What's Water Ice?

In my last post, I shared a piece of Philadelphia that I've come to love. I also mentioned another thing that I loved, water ice. Not being from the Philly area, or the US,

Mel said...
Ok, now I'm curious - what is water ice? I thought it was an ice skating rink you liked to go to! Please help a poor English girl out...


So Mel, this is for you!

Water Ice, from what I understand, is the Philly regional equivalent of Italian Ice. Being from NY, I knew what Italian Ice was. It usually came in little waxy paper cups accompanied by a wooden scraper-like spoon. Sometimes, you could get it from a street cart where they would scoop it out of a tub into an accordian pleated paper cup. Cherry was always a favorite. I remembered Italian Ice being rather firm and totally frozen - that's why you needed the scraper. And the syrupy flavoring was always concentrated and frozen to the bottom of the cup making it the best part!

But Water Ice is not quite like that. It's more like a combination of Italian Ice mixed with a snow cone that's been blended into a smooth, semi-frozen slush. It's not like a smoothie (unless you get it mixed with custard ice cream) and, unlike a snow cone, you can't really suck out the flavoring and get left with a cup full of plain ice chips. And you don't need a scraper to get at it. Your cup of water ice comes with either a regular plastic spoon or you can suck it up through a straw. In the picture below, the water ice is in the cup with the orange colored slush.

Rita's is one of the most popular franchises of water ice, but there are many others, including one of my favorites, Philly Flavors (and also less expensive than Rita's). Most water ice establishments have a wide range of flavors from the usual, like lemon, cherry and grape to ones that are a little more exotic, like passion fruit (my absolute favorite!), mango (my second favorite), and kiwi-strawberry. Rita's also takes flavors usually associated with ice cream and turns them into water ice, like chocolate, cappucino and cookies and cream. I'm not fond of those as, IMHO, they taste like watery ice cream.

Now, this is the funny thing. Most water ice places are closed during the winter. They usually shut their doors around early November and don't reopen until around March. Apparently, business is brisk enough during the warm months to make up for it. On any given summer night, be prepared to stand in line for at least 10-15 minutes to get your cup.

Which reminds me, March is right around the corner and Rita's has a season opening special for the day - All their establishments give away a free regular sized cup, just name your flavor. Opening day is March 21 - go early, go often!