Trinidad and Tobago
Sno Cone

What is Sno Cone? Sno Cone is a refreshing treat similar to ice cream with ice shavings and fruit syrup.The Sno Cone vendors, in Trinidad and Tobago, have a special ice shaving machine so they purchase a large block of ice from the ice factory and place it in the ice shaving machine. This machine will then grind the ice down to ice shavings which is collected into a freezer compartment of the machine. The ice shavings retains it format for hours in this compartment.

The syrup is specially made from a variety of fruit example guava. The vendor can be very creative with his/her syrups and they can also be purchased readymade. They are kept in a gallon size plastic container with a pump at the opening of the container. Now a special treat all vendors must have is condensed milk!!

Now to the serving, most vendors have their equipment and materials for sale on a trolley so they can move from one area to another. Their product is very popular during the carnival season when everyone is hot and need a cold beverage. This treat is a big seller. Another great event that it is a popular seller is during the Kiddies Carnival festival.

How is it served: Another piece of item that the vendor must have is a paper cone which is used to place the ice shavings in. The vendor scoops up a few portions of ice shavings and places them into the paper cone and neatly shapes the top into a nice curve (the spoon that is used allows the vendor to make this curve quite easily). Next they would pump some of the syrup onto the shavings. Now most vendors may have two or more syrup to choose from so what some people do is have the vendor put two syrup portions on the ice shavings. The vendor will then pump some red syrup on half of the top of the sno cone and another type of syrup (most of the time it is either yellow or orange in color) on the other top half of the sno cone (you could imagine how attractive this looks). Final ingredient, top that with some condense milk. Personally I never chose the condense milk because it make my sno cone too sweet for my liking. Some people say that the condense milk is like icening on the cake. The vendor will then place a straw into the ice.

How to eat a sno cone? Well the first thing we do is to drink some of the syrup by pulling on the straw. Remember the weather is hot so the ice would melt quickly so the syrup would be diluted. Then we would keep on munching on the ice while trying to break up the ice in the cone with the straw and drinking the syrup. Sno Cone is quite yummy and refreshing when the weather is hot. So next time you see a sno cone vendor remember to stop and have one. Do not forget ask for the condense milk!