Laura McDavitt, Manager, Cool Tiger Ice Sno-Balls

A car pulls up to one of the few drive-through sno-ball stands in Louisiana and Laura McDavitt springs into action. She peers out and asks, “What can we getcha?” The answer is rarely the same. Cool Tiger Ice patrons sometimes go for vintage sno-ball flavors like nectar or orchid. They like bright green spearmint or the sour apple-strawberry combo Frog-in-the-Blender, FIB for short. Margarita sno-balls are on the menu, and they even come with a shake of salt. Strawberry is universally popular, but why stop there? Many customers order it doozied up with squirts of condensed milk between the syrup-soaked ice. And hard-core enthusiasts know to ask for this stand’s homemade off-menu flavors like creamy chocolate and sweet-and-sour Jamaican Punch.

“We take sno-balls pretty seriously around here,” says McDavitt.

Cool Tiger Ice is the brainchild of owner Debbie Nelson, who believed she could make a living from a year-round sno-ball operation that went beyond a summer shack. Stretched over four rented parking spaces in the Acadian Village Shopping Center at Perkins Road and Acadian Thruway, the bright yellow sno-ball trailer has amassed a loyal following. Especially in summer months, cars form a steady line, while McDavitt and Nelson work quickly to meet orders.

They fill Stryofoam cups to overflowing with flakes of shaved ice from a specialty ice machine that’s been loaded with custom blocks of ice from Abbeville, La. As it flies into the cup, the shaved ice is packed down with a funnel to give it its characteristic conehead top. This is no ordinary funnel. It has a series of strategically placed holes through which McDavitt and Nelson slide straws, making highways in the fluffy ice for the sweet, sticky flavored syrup to travel deep and wide.

McDavitt likes to color-coordinate the requisite straw-spoon combo to the shade of the sno-ball itself. “Here, it’s about the entire experience,” she says.

Yes, it is.