Hi, I will be starting a series of pointers on what we believe creates a good Hawaiian styled shave ice. Of course opinions on the perfect shave ice may differ from person to person and store to store, but here is what we have learned over the years.

Pointer #1
Use a block ice shaver. Best shave ice are produced by block ice shavers, period. Do not believe the gimmicks that company's out there provide saying how their non block ice shaver produce fine cuts that melts in your mouth. We have tested many shave ice machines over the years and we stand firm on our verdict. Although cube shavers produce decent quality, it is impossible to replicate that of a finely tuned block ice shaver. Block ice shavers shave from a solid block of ice rather than from whirling cubes therefore it produces the consistency needed for a fine shave.
Block ice shavers contain better detailed blade adjustments which helps the operator pinpoint exact shaving textures they wish to achieve, a cube ice shaver or a sno ball machine is not able to replicate that. Fine textured shaved ice is made slowly on a block shaver by lowering the blade to a low and fine setting. Shave ice is not made with rapid speed machines like sno cone or sno ball machines, it needs to take time to shave.

If there is any questions regarding this topic, please feel free to reply and make suggestions.

Aloha!

Aside from ice texture, why is a block shaver better?

Aside from better ice texture, block ice shavers tend to be heavier duty as well as faster in terms of output.

What do you think of the Snowie Machines?

Chris

Snowie machines are fast, and capable of very high yield. I would say the Snowies are some of the best cube ice machines. If you are looking for machines that can produce you a lot of shave ice and don't mind a coarser quality, Snowie would be your best bet. Thanks

I had SNOWIE 3000 before and they are indeed fast! BUT, the quality of ice is lousy if you are really wanting to sell a shaved ice. If you us a SNOWIE, you're basically selling snow cones. Even though I have an ice cube shaver now, my new Hatsuyuki does a much better job and it's shave quality is adjustable.

I bought a Snowie 3000 (my first purchase) and it was AWFUL.....soooo expensive too!....I returned it the next day and got my refund. I then bought a Swan (block shaver) and will never go back to anything less (ie: cube ice shaver---no offense). ShaveIce2 is right....block shavers are the BEST out there. But like Shave Ice2 said...if you are doing quantity vs quality, Snowie is good and also the Hatsuyuki for quantity but for quality? Go for the Ice block shavers!

I have lines cuz of the wait, but it is worth it to see the smiles and satisfaction on my customers faces! Plus when they see a line....they know it must be good!

I just bought my second Ice block shave from HTK (a Fujimarca)......

Thanks all for the info

I just wish there was a light weight block shaver.. this is because I am adding it to my Pizza trailer

Look and you will see what i mean
www.bendpizza.com
or facebook bendpizza
if you have any ideas just let me know
chris

WOW....that is an impressive trailer....never saw one like that in my life!.....You may be able to place it on top of where the teddy bear sits on that photo I saw (not permanently of course).
I have a Swan and a Fujimarca block shavers. Swan is slightly smaller and lighter than the Fuji.

Good Luck!

Amazing pizza trailer! Love the "sold out" signs! Great work.