Snowballs

When the temperatures reach into the 90s and the humidity feels like a slap in the face with a wet blanket, nothing cools me down like a snowball. After a couple spoonfuls of icy sweetness, my body temperature goes down enough that I can be fooled into thinking that the air around me is actually cool and breezy. Of course, that sensation disappears immediately after the last bite, when I'm once again plunged into the sticky steaminess of summer.

For those outside the Baltimore area, a snowball (pronounced "snaebaw" by many locals) is a cup of finely shaved ice doused in sweet flavored syrup and garnished with either gooey marshmallow sauce or ice cream. My favorite flavors were always egg custard, spearmint, and strawberry, with vanilla ice cream on the bottom, please. Mr Minx is an egg custard kinda guy, too, but he prefers his topped with marshmallow. Different strokes.

KoldKiss is the most popular brand of syrup in the area, and their flavors run the gamut from apricot to kiwi to a mysterious flavor known as "skylite." When we were kids, we heard that it was a licorice flavor, and it mystified us that it would be so popular since what kid likes black licorice? Now we hear it's a blue raspberry. Nevertheless, we've never tried skylite and probably won't be trying it any time soon - we're far too old to be walking around with blue teeth.

What's your favorite snowball flavor and why?



Posted on Minxeats.com.