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The Slurpee at 40
theodp writes "Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven! Slate reports on the 40th birthday of the Slurpee, which has frozen an estimated 6 billion brains and arguably provided the inspiration for Starbucks' Frappuccino, Dunkin' Donuts' Coolatta and Kwik-E-Mart's Squishee. Wikipedia has more Slurpee facts and links."
And here is a tip for the young ones - full 1/2 of the cup, go get a straw and tap the cup to let it settle - then keep filling her up...
: )
The official generic term for a Slurpee is "Frozen Carbonated Beverage" or FCB for short. This is the type of useless information you can pick up from working in a convenience store.
Mind you, nobody actually calls them this, but it is used in the manuals for the machines and on the boxes of the syrup that come from Coke and Pepsi.
Didn't it turn 40 like 3 months ago.. in July?
...does anyone notice that there are periods when there are nothing but disgusting slurpee flavors available? I've just found that many a time I've entered a 7-11 with a slurpee craving, I would find no flavors that I like...
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
welcome our frozen carbonated beverage masters.
James P. Barrett
Gotta love corporate marketing. The Slush Puppy actually ushered in the era of the iced crystal drink on November 12 1972. I fully expect a "Slush Puppy at 43" slashdot article this fall.
09-f9-11-02-9* (G^GCA_++{>. RV>>>>+++ NO CARRIER
Seeing as how Slurpees have been around now for 40 years, you'd think that they'd have found some sort of technological improvement that could be applied to them.
1. Make low cost bad tasting fruit drink 2. Freeze taste buds and brains so drink tastes good 3. ?!?!?!?! 4. Profit! Step 5, of course, is to whore for Karma
Didn't ANYONE ever watch The Adventures of Pete and Pete ?!
And can we honestly forget about the Lime Balthazar and Grape Judas?
Brain Freeze!!!
H.
When VCR's are outlawed, only outlaws will have VCR's.
I could drink a slurpee or two every day. Currently, my local 7-11 has a killer lineup, IMO. They have their new Frawg flavor (green sour apple..its not bad, but I mixed it with Blue Rasberry) Dr. Pepper, Blue Rasberry, and Pepsi.
Canadians purchase over 30 million Slurpees every year
The average Slurpee drinker age is 29 years
Manitoba is the "Slurpee Capital" of the world for the fifth year in a row (2003)! The 7-Eleven stores in Manitoba sell an average of 8,300 Slurpee drinks per store each month, compared to the national monthly rate of 5,900 and provincial rate of 7,200,which makes this Province the world leader in Slurpee sales.
The top five Slurpee cities are:
1. Winnipeg
2. Calgary
3. Regina
4. Detroit
5. Edmonton
The frozen carbonated beverage was first invented in 1959 by a Kansas hamburger stand owner. Using an automobile air conditioner, he created a sophisticated piece of equipment that would freeze a carbonated soft drink and serve it in a sherbet-like form that could be sipped through a straw.
To get that uniquely Slurpee consistency, each Slurpee machine has a compact refrigeration system that mixes syrup, carbon dioxide and water under pressure in a freezing chamber.
Slurpees are served at -3C (or 28F)
7-Eleven(r) began selling Slurpee, then called Icee, in its stores in the United States in 1965
Credit to http://www.myslurpeecup.com/facts.html
And then you have kids...
"Daddy, can we get a slurpee, pleeeeeaaaaassseee?" (with typical kid's overdramatic exageration and drawing-out on 'please').
Me? Never really did like them.
But, were they really invented by Southland Corp? When were Icees introduced at KMart, since they always seemed to be there (KMart was probably Icee's biggest customer), and it wasn't until after 1980 I think when I first went into a 7-11...
...At least Icee's were available where I grew up. Plus at one time they had "Icee points" that you could save up and send off for "neat stuff." I neve rgot enough, though, but I sure did like the frozen Coke variety...
http://www.icee.com/
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
Never seen a slurpee in my life. don't actually know what kind of thing it is. But I'm really doubted this actually IS a piece of news for nerds, you know.
syrup.
and plenty of non-nerdy types use computers also, what's your point? knowing how long the slurpee has been around seems pretty nerdy to me... and delicious!
I hate you, Slurpee. I hate you with all my blisters you gave me from mopping that tar of you, people spilled all over the floor.
Although it was useful mouse/cockroach trap (a sweet death, oh what irony!), you surely leave a long trail of spills from one corner of the store to the door.
Be the 40th birthday your last! I hate you, Slurpee!!!
SLURPEEE!!!!
ps: yes, i'm seeking professional help.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Slurpee was licensed from Icee. Icee machines were first sold in 1960, forty-five years ago. So, no. They were no invented by Southland.
7-eleven did license the drink from ICEE. The major innovation introduced (aside from widening distribution in a common convenience store) that the Slurpee brought was carbonation.
The summer of my tenth year was a HOT one, in what was still called "Silicon Gulch" back then, and when the local 7-11 in Sunnyvale introduced the Slurpee us kids were SO glad!
We tried every flavor, every week for years...
Alas, I haven't had one for 30 years now.
But I still have several of the "buttons" that they gave away as promotions with each new flavor.
My fave one is the yellow with red "I Slurped a REDEYE" on it!
Hmmm, ebay'able?
By now I would have expected to see at least one thread on the unsanitary conditions Slurpees are likely in at time of purchase due to the general environment (7/11) and said store's average patrons. 7/11 is the only class of food establishment to have received a C health inspection rating (in So. Cal) without being shut down. And there's always something mildly disturbing to me about the fact that most of the "counter space" in 7/11 food aisles consist of the tops of waste receptacles. So am I truly more of a germaphobe than most?
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Surely this drink was much more likely inspired by a traditional Italian drink called Caffè Granita, made with coffee and crushed ice.
Here in the UK, we don't have this Slurpee thing at all, but Frappuccino was not a surprise to any of us who had been to Italy when it arrived in our Starbuckses.
Rupert Jee's Frozen Fruit Whippy beats the Slurpee any day!
.. and you still cant get them here.
I remember Slurpee first introduced when I was a kid, but now it seems to be disappeared from 7-Elevens and Circle Ks in Hong Kong.
Just don't even think about trying to make one at home without paying licensing fees.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Ever had a slurpee while on acid?
It's insane.
I've pretty much stopped buying Slurpees because without fail, half of the machines have just unfrozen liquid at any 7-11 I visit.
um, yeah, beer is a good substitute.
I used to drink (or slurp) them all the time when i was young. I stopped that practice many years ago when i started getting stomach pains whenever I drank one from my local 7/11 in Hong Kong. From then on I believed that a rat must have fallen into the machine and it had NEVER been cleaned. Thus I have not had one ever since.
No no no... the original and still the best is the "granita":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_ice
which comes from Sicily. They are made with real fruit, and are absolutely delicious. I made a point of having at least one a day during a recent vacation in Sicily.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granita
http://www.welton.it/davidw/
"Perhaps you'd like to try an experimental flavour of my own concoction. A delicious chutney squishy...You can really tasted the chutney!"
--Apu
An all-syrup Super Squishy? Oh, s-s-such a thing has never been done.
The Slurpee-cooled CPU case mod.
Just to set the record straight. The Frappuccino was NOT the invention of the those coffee infidels, Starbucks. The origin of the drink in the USA traces back to The Coffee Connection in Cambridge MA. A coffee institution in the Cambridge / Boston region until Starbucks bought out the owner in cash in the 1980's. The Coffee Connection was a classic coffee house serving mainly basic coffee's (for those day's in a cup without foam or cinnamon on top). The Frappuccino was introduced with the motto of "It's not coffee, but it taste's good".
As far as I know, it was not inspired by the Slurpee.
The ICEE has been around more than 45 years and the first ICEE machine was sold in 1960. The Kansas City Starhas a good history on the Frizz/ICEE/Slurpee and its inventor, Omar Knedlik:
I suspect someone at 7-11 HQ has been screwing around with the settings, because a Slurpee is more liquidy than a ICEE. This appears to allow for faster consumption, which results in more brain freezing, which provides for a less enjoyable experience.
As far as helping you hookup, the official ICEE cup is predominately blue and red. Time and again science has proven that women are attracted to blue and men are attracted to pink and red. Combine the higher brain freeze rate of the Slurpee and there's no lovin' tonight for Johnny.
So there. Now stop calling it Slurpee! It's ICEE! It's pissing me off.
--
Today's anger level: Yellow - Irritated for no reason
I gotta say that being a life long fan of flavoured slush drinks, that it didn't get any better than the Bloody Zit!.
Ad campaign-wise, with the bus shelter posters of a kid trying to pop a pimple into a cup of blood red sour cherry slush.
Just infront of the machine, are shakers of candy bits. Oily black head bits, green flesh eating bacteria, pus powder and dried scabs.
Wish I had a link to put up....
If you could get over the imagery, those candy bits really helped balance out the sourness of the cherry slush but I've lately found it a great thing to mix into coke slush to give you cherry coke slush.
Happy birthday Slurpee and hats off to all the drinks spawned after it.
what was best were the sports coins you used to get at the underside of the cup, with the nice 3d effects those were great
An armed society is a polite Society
Are you claiming that individual persons or ethnic groups that go to 7-11 tend to be dirtier than average?
Wow, 40 years, didn't realize that. It wasn't until the late 70's I lived where Slurpees were available. Before that, I enjoyed Icees with the polar bear mascot. Or Chillie Willies (now there's a funny name in retrospect). Icees are the same as Slurpees, I believe, and had collectible stuff and points on the cups.
the temperature drops a little low,
and instead of frozen foam I get liquid droop?
the guys in california can't fix that
Although I'm dating myself by saying this (And I don't mean I'm going out with myself!):
:-)
:-)
One of my first jobs while in high school was at a place called Borden's Heap-O-Cream. These ice cream shops were all the rage long before 7-Eleven came along. We used to make something called a Freezie (or maybe Freezy). Anyway, it is really simple to make and tastes really good. The ingredients are:
1 pint of Sherbert
1 bottle of carbonated water.
Put the Sherbert into a blender with enough carbonated water to allow the blender to function. Blend. Pour. Enjoy.
The Sherbert is usually sickly sweet and the carbonated water is very bitter. By putting the two together you make a great frozen drink that is non-alcoholic and only kind-of sweet. 7-Eleven (in the south) was non-existent when we were making these. I think they later became known as Frosty Freezes or something similar. In any event - all Heap-O-Cream outlets closed when Borden Ice Cream decided to concentrate more on just selling their ice cream to grocery stores rather than try to have their own stores.
And there is your bit of history!
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
What about Vita Pups?
or the fabled Orange Lazarus?
of course it is... its junkfood
---- Booth was a patriot ----
My Tech Blog
Think Deeply.
Down in these parts, we had what were called "Icees" [compare e.g. The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy].
So which is the oldest: Icee, Slurpee, or Slush Puppy?
clasic web cartoon with their take on the 40 year old slurpee.
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
A coworker of mine claims he once held the Southern California record for Slurpee sales back when he was a 7-11 manager. His store was close to a business park and he kept a bottle of Wild Turkey under the counter...
rj
Most Starbucks??? How is it that the three Starbucks I go to all serve the iced coffees. They still sell them.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
For those of us who like a good cherry coke slurpee:
1. Put your lid on first.
2. Put in a little cherry flavor (amount to preference).
3. Tap cup to settle everything.
4. Place up to coke dispenser, and open it up immediately, release when it gets a little past halfway between the top of cup and lid opening.
It's a blantant disregard for the "open slowly" rule, but when properly executed, you get a perfect mix of cherry and coke, otherwise unattainable without copious stirring.
Interesting note: The farthest I've ever lived from a 7-11 is where I live now. 1 full mile.
But it's on the way to/from work!
The ICEE debuted in 1961 5 years before the Slurpee. ICEE is the original, and the best.
Yes, the ICEE is the king daddy paw-paw of frozen drinks. The slurpee is a blatant rip-off, perpetrated by the Southland Corp who owned all the 7-11 stores. Being born in 1970 in north Texas, I grew up on ICEEs from the age I could walk until I was in junior high year when all the ICEE machines in my hometown disappeared and were replaced by those imposter slurpee machines. They were sold in "Jiffy" stores, also owned by Southland, and either renamed to 7-11 or torn down later on.
My cousin died of an Orange Lazarus...
Tell me when the 64-ounce kidney-tester that is the Double Gulp has a birthday!
All of the 7-Elevens in my part of Toronto (Scarborough) closed and disappeared on the same weekend! Now if I want a delicious Slurpee, Double Gulp or Bawls, I have to take a 1-hour trip downtown.
You don't really appreciate how much better they are than most convenience stores until they're not an option.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
Simple. In the summer, we drink them to cool off. In the winter, we drink them to warm up!
you know that slurpees cuz they are frozen carbinated are pretty large for the amount of calories that they contain. if you contact the company they will send you pdfs containing nutritional information on them. I think they reason they don't just publish them is because the machines that create the slurpee vary in the thickness (the amount of base product) they dispence. so its possible to have two slurpees in the same size glass that are actually different in calories.
How appropriate for /.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I love slurpees. One of the disappointments about living in Montreal is that there are no slurpees. The closest thing is the "Sloche" (Sloche.com) which is available at the Couche-Tard convenience store. They've got great names (and marketing) with names/flavours like "Winchy-Wacher" and "Squished Chickens" and "Bloody Brain" (or at least the French equivalents)... but the stuff is so sweet that it's nasty. It's got gobs more sugar than a regular slurpee ... so much so that I haven't been able to drink the stuff in years. Yech.
Heh.
I grew up in New Orleans where ICEE was king. They were in each and every Time Saver (local convenience chain)and were heavily advertised outside of Time Saver ads. I always thought they were a New Orleans' product. So, when Slurpee started to show up in New Orleans in the early 1980s, I figured THEY were the usurper. How dare they come in and try to kill ICEE.
I really regret my boycotts and protests now, not to mention the dead cats outside of the stores. Sigh.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Although I'm dating myself
Doesn't that make you go blind?
First and foremost, that website seems to be a step below something like Redbook Magazine.
Moving on, where did you get that this Red/Blue color thing is proven by science? From the link:
What color can you wear to compel the opposite sex to
approach you?
According to Color Consultant Leatrice Eiseman, Director of the
Pantone Color Institute and author of Colors For Your Every Mood,
women are attracted to men wearing the color blue. And why
wouldn't we be? According to Eiseman, guys who frequently
wear blue are "stable, faithful, constant and always there." The
blue guy is a fantastic candidate for a long-term relationship --
someone who's dependable, momogomous and can match his
own clothes.
And what about the ladies? Eiseman says women should wear
a pink- peach to make themselves most approachable. The
color is "very flattering to most skin tones, it gives you healthy
glow," and according to Eiseman, projects "a little vulnerability
which brings out something protective in men."
Want to wear a color that weeds out guys who can't handle
strong women? Try a deep red, burgundy or plum. Men who
aren't attracted to strong women will steer clear.
Of all the colors, red is the most sensual. But, wear red with
caution. "Red is the color of sex and power," says Eiseman.
Red adds an element of excitement and attracts two types of
men - men interested in sex, and men attracted to powerful
women. Sure, you'll probably have to fend off a lot of freaks,
but you could also end up attracting a guy that isn't threatened
by the fact that you make a bigger salary.
Concerned your wardrobe is driving people away? Stay away
from what Eiseman calls "squished caterpillar yellow-green"
which is said to repel both sexes equally.
So, according to a "Color Consultant" (how can I get THAT job?) who is the director for the Pantone Color Institute, women are attracted to blue. Why? Because, according to this "expert", men in blue are "stable, faithful, constant, and always there." They are also dependable, monogomous, and can match their own clothes. This is NOT science. This isn't even pseudo-science. This is personal opinion. This is akin to tabloid horroscopes. The guy offers NOTHING to back up his claims other than some nice words that people might like to hear.
I can only hope that you were being sarcastic in describing this as "proven by science". Or perhaps you are a member of the Zonk Science Club.
Check Out "Brainfreeze", a long mix from DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist. About 52 minutes long. Among many other bits, it features samples from Slurpees radio (or TV?) commercials. Very good stuff (if you like DJ-ing and scratching that is, but it features many styles at once, so listen to it).
The vinyl even has "SLURP" written on it
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
Coke slurpee + rum Extreeeeeme alcoholism!
Couldn't hav don it witout ya...
elitist skum!
and here i thought only the hot dogs were 40 years old.
that Zonk can't recognize a dupe when he sees it.
Obviously Slurpees have frozen HIS brain as well.
"News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters" - yeah, tell me again...
In other news, Arby's roast beef sandwiches ROCK!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I don't. I just don't. Never have. I have no idea what you're talking about. I get "chest freeze"--frozen food pipe. Anyone else like me?
There was another cool brainfreeze site out there (has perhaps a hundred videos of kids getting a brainfreeze - and the science & MRI scans of people getting one) but I forgot which one it was. I thought it was brainfreeze.com; but that appears to be owned by 7/11.
Yeah, iced coffee is still easy to find, but the "Classic Frappucino" (I've also heard it called the Café Frappucino) is a bit more difficult to find, at least in my region.
What, me? Never.
I'll stick with italian water ice!!!!
10 months out of the year, the ground is frozen. The other two months, we eat ice.
Go figure.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
Seriously, I find it interesting how US culture seems so keen to embrace branding, product names (especially ones), slogans, etc. Over here, we still tend to use generic names more often than not. For example, if I need to blow my nose, I reach for a box of tissues, not a box of Kleenex -- even if they're made by that company. (In fact, the nearest box is branded, er, 'Londis Ultrabalm', so the latter would actually be wrong!)
What intrigues me is why people complain about the big corporations, about their intrusive advertising and sales methods, and yet seem happy not just to go along with them, but to do half their work for them...
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Major imaginary mod points from me, sir. Best episode ever. Frozen beverages will always be linked with youth baseball in my memories.
Michael Jackson reportedly plunked down $75.62 to install a Slurpee machine at Neverland Ranch.
I'd pay that much for one...
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
They had an NCR Century 200 mainframe with at most 64Kbytes of short-rod (not "core"!) memory. The great thing about the Century CPU was that addresses had an "indirect" bit in them, so if you dereferenced an address, it might cause a further dereference, etc., down to an arbitrary depth of 5, at which point the cpu would throw an interrupt to avoid a hardware loop (this sort of thing would be handy for relocatable object memory ala Java, but they were a few decades early). Also, all instructions had a whole byte for the operand length, so you could, say, add two 255-byte integers in a single instruction (though, sadly, not in a single cycle); this came in handy, oh, maybe once in the history of the architecture.
Applications were in Cobol or NEAT/3 (assembly language with a few high-level file i/o operations glommed on). All the career programmers chain-smoked as they pored over the multi-hundred-page green-and-white-striped hard copies of their code. There was, of course, no interactive debugging; instead, you'd add some "print" statements (punch cards, that is to say) to your deck, submit them to the reader, and wait maybe a few dozen minutes for your output if things weren't busy. This gave you plenty of time to hang out in the machine room, which was just as well as it was the only air-conditioned spot in the building.
I once accidently over-wrote the 9-track tape with the current week's accounting info, and while trying to recreate it from the delta tape managed to over-write the previous week's, too. Each tape took hours and hours to create, and Mr. Fred Rump, the director of the operation, was extrememly nice about it. Thanks, Mr. Rump.
RUM.
ok vodka would be good too, possibly whisky. yup it needs some C2H6O... It must be saturday night, and I am in need of some libation.
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
Frappucinos are not made from syrup. They are made from a blend of coffee, sugar and milk that is prepared fresh daily in every store. To be fair, the milk-based part of Frappucinos come pre-made in boxes, but I think this is done to maintain consistency, not to lower product quality. The only syrups used in a Frappucino are the flavor syrups like Caramel or Mint Chocolate Chip.
<P>
A "Classic Frappucino" is generally called a Coffee Frappucino (hint: if you ask a barista for a "classic Frappucino", they'll ask you if you mean a coffee frappucino because there is no such thing as a classic frappucino). It consists of Frappucino blend and ice. If your local store makes Caramel Frappucinos or Java Chip Frappucinos, it definitely is capable of making Coffee Frappucinos. You might not want to call a classic, or coffee Frappucino a "cafe Frappucino" because the barista might confuse this with the new Cafe Vanilla Frappucino (coffee frappucino with vanilla bean).
<P>
As another poster pointed out, Starbucks did get the name from a regional shop it bought out, but the idea was pitched by a few store managers in SoCal previous to the purchase. Between their suggestions and tweakings and the Massachussetts's shop's drink's name, you have the present-day Frappucino. The term "frappucino" comes form a combination of the Italian word for ice, "frappe", and cappuccino, to denote that it is a coffe-based drink (then came along the creme frappucinos . . . G-d help us all).
<P>
BTW, all this information is available through publicly available books or by asking your friendly local barista. The NDA I assume exists was tightly skirted.
...obesity and diabetes! Yeah!
Yeah because we all know that frppucino is a better word for a vanilla milkshake.:)
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
All indians smell like shit and are cs majors. Fuck cs majors. Theater majors are cooler.