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The Slurpee at 40

Posted by Zonk on from the venerable-drink dept.

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."

7 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Granita! by DavidNWelton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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/
  2. Re:The Slurpee is Great But... by sbaker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > I preferred the Icee which was a Slurpee knock-off

    Icee is *not* a knockoff - it's the Slurpee that is the copy.

    According to Wikipedia, 7-11 bought the idea for the Slurpee *from* Icee in 1967.

    (Hmmm - that makes it only 38 years old...where did they get '40th birthday' from? Wiki says that the idea was invented in the 1950's - so it's not the anniversary of it's invention?).

    --
    www.sjbaker.org
  3. ICEEs are older, better, and help you get girls by AngryNick · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Where I grew up, they were called ICEEs (say Ice-E) even at the 7-11. Anyone who called it a Slurpee was a pansy.

    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:

    ..."A pre-mix of most any flavor is placed inside the machine. There it is put under pressure. Any liquid increases in density when pressurized. Release of the pressure causes it to freeze. So when the liquid pours from the machine it freezes as it hits the cup."

    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

  4. Er, "said store's average patrons"? by Jonathan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Are you claiming that individual persons or ethnic groups that go to 7-11 tend to be dirtier than average?

  5. Regular or spicy? by Deadstick · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

  6. lowish in calories by Hohlraum · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  7. Re:Slurpees Rock! by Meagermanx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Clever. But not as clever as THIS!!
    AAAHAHAHAHAA!!!