Hansen's Sno-Bliz is a

snowball A snowball is a sphere, spherical object made from snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands and pressing the snow together to compact it into a ball. Snowballs are often used in games such as snowball fights. A snowball may also be ...

stand located in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, U.S.A., on Tchoupitoulas Street at Bordeaux Street. It opened in 1934 and is believed to be the oldest

sno-ball A sno-ball is a confection made with finely shaved ice and flavored sugar syrup. Commonly confused with the snow cone, the ice of a sno-ball is fine and fluffy; while a snow cone's ice is coarse, crunchy, and granular. Moreover, whereas in ...

stand in the United States using Ernest Hansen's hand crafted Electric machine. Although earlier, Walther Gardens (Baltimore, 1928) uses a hand crank or hand shaver. Hansen's Sno-Bliz has been operated continuously by the Hansen family. After

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

and the subsequent death of founders Ernest and Mary Hansen, the shop closed for some time before being reopened by their granddaughter Ashley Hansen, in early summer of 2006. The shop is open annually from March to October. In 2014, Hansen's received an

America's Classics Since 1998, the James Beard Foundation has awarded the title of America's Classics to multiple restaurants. The award focuses on family-owned restaurants across the country that have been operating for at least a decade. According to the ''Washin ...

award at the

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

Sno-ball A sno-ball is a confection made with finely shaved ice and flavored sugar syrup. Commonly confused with the snow cone, the ice of a sno-ball is fine and fluffy; while a snow cone's ice is coarse, crunchy, and granular. Moreover, whereas in ...

s in Louisiana are similar to what the rest of the country calls

snow cone A snow cone (or snow kone, sno kone, sno-kone, sno cone, or sno-cone) is a ground-up ice dessert commonly served in paper cones or foam cups. This is not to be confused with shaved ice which shaves a thin layer of ice off an ice block instea ...

s, but they are made with more-finely-shaved ice and a large variety of homemade syrups.

The Ice Shaving Machine

Ernest Hansen built Hansen's ice-shaving machine himself, entitled the "Sno-Bliz" in the 1930s. It was the first ever block-ice shaver. The U.S. government granted the patent in 1950. The machine currently in use today was built by Ernest Hansen in 1939.

References

External links

Official website

Review of Hansen's Sno-Bliz at Roadfood.com

"Let It Sno: The Torch Is Passed for an Icy New Orleans Tradition"
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Gambit A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage. The word '' gambit'' is also sometimes used to describe si ...

'', May 30, 2006, archived by the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

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{{coord, 29.9169, -90.1059, type:landmark_region:US-LA, display=title Restaurants in New Orleans Uptown New Orleans Restaurants established in 1934 America's Classics winners 1934 establishments in Louisiana