Great Tasting Smoothie Mixes

In addition to selling a great smoothie blender, HawaiianShavedIce.com now offers smoothie mixes too. THESE TASTE AWESOME!!!

Our Hawaiian Smoothie Mixes come in 3 great flavors: Strawberry Banana, Tropical Mango, and Peach Berry. These delicious smoothie mixes are ready-to-mix and come in shelf-stable, mylar pouches. They are also made with real fruit puree and concentrate. One pouch makes three 8 ounce servings. After trying our Hawaiian Smoothie Mixes you will kiss your local smoothie bar goodbye! Each 8 oz. serving contains the following daily allowances: 100% of vitamin C, 50% of vitamin A, and 50% of vitamin E. When properly mixed, the your smoothie will contain 25% juice.

Order today and enjoy refreshing, healthy smoothies at home all summer long!

End of the School Year Gift

The kids are just about done with another school year. Did your kids finish well? If so, reward their hard work with a gift that will bring enjoyment to them all summer long! HawaiianShavedIce.com has a great little dual snow cone machine that is now on sale (a $25 savings)!

Make one or two snow cones at a time with the Dual Snow Cone Machine. This easy-to-use and child-safe snow cone machine uses regular ice cubes. It's great for making snow cones, slushies, and other healthy frozen treats.

Included with the Dual Snow Cone Machine is a removable two-cup holder that keeps the snow cone cups in place, and two built in syrup pump bottles.

If you want, we can create a complete package for you by combining this machine along with syrups and other supplies that will ensure enjoyment all summer long!

Smoothie Blender - A Tool for Refreshment!

Our new Smoothie Blender turns cool, fresh ingredients into smoothies quickly and cleanly. Save money by making your own smoothies at home for less money than your local smoothie bar. This powerful, easy to use machine will pay for itself in a matter of days.

Easy measuring marks help you create the perfect blend of frozen and liquid ingredients for making two or four servings. The patented design of the smoothie-specific stir stick, dispenser valve, and 500-watt pulse power motor turn smoothie making into family fun. It also comes complete with instructions and a recipe booklet.

Order now and save $10 during our summer sale!

Giving Back

It's always nice to find ways to give back to your community through your business. One of the ways that 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com, HawaiianShavedIce.com, and CottonCandyExpress.com gives back to our local community is through a summer program called Newton Grove Movie Nights (www.NGMovieNight.com). The movie nights are held in a local park where we bring in a large, inflatable projection screen and show a movie for free. Concessions (popcorn, snow cones, and drinks) are free to children under 18 and adults must pay for their snacks and drinks.

The first movie night occurred just about two weeks ago. We had over 400 people come out and enjoy Adam Sandler's movie "Bedtime Stories". We also made a ton of snow cones and gave out hundreds of bags of popcorn.



We look forward to the next movie night. We enjoy being able to give back in a this way to the community and people who have purchased our products over the years.

We encourage you to find some creative way to use your business to be able to give back in some capacity to your community. There are many different opportunities to get involved in fundraising for local sports teams, or other good organizations such as Boys and Girls Club, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts...the list goes on. If you are already involved in giving back to your community, please let us know about it. We would enjoy knowing how other businesses engage in giving back.

Thanks!

So Many Flavors...What's the Best for Your Stand?

There are so many delicious shaved ice flavors out there. 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com has over 75 delicious award winning flavors. But, which flavors are the ones that customers consistently order? Well, at 1-800-Shaved-Ice.com, we have created our Top 24 Flavors List to answer that question for you!

If you're a stand owner, you should always have these popular, mouth watering flavors available:

1. Cherry: Rich Cherry Flavor. A top five seller. (dark red)
2. Grape: REAL Grape Flavor. (dark purple)
3. Blue Raspberry: Similar to our regular Raspberry, but not quite as tart. (blue)
4. Strawberry: Like biting into a delicious, ripe strawberry. (red)
5. Lemon Lime: A refreshing combination of Lemon and Lime flavoring, slightly tart. (green)
6. Pina Colada: Straight from the bartender's blender but without the alcohol. A top five flavor. (clear)
7. Root Beer: Real Root Beer taste.
8. Tiger’s Blood: Fresh fruity watermelon-strawberry taste with a hint of coconut. Popular with kids as well as adults. (red)
9. Banana: Tastes like a banana Popsicle. (yellow)
10. Bubble Gum (Blue): Flavor so real, you might try to blow a bubble. (blue)
11. Hawaiian: A blend of fruity flavors. Tastes like Tropical Punch. (red)
12. Watermelon: Like a fresh watermelon, without the seeds. (red)
13. Bahama Mama: A fruity Pina Colada flavor. (pinkish red)
14. Granny Smith Apple: VERY tart Apple Taste. Sometimes called Sour Apple. (green)
15. Orange: True, fresh squeezed Orange Flavor. (orange)
16. Cotton Candy: One taste of this and you will think you are at the county fair. (red)
17. Strawberry Cheesecake: REAL Cheesecake flavor bursting with fresh Strawberries. (red)
18. Wild Cherry: Great Cherry flavor but not quite as sweet. (red)
19. Dreamsycle: Tastes like an Orange push-up pop. (orange)
20. Margarita: Straight from the bar but without the alcohol. (bright green)
21. Black Cherry: Delicious, fruity, real Black Cherry taste. (dark red)
22. Coconut: Rich, well-rounded Coconut Flavor. (clear)
23. Blueberry: Incredible, true-to-life Blueberry Flavor. (blue)
24. Polar Punch: Cool, refreshing Arctic punch taste. (neon blue)

As honorable mention, you could add Mango into the 25th position. All of these flavors are available in concentrate or ready-to-use form. Order today while our summer sale is going! You can save $1 per bottle on our ready to use flavors and even more if you buy it in concentrate form!

Do You Use Social Media to Promote Your Business?

Social Media has become incredibly important to businesses everywhere. Many companies have found creative ways to incorporate social media usage into their marketing plans. Facebook and Twitter seem to be the most widely used by companies to promote their products and services. With over 200 million active accounts on Facebook, it should be apparent why businesses are looking for ways to creatively use that platform to promote their products and services. Twitter, which serves a slightly different niche, currently has over 6 million users.



So, by now you're asking the question, "Why in the world would I use Facebook or Twitter for my little business?" Well, let me give you an example of one company using it effectively. Dutch Brothers Coffee actively uses both of these social media platforms and does a mighty good job with them. With Facebook, they have created a 'fan page' (which has almost 12,000 fans). They regularly update events happening at their drive thru locations and also announce drink specials too. On Twitter, Dutch Bros regularly announces drink specials as well as other interesting news related to their company. Every once in a while they'll also announce "Twitter-only specials". For example, they might advertise that a 20 oz. mocha is a dollar on Monday and this will be the only way to be informed about that special.

Dutch Brothers successfully uses these two social media tools to generate 'buzz' about their company and most importantly, the products they sell. Now, let's talk about how you can use it. Basically, I would recommend starting out with a similar plan as Dutch Bros. Yes, I know you don't have 156 locations...most likely you only have one. But, create the accounts and tell your loyal customers about your plan. Post a special and communicate it using these platforms. If you're a mobile vendor, let people know where you will be set up.

Get creative and give it a shot. It may be a way for you to gain an edge over your local competitors. People spend more and more time online these days. Both of these are FREE tools you can use to promote and market your business.

An Example for the Previous Post

This article discusses an example of shaved ice that is close to what I'm talking about in the previous post. While this delicious sounding shaved ice contains ice cream and sweet condensed milk, it also includes fresh chopped chunks of mango too.

If you're ever in Flushing, New York (Long Island), my recommendation would be to go try one of these tasty concoctions in person!

So, stand owners, are you doing something similar at your place of business? If so, let me know. I'm just curious to know if this is an up and coming trend or if it's just limited to a narrow sector of the market.

Juice Flavored Shave Ice and Snow Cones?

I've read in a couple places online about some concessionaires featuring natural, juice flavored snow cones and shaved ice. These items are being welcomed openly, especially in niche demographics.

One article I read discussed a vendor in New Mexico who is using fresh apple cider to create a delicious tasting snow cone. Another article discussed using fresh fruits and fruit juices to create a healthy and great tasting shaved ice treat.

So, my question is...are any of our readers experimenting with natural flavors (juices) or using fresh fruit on their snow cones or shaved ice? If so, please let us know how your natural products are being received by customers. Are you charging more or the same? Are you promoting this menu item heavily?

Depending on the location of your business, fruit juices and fruit combined with your shaved ice or snow cones may be an item that you want to add to your menu. It could be well received and generate new sales and customers for your business.

Just a thought...

NY Times Piece on Shaved Ice

I came across this short article in the New York Times today about a place in the city called Dessert Club. The article gives some good information about two types of shaved ice made and served there. It also gives you a couple of prices for those delicious sounds treats too. Again, this is just good information to know and use when looking at developing new menu items or verifying your pricing structure for the items you sell. Click here to read the article (it's short).

Check Out Other Shaved Ice Vendors

It's always good to look at other companies that are in the same industry as you. What are they doing well? What are they doing wrong? How does my own business rate in comparison?

There are good, helpful lessons to be learned in observing how another shaved ice company operates. I know this is beginning of the busy time for most concessionaires. But, I think it would be prudent to perhaps take an afternoon and observe some other shaved ice businesses operations. While doing so, ask yourself a few questions:

1. What is the initial appeal that draws customers to their stand?
2. Do they serve unique products?
3. Pricing - Are your prices in line with theirs?
4. Customer Service. Are they friendly and helpful?
5. Is their stand clean and visually appealing?
6. Does their staff operate in a professional, respectful manner?

If you are up to it (and if they don't necessarily know who you are), go ahead and order a shaved ice from them. Pay attention to their interaction with you. Watch how they make your shaved ice.

Taking the time to observe and perhaps interact with another stand from a customer viewpoint can give you insight into some areas where you may need to improve the operation of your own concessions business. It can also reassure you on some things that you are doing well.

As I've said before, I label these as "Magic Lanterns" - events and information that you can always go back to and use to refine your business. It's important to take time to evaluate your business and how it operates.