Snoballs aren't what they typically advertise on commercials trying to get tourists to visit New Orleans. Nor does a tourist typically walk away from a two-day stay in the French Quarter to associate New Orleans with this detectible treat. To know about snoballs you either have to be a local, know a local, walk outside of the French Quarter to experience the rest of this great city or randomly catch a stand at a festival. They are, like so many other little things in New Orleans, one of the great secrets or rather non-commercialized jewels of New Orleans. To really know New Orleans you have to spend more than just a weekend here.
What's all the fuss over a little Snow-Cone?
Perhaps one of the reasons they don't advertise Snoballs in those tourist commercials is because its hard to describe in a couple of seconds why Snoballs are different from Snow-cones. If you ask someone from New Orleans, the two are drastically different. Which, after my experiences, they are.
A Snow-cone has crunchy, crushed, stuck together ice that doesn't absorb the syrup. By the time you are halfway through your Snow-cone you are left with a bunch of white ice that you sucked the syrup out of. A Snoball, in contrast, is finely shaved ice that has a fluffy light texture. It is almost impossible to suck out the all the syrup. The syrup becomes one with the ice. I've heard numerous newcomers to the snoball world say, "I could eat a whole cup of this ice plain it's so good!".
Many places around New Orleans make their own homemade syrup and each place has a different trick to getting their ice just right. That's why I decided to go on a little adventure and review many of the famous snowball places throughout town. Before I go into that though, I think a history lesson may help you understand how culture is seeped into these Sno-balls just as culture is seeped into every other part of New Orleans specialties.
Who did What When?
The first patented snoball or rather "sno-blitz" machine was invented by Ernest Hansen in the Great Depression after seeing the unsanitary conditions of shaving the ice by hand with a metal hand-shaver. Hansen and his wife Mary then opened a snowball stand up on Tchoupitoulas Street. Their granddaughter Ashley now runs the store and still uses Mary's original secret syrup recipes. There are now four or five different snowball machines types around the New Orleans.
So what Makes one snoball better than the next?
There are a couple contributing factors when determining which stand ranks higher than the next: syrup recipe, the sharpness of the blade on the snoball machine, how the snowball is prepared and the over-all experience. The sharpness of the blade on the machine is what determines the overall "fluffiness" of the ice. If you have a dull blade you will have crunchy ice, which is the ultimate no-no. Also many stands make their own syrup from recipes they have concocted, while others just use the ones they buy from Sno-wizard.
The Reviews:
After visiting a total of 6 stands and some more than once, I can't say I am an expert but I definitely am on my way to being one.
Hansen's
Location:4801 Tchoupitoulas Street
Hours: Sunday-Monday = Closed
Tuesday - Saturday = 1pm - 7pm
Flavor: Nectar Creme
Name for a Snoball: Sno-blitz
Hansen's has the best ice and the best service. Ashley doesn't consider time nor the line out the door when making your sno-blitz. She shaves the ice, adds syrup, shaves some more ice, adds some more syrup until the cup is overflowing with ice and syrup. The entire place is like stepping back in time with the original sno-blitz machine still there. All of their syrups are made from scratch so you're guaranteed to have a one of a kind experience when you go in there. Just don't expect to be in and out the door really fast. The one complaint I have is I wish they would put a little more syrup in my cup. While I was eating my sno-blitz on the benches outside with a friend I had dragged along, he pointed out a man and said "that's one of the Neville Brothers". He was getting a sno-blitz. I guess you never know who you will see at a sno-blitz stand.
Sals Sno-ball Stand
Location: 1823 Metairie Rd. Metairie, LA
Phone Number: 504-666-1823
Hours: Mon- Sat = 11am-10:30pm
Sun = 2pm-10:30pm
I stretched my adventure out a little farther when I kept hearing about this little jewel in "Old Metairie". Sals Sno-ball stand is located on the oldest road in New Orleans, Metairie Road. Old Metairie is the oldest and most exclusive part of Metairie and used to have a streetcar line that ran from Metairie Road to Shrewsbury. Mr. Sal opened his sno-ball stand in 1960 in front of his house. The current building is the third building that has been in that location. Sals is the only snowball stand that I went to that had a parking lot, which was a nice change from having to find a random parking spot. I tried a strawberry snoball while I was there and decided to put it on my favorite list. The ice was finely sliced and they weren't stingy with their syrup. I suggest stopping by this stand and grabbing a snoball and eating it on one of their tree stumps. It was a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.
Williams Plum Street Snoballs
1300 Burdette Street
504-738-1899
sun-friday 2 to 8
saturday 12 to 8
Plum Street Snoballs is located close to my apartment so I am sure I will be frequenting here a bunch. They opened in 1945 and have since then become a New Orleans staple. It is a little shack that has two doors; one to enter and the other to exit. When picking out your snoball flavor you also need to decide what type of container you want it in, a cup or a chinese take out box. I suggest a cup if you don't want to get messy. But then again, what fun is that? All in all it was a good snoball, not my favorite, but not on my bad list either. A little disappointed considering it is one of the more famous ones. The experience does give it brownie points as it has a nice old timey feel to it. If you are in the area, I suggest trying it out.
Dixie Bee
5637 Magazine Street
504-891-3731
To add a little diversity to my list I decided to try out an Organic Snoball place across from Whole Foods. At first I questioned how in the world do you make a snoball organic? Do you make sure that your ice hasn't been made with pesticides? While they do use filtered water it has more to do with their syrups. Their syrups are made using brown rice sugar and agave instead of high-fruitious corn syrup. I tried a passionfruit. This was the first time I had seen this flavor and I will have to say that I was impressed. Unfortunately their syrup didn't make up for their horrible ice. It reminded me more of a snow cone than a snoball with its crunchy stuck together texture. I ended up with a half a cup of syrup and no ice. Maybe I'll ask for just their syrup next time and go down the road to another snowball stand and ask for just ice.
Pandora's Snowballs and Soft Serve Ice Cream
901 N. Carrolton Ave.
Pandora's is located in Mid-city a couple of blocks away from City Park. You walk up to one window and order and then you pick up your snoball at the next window. I stepped out of my strawberry comfort zone at Pandoras. I tried a ice-cream flavored snowball with condensed milk on top. I'm hooked. Condensed milk sounded disgusting at first, as did ice-cream flavor, but amazingly it was fantastic. Now, despite the amazing flavor Pandora needs to sharpen their blade as their ice was a tad bit crunchy. Everyone should take an ice lesson from Hansons.
Tee-Evas
5201 Magazine Street
504-899-8350
While Tee-Eva is definitely a character and has been featured on Food Network, she isn't the best snoball maker. Her ice was crunchy and more like a snow cone. It was probably the worst of all the snowballs I tried. In an effort to give her place another chance I bought a praline. I will have to say that Tee-Eva (short for Auntie Eva) can make one mean praline. The place has character, as does she and her can really bake. If you are going to stop by her place I would say skip the snowball and get a praline.
My journey isn't over. I am going to keep reviewing Sno-ball places. Every so often a post will be about a sno-ball stand. After all, some of the best places in New Orleans are the undiscovered ones.
What's all the fuss over a little Snow-Cone?
Perhaps one of the reasons they don't advertise Snoballs in those tourist commercials is because its hard to describe in a couple of seconds why Snoballs are different from Snow-cones. If you ask someone from New Orleans, the two are drastically different. Which, after my experiences, they are.
A Snow-cone has crunchy, crushed, stuck together ice that doesn't absorb the syrup. By the time you are halfway through your Snow-cone you are left with a bunch of white ice that you sucked the syrup out of. A Snoball, in contrast, is finely shaved ice that has a fluffy light texture. It is almost impossible to suck out the all the syrup. The syrup becomes one with the ice. I've heard numerous newcomers to the snoball world say, "I could eat a whole cup of this ice plain it's so good!".
Many places around New Orleans make their own homemade syrup and each place has a different trick to getting their ice just right. That's why I decided to go on a little adventure and review many of the famous snowball places throughout town. Before I go into that though, I think a history lesson may help you understand how culture is seeped into these Sno-balls just as culture is seeped into every other part of New Orleans specialties.
Who did What When?
The first patented snoball or rather "sno-blitz" machine was invented by Ernest Hansen in the Great Depression after seeing the unsanitary conditions of shaving the ice by hand with a metal hand-shaver. Hansen and his wife Mary then opened a snowball stand up on Tchoupitoulas Street. Their granddaughter Ashley now runs the store and still uses Mary's original secret syrup recipes. There are now four or five different snowball machines types around the New Orleans.
So what Makes one snoball better than the next?
There are a couple contributing factors when determining which stand ranks higher than the next: syrup recipe, the sharpness of the blade on the snoball machine, how the snowball is prepared and the over-all experience. The sharpness of the blade on the machine is what determines the overall "fluffiness" of the ice. If you have a dull blade you will have crunchy ice, which is the ultimate no-no. Also many stands make their own syrup from recipes they have concocted, while others just use the ones they buy from Sno-wizard.
The Reviews:
After visiting a total of 6 stands and some more than once, I can't say I am an expert but I definitely am on my way to being one.
Hansen's
Location:4801 Tchoupitoulas Street
Hours: Sunday-Monday = Closed
Tuesday - Saturday = 1pm - 7pm
Flavor: Nectar Creme
Name for a Snoball: Sno-blitz
Hansen's has the best ice and the best service. Ashley doesn't consider time nor the line out the door when making your sno-blitz. She shaves the ice, adds syrup, shaves some more ice, adds some more syrup until the cup is overflowing with ice and syrup. The entire place is like stepping back in time with the original sno-blitz machine still there. All of their syrups are made from scratch so you're guaranteed to have a one of a kind experience when you go in there. Just don't expect to be in and out the door really fast. The one complaint I have is I wish they would put a little more syrup in my cup. While I was eating my sno-blitz on the benches outside with a friend I had dragged along, he pointed out a man and said "that's one of the Neville Brothers". He was getting a sno-blitz. I guess you never know who you will see at a sno-blitz stand.
Sals Sno-ball Stand
Location: 1823 Metairie Rd. Metairie, LA
Phone Number: 504-666-1823
Hours: Mon- Sat = 11am-10:30pm
Sun = 2pm-10:30pm
I stretched my adventure out a little farther when I kept hearing about this little jewel in "Old Metairie". Sals Sno-ball stand is located on the oldest road in New Orleans, Metairie Road. Old Metairie is the oldest and most exclusive part of Metairie and used to have a streetcar line that ran from Metairie Road to Shrewsbury. Mr. Sal opened his sno-ball stand in 1960 in front of his house. The current building is the third building that has been in that location. Sals is the only snowball stand that I went to that had a parking lot, which was a nice change from having to find a random parking spot. I tried a strawberry snoball while I was there and decided to put it on my favorite list. The ice was finely sliced and they weren't stingy with their syrup. I suggest stopping by this stand and grabbing a snoball and eating it on one of their tree stumps. It was a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.
Williams Plum Street Snoballs
1300 Burdette Street
504-738-1899
sun-friday 2 to 8
saturday 12 to 8
Plum Street Snoballs is located close to my apartment so I am sure I will be frequenting here a bunch. They opened in 1945 and have since then become a New Orleans staple. It is a little shack that has two doors; one to enter and the other to exit. When picking out your snoball flavor you also need to decide what type of container you want it in, a cup or a chinese take out box. I suggest a cup if you don't want to get messy. But then again, what fun is that? All in all it was a good snoball, not my favorite, but not on my bad list either. A little disappointed considering it is one of the more famous ones. The experience does give it brownie points as it has a nice old timey feel to it. If you are in the area, I suggest trying it out.
Dixie Bee
5637 Magazine Street
504-891-3731
To add a little diversity to my list I decided to try out an Organic Snoball place across from Whole Foods. At first I questioned how in the world do you make a snoball organic? Do you make sure that your ice hasn't been made with pesticides? While they do use filtered water it has more to do with their syrups. Their syrups are made using brown rice sugar and agave instead of high-fruitious corn syrup. I tried a passionfruit. This was the first time I had seen this flavor and I will have to say that I was impressed. Unfortunately their syrup didn't make up for their horrible ice. It reminded me more of a snow cone than a snoball with its crunchy stuck together texture. I ended up with a half a cup of syrup and no ice. Maybe I'll ask for just their syrup next time and go down the road to another snowball stand and ask for just ice.
Pandora's Snowballs and Soft Serve Ice Cream
901 N. Carrolton Ave.
Pandora's is located in Mid-city a couple of blocks away from City Park. You walk up to one window and order and then you pick up your snoball at the next window. I stepped out of my strawberry comfort zone at Pandoras. I tried a ice-cream flavored snowball with condensed milk on top. I'm hooked. Condensed milk sounded disgusting at first, as did ice-cream flavor, but amazingly it was fantastic. Now, despite the amazing flavor Pandora needs to sharpen their blade as their ice was a tad bit crunchy. Everyone should take an ice lesson from Hansons.
Tee-Evas
5201 Magazine Street
504-899-8350
While Tee-Eva is definitely a character and has been featured on Food Network, she isn't the best snoball maker. Her ice was crunchy and more like a snow cone. It was probably the worst of all the snowballs I tried. In an effort to give her place another chance I bought a praline. I will have to say that Tee-Eva (short for Auntie Eva) can make one mean praline. The place has character, as does she and her can really bake. If you are going to stop by her place I would say skip the snowball and get a praline.
My journey isn't over. I am going to keep reviewing Sno-ball places. Every so often a post will be about a sno-ball stand. After all, some of the best places in New Orleans are the undiscovered ones.
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