Ice Temperature

This is an excerpt from 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com's COLD CASH business manual. If you would like to receive a copy of the complete manual, please visit the website and request your free copy. It's full of great insights and helpful information for anyone who owns a shaved ice/snow cone business or is considering the purchase of one!

Ice Temperature (for shaved ice businesses only)

For block shaved ice shavers the temperature of your bock ice can make or break your shaved ice business. Block ice that is too cold when shaved will not stick together. Ice that is too warm will create a clumpy mess. Either way, you will not get ideal results if your ice is not at the proper temperature.

To solve this problem you can “temper” or “warm up” your ice blocks in order to get the correct ice consistency. Tempering allows the ice to reach the ideal shaving temperature of 18 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. To temper your ice, simply remove an ice block from the freezer about 25 to 30 minutes before you need it for shaving. You can place your block ice in 5 gallon buckets or restaurant bus trays during the tempering process. Once the ice block begins to melt on the outside surfaces, simply place the block into chest type ice coolers (48 or 60 quart coolers works best) in order to maintain the temperature. This sweating or melting of the ice blocks will be your signal that that ice has reached the tempered stage. If for some reason your block ice gets too warm either during the tempering process or while in the coolers, the ice will become clumpy and will not hold flavor well. If this happens, simply place the ice back into the freezer to refreeze.

One tip that will help with tempering is to adjust the temperature of your block ice storage freezer as close to 18 to 20 degrees as you can. Simply place a freezer thermometer inside your freezer to determine the temperature setting. Allow 24 hours to pass for each temperature adjustment before taking your readings.

Tempering ice will take some practice. Depending on how busy your business is, you will need to adjust how many ice blocks are tempered at one time. You will also need to get a feel for how often you need to replenish your tempered blocks. Remember, if you temper too many blocks at one time you can always refreeze them.

For shaved ice and snow cone machines that use cube ice, tempering is not necessary.