Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)We just got this a few days ago and only have used it a few times so far. But it seems to work pretty easily, just put ice in, then close the lid and push down. It is pretty noisy, as I am sure all similar products must be, and shoots the shaved ice out of a fairly vertical slot (so you need a fairly wide bowl to catch it and need to hold the bowl fairly close or ice will fly around a bit). It is a little hard to take apart/put back together after cleaning, but not that bad once you do it a few times and figure it out. I wouldn't suggest that kids under say, age 10-12, use it on their own though.
This takes normal ice cubes from your freezer, so that is very convenient and doesn't take advance planning (or extra freezer space, like the ones that have specialized ice trays). The biggest drawback is that the shaved ice isn't very fine -- it is fairly coarse. We had just had shaved ice from a snow cone truck the day before we got this, so that was much softer and finer ice, by comparison. Of course this will be much cheaper in the long run, allow me to use more natural flavorings, and also doesn't require standing in line in the sun for 20+ minutes like the neighborhood shave ice truck!
Despite the coarser texture, my daughters really enjoy the shaved ice, and even my almost 2 year old was able to eat it, although it is slightly crunchy still. We just serve it a bowl (with a spoon) rather than the traditional paper cones (not included anyway). Note that this machine doesn't include any flavored syrups either, and those are harder to find (and many of the ones on Amazon are more expensive than the shave ice machine itself!). We found the matching Sunbeam brand Cherry syrup at Target, but it isn't amazing. We did use a grape juice concentrate, which was cheaper and more popular with the kids anyway. I used one of the frozen 100 percent juice concentrates in a small can, which we thawed and poured over the shave ice -- you could probably use other flavors too, like pink lemonade, fruit punch, limeade, etc. Straight fruit juices get too diluted, although I suppose you could boil it to concentrate it, but that seems like a lot of work! Another idea is to make Kool-Aid or Crystal Light or some other powdered drink mix, but use less than the regular amount of water, making that more concentrated too. I think we will try that next!
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