Shaved ice is a popular treat all over the world. Authentic shaved ice originated in Hawaii, where the locals called it shave ice. Generally, people use either moniker interchangeably to refer to this delicious and refreshing treat.

Shave ice is not, however, the same as a snow cone. Snow cones are made from ground ice, which comes in relatively small, hard chunks. If people have any complaint with snow cones, it is that the flavor always sinks to the bottom, which means that you're only getting a tiny hint of it with large mouthfuls of ice from the top of your cone.

Shaved ice is so fine that the flavor is absorbed directly into the ice. You get to enjoy flavor evenly distributed throughout the entire cup or cone. There's no crunching involved, either--shaved ice just melts in your mouth. People with sensitive teeth invariably prefer shaved ice to a snow cone's little ice chunks.

Delicious Shaved Ice Flavors

The flavors of good shaved ice are totally true to life, and always fresh. Unlike the syrups used by many carnival stands which may have been sitting around in a vat for months, shaved ice flavors are shipped dry, and aren't turned to liquid until the dealer is ready to use them. This makes the flavor much more vibrant and rich, and also easy to mix if you want to try creative flavor combinations.

There are a tremendous variety of flavors for shaved ice. Some dealers mix and combine flavors to offer as many as 80 different options. In addition to the tried and true standards like grape, strawberry, cherry, watermelon, and lemon, there are exotic options like pina colada, tamarind, guava, tangerine, or honeydew.

Starting a Shaved Ice Business

If you are thinking of starting a shaved ice business, it's surprisingly easy to begin. Overhead can be extremely low, especially if you want to operate from a mobile cart. You can also see if you might be able to set up somewhere within a local mall, multiplex, or business. That way you'll have maximum customer traffic coming by, and anyone who comes to try shaved ice once is almost guaranteed to come back repeatedly.

You could turn significant profits from a small shaved ice business within a very short period of time. Because the overhead is so low, you won't be paying off equipment purchases for the first few years, and you won't have to hire many employees, if any. Some people choose to run their shaved ice business alone or with one partner. Others realize that fairly soon they can hire local students to take over some of the hours when they want to do something else. You can even consider running a shaved ice business on the side or running it seasonally if you have another job or if you want to spend a fair amount of time home with your kids or on a personal project.

Shaved ice doesn't just appeal to children, though that's certainly a market for which it's easy to advertise. Some of the exotic and sophisticated flavors appeal just as easily to adults as flavors like bubblegum do to kids. If you're running the business, you'll have lots of little choices to make, like what kinds of cups or cones to use, what kinds of utensils or straws to offer, and so forth. If you want to appeal to more upscale clientele, you can get more upscale trappings and accessories, while you can offer fun options if you're expecting to sell mostly to kids and families. If you want to be your own boss and turn a small investment into a successful small business, a shaved ice concession may be a great option for you.