Since 1934 Sno-balls in Louisiana are similar to what the rest of the country calls shaved ice or snow cones. Before the 1930s ice was manually scraped from a block of ice, producing a coarser, crunchier version of the sno-ball. A sno-ball is a New Orleans confection made from blocks of ice transformed into mounds of delicate snow-like flakes then flavored with cane sugar syrup. Commonly confused with shaved ice or snow cones, the ice of a sno-ball is fine and fluffy; while shaved ice or snow cone’s ice is coarse, crunchy, and granular. Moreover, in shaved ice & snow cone’s the flavored syrup sinks to the bottom of the cup; while in a sno-ball the ice absorbs the syrup. Most of the retail “sno-ball” outlets in Louisiana spell the name of their product sno-balls without the w. This spelling identifies the product to all New Orleanians and indicates an ethnic heritage to the long-standing tradition. This spelling further separates the sno-ball from the chipped ice of a snow cone or shaved ice.
