re: Cantore is posting up around the corner from me.

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I was eating Plum St snowballs in 1947

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on borreauxed time Baw

Friend,

I was at the grand opening of Creole Creamery in I believe it was April of 2004. I have finished the Tchoup Challenge four times, anonymously, refusing to have my name included on the list. I used to get a milkshake there biweekly. Even as a fan, I will ardently disagree that CC is better than a good sno-ball, not snowball. While the original snowballs of New Orleans, dating back to the 1910s were in fact called snowballs, these are not what one finds in the city today. The old snowballs were hand scraped, coarse, and without the fluff that makes a sno-ball a sno-ball.

In the 1920s someone invented the first snowball machine, but the hand scrappers were still more popular. This was in the days when snowballs were sold from "snowball push wagons" outfitted with ice chests to store the ice before being shaved to order. I have searched Grandfather's and Great Grandfather's photograph archives and have not been able to track down such a photo.

By 1925, an entire industry of snowball syrup was roaring. Both commercially and for personal use, patrons bought quarts of flavored syrups, including pineapple, peach, and strawberry, and of course, spearmint. A quart would run about 30 cents. Seven ounce containers ran eight cents.

Baumer's Foods, the same company that manufactures Crystal Hot Sauce, played an important role in the early commercialization of the snowball syrups. Alvin Baumer arrived in New Orleans having recently bought Mill's Fruit Products. I know next to nothing about this company, but they were one of the first commercial manufacturers of snowball syrup. Baumer did well making these syrups, but legend has it that in the early 1920s, while going through a desk drawer at the old Mill's office on Tchoupitoulas, he found a recipe for "Crystal Pure." He made a batch, and from that point on hot sauce, not syrup, became Baumer's focus.

Making snowballs at home became a New Orleans thing. Gift packages consisting of an ice scraper and fancy footed glasses for the concoctions were sold in department and hardware stores. Baumer's sold its syrup to pharmacies who sold the syrup to the public.

The first actual snowball stand likely was in a gas station, Nick's Gas Station on Banks Street in Mid-City. It used a machine, but this machine, again, did not make snow quite as fine as that found in the sno-ball.

By 1926, the term snowball scraper no longer referred to a tool to shave the ice. Snowball scrapers were now the title given to the people who scraped the ice with the scraper. Next time you visit a sno-ball stand, perhaps compliment the worker with a kind thought: "You are my favorite sno-ball scraper." They were the Roaring 20s and money seemed plentiful. The average cost of a snowball was five cents in the early 20s. By the late 20s it was 20 cents. A snowball machine, now sometimes referred to as a grinder, could be had on the used market for $12.

Unfortunately, the snowball stand of the 1920s was akin to the convenience store of later years. It was not unusual to hear of robberies from these stands and carts. Often times, it seems some of the violence was a result of racial animosity, as many of the scrapers were Black.


Yours,
TulaneLSU

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the absolute state

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