ICEE was born by accident in 1958 in Coffeyville, Kansas when Omar Knedlik ran a restaurant. Omar put some soft drinks in the freezer during a heat wave and they froze, but not completely. Due to this, Omar was forced to serve it frozen to his clients, this accident was liked by consumers, which gave him the idea to turn his accident into a product.
The high sugar content kept soft drinks from turning to solid ice, so ICEE started out as a carbonated drink, flavored with a high-sugar caramel.
Furthermore, the ICEE name, as well as the original company logo, were developed by Ruth E. Taylor, a local artist and friend of Omar's. She developed the name "Icee" as well as the idea of the logo's icicles hanging from the capital letters, which has remained unchanged. He thought of the polar bear, but the actual bear mascot had already been created by the Norsworthy-Mercer advertising agency. Additionally, the word “Icee” with the snow was designed by a Mitchell Company staff artist, Lonnie Williams.
Omar later partnered with the John E Mitchell Company in Dallas to develop the machine to make these drinks, for it Omar received a patent in 1960. The first machine was made from an automobile air conditioning unit. It worked by combining and freezing water, carbon dioxide, and a mixture of flavors. After 5 years, Omar's idea had become to the iconic ICEE Machine after drawing the attention of 7-Eleven who would have bought several machines in 1965.
By 1967 the company was founded that later was bought in 1987 by J&J Snack Foods Corporation. It´s worth mentioning that The ICEE company has had 2 more names, initially it was called Western ICEE, later it underwent a change to ICEE USA and later the current one, The ICEE Compay
On the other hand, as we already mentioned, the "secret" of the ICEE is to combine carbon dioxide bubbles with the syrup that gives it flavor. Due to this combination we find a product with such a peculiar texture and flavor. Also, the machine that produces the ICEE is the real secret behind the recipe.
As a curious fact, the drink with the fewest calories of the four flavors that are sold the most in Mexico is the lemon-lime one (45kcal for the 200 ml portion), compared to 50 kcal for the cherry, blue raspberry and grape flavors. apple.
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