Summer and ice go hand in hand, and this summer, everyone is reaching for Sonic ice. The drive-in restaurant has been serving up sodas and slushies in its perfectly chewable nugget ice for decades, but the popularity of its soft, fluffy pellet ice has recently reached new heights.
Sonic ice — also known as nugget, pellet, chewblet or "the good ice" — is made with flaked ice compacted into cylindrical nuggets and loved for its soft, airy texture that makes it more pleasant to chew than traditional ice cubes. It also melts slower and keeps drinks cold for longer.
According to commercial ice machine company Scotsman, which introduced the machine producing "The Original Chewable Ice" in 1981, "Consumers enjoy how the chewable nugget ice absorbs the flavor of beverages, while operators appreciate its lower operating costs and higher liquid displacement, which lowers syrup costs per cup," the company's website says.
It's not uncommon for people to visit Sonic multiple times a week to get their ice fix. The restaurant sells its ice by the cup and in 10-pound bags, of which the Dayton Boulevard location sells five to 10 bags a day, employee Daniel Bramlett says.
"Usually, if there's a holiday or event going on, people will get it, and people keep it in their freezer and munch on it," he says.
For true Sonic ice addicts, nothing beats owning your own countertop nugget ice maker so you can constantly re-up your supply at home.
The most popular machine is the pricey ($530-plus) GE Profile Opal Ice Maker, which can churn out a batch of ice in 20 minutes, or about a pound an hour. With most machines, you have to transfer the ice to your freezer once it's made. This machine recirculates melted ice into the water tank to produce more ice, a feature that also keeps ice from clumping. When your ice supply gets low, the machine automatically starts making more, and you can also use your phone to tell your machine to have fresh ice ready when you get home.
In addition to Sonic, you can also find nugget ice – sometimes for sale by the bag, but call before you go – at Zaxby's and Chick-fil-A. In May, Starbucks also jumped on the nugget ice bandwagon, adding nugget ice machines to some of its stores.
