First off I want to mention that I’m guest posting today over at the SNAP Blog, and if you’re a blogger, you’ll definitely want to read my post.
Okay, now this story begins back at Mother’s Day, when our friend Dr. Debbie got the sweetest Mother’s Day gift — a shaved ice machine. We’re not talking about a little, hand-crank, snow cone maker, but a totally legit, industrial-size ice shaver. To a pregnant lady craving snow cones daily, I was immediately struck with envy. So I did what I always do when I want something — I searched for it on Amazon.com. Amazon sells EVERYTHING right? Right!
There before my eyes was the Great Northern Premium Quality Ice Cub Commercial Ice Shaver. I immediately sent the link to my darling husband and requested one for my birthday. Gratefully he came through, and our Phoenix summer was much cooler as we enjoyed snow cones pretty much daily all summer long.
Well it seems a shame to keep such a good thing to ourselves, so last Saturday we invited all our family and friends over for a Shave Ice Party! I had a lot of fun creating a few details to make the party special. Naturally we’d need to tape up in our kitchen a big menu poster showing all the shaved ice flavors available. I printed it as a 24×36-inch, large-format, black-and-white engineering print at Staples for just a few dollars.
It’s so hard for me to pick a favorite flavor — I really love them all — but the Caramel Apple with real caramel drizzled on was a definite crowd pleaser. Having good syrup is a must, and I did a lot of research before finally buying our shave ice flavors as concentrates from ShaveIceSupplies.com. I mix the concentrates with homemade simple syrup (a one-to-one mixture of water and sugar boiled on the stove), and this is far more cost effective. These flavors are really yummy, and our guests were raving about them.
Shave Ice connoisseurs know that cream on top is a must! Sorry I don’t have a photo of our cute, cream bottle, but I will tell you that we make our Sweet Cream topping by mixing fat-free, sweetened condensed milk with half and half at a one-to-one ratio.
Superdad built a little, wooden crate to hold all our shaved ice flavor syrups. I painted it using a cut vinyl stencil — this project is totally inspired by vintage soda bottle crates, which I love. I designed coordinating labels for our flavor bottles and printed them out on normal paper. Then I used the Xyron Machine fitted with a Laminate/Permanent Adhesive cartridge to turn them into water-resistant labels.
One of my favorite Shave Ice shops (that is sadly located on the other side of town) has color-changing spoons. I found them for our party, also on Amazon of course!
I set out a dispenser filled with ice water and some salty popcorn for guests so they could clear their palettes in between cups of shave ice.
Now what I really want to know, what Shaved Ice flavor would you order?
:: Download free printable Shave Ice Flavor Syrup Labels
:: Download free printable Shave Ice Flavor Menu Poster
Love. Love. LOVE this party. Fantastic job with all the details. Now I’m going to need to get all these same labels and box for our shave ice parties! Well done.
Suuuuper cute. Already making my list of flavors to get.
So fun! I love this!
Thanks so much for sharing! Where did you purchase the bottles?