while a snow cone's ice is coarse, crunchy, and granular. Moreover, in a snow cone the flavored syrup sinks to the bottom of the cup; while in a sno-ball the ice absorbs the syrup.
Sno-balls are a seasonal treat as they are generally sold only from roughly March to October. They are vended from "sno-ball stands" throughout parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Maryland.
History
Before the 1930s ice was manually scraped from a block of ice, producing a coarser, crunchier version of the sno-ball. In 1933, Ernest Hansen began work on an ice-shaving machine; and by 1934, he had invented the first motor-driven ice-shaving machine. For two years, Hansen kept the machine within his family, making sno-balls for only his children and relatives. In 1936, Ernest and his wife Mary took their machine to the streets of New Orleans and opened Hansen's Sno-Bliz. The business ran discontinuously for the following two years because Mary needed to care for her children. In 1939, they opened the shop and remained in business for the next 67 years.
By this time, grocer George Ortolano had invented his own ice-shaving machine, which he later called the Sno-Wizard. Ortolano redeveloped his wooden machine into one made of galvanized metal after he began receiving requests from people who wanted to use his machine to start their own businesses. Soon thereafter, he drew up blueprints for his machine and set his product into automated production. Ortolano's Sno-Wizards are now the primary sno-ball machines used in Louisiana and throughout the Gulf Coast.
Flavors
The following list contains many of the sno-ball flavors available at sno-ball stands around New Orleans.
- Almond
- Banana
- Bahama Mama
- Blue Bubble Gum
- Blueberry
- Blue Raspberry
- Buttered popcorn
- Cake batter
- Cherry
- Chocolate
- Coconut
- Coffee
- Cotton Candy
- Cream soda
- Creamsicle
- Daiquiri
- French vanilla
- Grape
- Ice cream
- Key lime pie
- King cake
- Kiwi
- Lemon
- Margarita
- Nectar
- Orange
- Orchid cream vanilla
- Peach
- Peanut butter
- Piña colada
- Pineapple
- Raspberry
- Rocket 88
- Root beer
- Silver fox
- Spearmint
- Strawberry
- Tamarind
- Tiger's blood
- Tutti frutti
- Vanilla malt
- Watermelon
- Wedding cake
Variations
- Cheesecake Stuffed Snowball: created by Sno-La Snowballs, the snowball is stuffed with cheesecake in the center, surrounded by the snowball flavor of choice.
- Stuffed sno-ball: a sno-ball stuffed with vanilla or chocolate softserve ice cream
- Cream-flavored sno-ball: a sno-ball made with flavored syrup mixed with evaporated milk
- Sugar-free sno-ball: a sno-ball made with sugar-free syrup
- Toppings: soft-serve ice cream, condensed milk, marshmallow fluff, Oreos
