Summer sno – Tiger blood, tootsie rolls and pickles? Check out these unique snowball flavors

Each day, the temperatures are getting a little hotter. Sure, it’s been raining now and then, but the heat is enough to make you sweat during the five-step walk to your car. Luckily for Baton Rougeans, there are a number of choices for snoball stands to cool you down.

At most stands around Baton Rouge, you can never go wrong with the classic flavors. Becky Brill of Ninja Snowballs says she usually has customers who go for a grape or strawberry snoball. “With adults, they’ll pick something they’ve had since childhood,” Brill says. “The kids love trying different stuff.”

While you can get a run-of-the-mill flavor, you’re bound to find at least one unique flavor at a snoball stand.

Brill’s stand exclusively does events now, but she is expanding her flavor selection. Among the choices at Ninja Snowballs are Tiger Blood, a mix of watermelon, coconut and strawberry; Kiwi Strapple, which features strawberry, kiwi and sour apple; and King Cake, which she says tastes like a big cinnamon roll. She has also made a Fruit Roll-Up flavor, made from blueberry and banana mixes.

“I’m trying to branch out and implement more specials,” she says. “I haven’t had any bad reviews yet.”
Gresse’s specialty flavors include Frog in a Blender, a mixture of kiwi and Tiger Blood (strawberry and coconut); Polar Punch, which he says tastes like a blue freeze pop; and a Tootsie Roll snoball.

“A lot of the flavors we come up with are through trial and error,” Gresse says. “We don’t go by a book. We’re in the shop and see what we can come up with.”

Snoman has two locations—9534 Burbank Dr. (Map it!) and in the Acadian Village Shopping Center at the intersection of Perkins Road and Acadian Thruway. The stands are open seven days a week, noon-8 p.m.

Gresse says he’s working on opening a third location in the Tiger Bend area that should be launching in February 2014.

Debbie Nelson has been in business with Cool Tiger Ice for a decade, and runs a stand on Christian Street near Duvic’s and Chelsea’s Café. In her career as a snoball stand owner, she has learned to perfect different flavors.

“Each year, we try to kick it up a notch,” Nelson says.

Some of Cool Tiger Ice’s flavors include a Jamaican Punch; Almond Joy with coconut and wedding cake flavors; a Banana’s Foster with bananas, pralines and ice cream; and a Butterfinger candy bar flavor.
Perhaps the coolest of her flavors are the customized fan flavors.

“Customers will say, ‘I wonder if this and this taste good together,’ and if it’s good, I let them name it,” she says. “Then, we put it on the menu. We probably have more than 40 flavors. You get bored with the typical everyday stuff.”

Cool Tiger Ice is open seven days a week, 1 p.m.-6 p.m.

On the other side of town, Lag’s Snowballs has 80 flavors, including Chocolate Cherry Bomb, Fresh Squeezed Lemonade, and Pickle Juice. You wouldn’t be surprised to learn that last flavor is made with real pickle juice.
Lag’s (Map it!) is open 1:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and 1 p.m.-5 p.m. on Sundays.

Do you have a favorite unique flavor from a local snoball stand? Tell us about it below.