A slushy (also spelled slushie and less commonly slushee) is a type of

beverage A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoo ...

made of flavored ice and a drink, similar to granitas but with a more liquid composition. It is also commonly called a slush, a slurpee, frozen beverage, or frozen drink. A slushie can either be carbonated or non-carbonated; the carbonated version is sometimes called a frozen carbonated drink or frozen carbonated beverage.

History

The first carbonated slushie machine was invented by

Omar Knedlik Omar S. Knedlik (December 21, 1916 – March 14, 1989) was an American inventor and businessman. He was best known as the inventor of the ICEE frozen drink. He was born and raised a poor farm boy in Barnes, Kansas in 1916. Knedlik was a World Wa ...

, the owner of a Dairy Queen franchise. In the late 1950s, the soda machine at his restaurant experienced constant issues. Sometime in 1958, his machine completely failed and he decided to store his soda in his freezer, where it became slushy when pulled out. He decided to sell the slush to his customers, and the drink soon became popular. Knedlik decided to pursue making slushies and commissioned Ruth Taylor to create the name and logo of The Icee Company. These early machines used an automotive air conditioning system and worked by combining and freezing a flavor mix, water, and carbon dioxide. In 1960, Knedlik partnered with John Mitchell to mass produce slushy machines, gaining a patent in 1962. In 1965,

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

bought 3 ICEE machines and signed a licensing deal with ICEE where 7-Eleven would adopt the

Slurpee Slurpee is the brand name for carbonated slushies sold by 7-Eleven and its subsidiaries A-Plus and Speedway. The brand first originated in 1966 when 7-Eleven made a licensing deal with The Icee Company to sell slushies in 7-Eleven stores. ...

name for their products and they were restricted to selling the Slurpee in American 7-Eleven stores. By the 1970s, Slurpee machines could be found in every American 7-Eleven store.

Variations

Slushies are either carbonated or non-carbonated. They can also come in a variety of flavors ranging from

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

s such as

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

, watermelon, and

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

s, to sodas such as

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...

, Sprite, and

Fanta Fanta is an American-owned German brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as ...

, and other flavors like

caramel Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of carameli ...

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus '' Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from whic ...

, and even ice coffee. Slushies made using alcoholic drinks are called frozen alcoholic drinks.

Production

Carbonated slushies are made in machines similar to regular soda fountains. Concentrated flavor syrups are mixed with filtered water, then carbonated. This mixture is then injected into a cylinder surrounded by freezer coils. The mixture freezes to the wall of the cylinder, then is scraped off by a rotating dasher, which also keeps the mixture uniformly mixed. Carbonated slushie machines often freeze to a temperature well below the freezing point of water, but the combination of pressure up to , sugar, the carbon dioxide mixture that freezes , and the constant stirring prevent the mass from freezing solid. Carbonated slushies tend to be "drier" than their non-carbonated counterparts. Non-carbonated slushies are made by freezing a non-carbonated

juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...

or other liquid. Many modern non-carbonated slushy machines use a spiral-shaped plastic dasher to scrape crystals off a freezing cylinder, often integrated into a clear hopper. This product is often "wetter" than a carbonated slushy machine. Machines for producing these do not require a

pressure chamber A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure. Construction methods and materials may be chosen to suit the pressure application, and will depend on the size ...

, and as a result, they are much cheaper and easier to maintain due to their simpler mechanics. Slushies can also be produced by

supercooling Supercooling, also known as undercooling, is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid or a gas below its melting point without it becoming a solid. It achieves this in the absence of a seed crystal or nucleus around which a crystal ...

. The first slushies in the late 1950s and early 1960s were made by supercooling. Supercooled Sprite was briefly marketed by

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The product required a special vending machine to store the bottles in a supercooled state so they would turn to slush upon opening. Supercooled slushies can be made by pouring a soda into a bottle, shaking it and putting it into a freezer, waiting 3 to 3.5 hours, and then either releasing pressure and flipping the bottle, slowly opening the bottle and pouring it out, or adding a piece of ice into the soda.

Temperature

Slush is made by a mixture of sugar and water. To prevent the mixture from freezing solid, there must be between 12%-22% of sugar present in the

solution Solution may refer to: * Solution (chemistry), a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another * Solution (equation), in mathematics ** Numerical solution, in numerical analysis, approximate solutions within specified error bounds * Solutio ...

. The sugar acts as an antifreeze in the solution. The slush machine stirs or rotates the mixture at a constant speed so that the sugar and water molecules bond together before the water gets a chance to freeze. In this way, a soft, wet slurry mixture is formed. Some slushies have additives to make the freezing temperature of the mix lower, so that the drink can be served much colder than a water slush drink.

Brands

There are several well-known brands of slushies. The brands

, ICEE, Thirst Buster, and

Froster Froster is a brand of iced frozen carbonated beverage (however, not pressurized, still carbonated in Canada) sold at Circle K in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Lithuania Marketing In 2006, a Froster advertising campaign was run that fea ...

are known for their carbonated slushes. Brands that produce non-carbonated slushes include

Slush Puppie Slush Puppie (stylized as SLUSH PUPPiE) is a slush beverage created in 1970, and marketed both directly by the Slush Puppie division of J&J Snack Foods, and through its Slush Puppie distributors in the United States. A Slush Puppie has two major ...

and

Del's Del's is a brand of frozen lemonade typically found in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts during the summer months. Del's lemonade is available in 20 states. Frozen lemonade is a kind of slush. It is made from water, concentrate, and ...

References