Tropical Sno (my boyfriend)

Guess who I saw over the weekend?

Thursday night after we dropped Jude off with Abba, Josh and I took Jett to Tropical Sno.  We were nearest the location that Amanda told us about on Douglas south of the Dairy Queen.

I ordered a large size with the cherry and wild cherry flavors mixed together… yummm.  One thing with a large size especially, the syrup – under the curse of gravity – eventually travels to the bottom of the cup, leaving the large mound of ice on top virtually drained of flavor.  Some bites end up shave(d) ice – just.  None too pleasant, but when you keep your eye on the prize, which of course I did, there is a sweet, sweet reward to come.

Once I eat the “sno” off the top and it’s to a level slightly beneath the rim of the cup, I start mashing.  You’ve got to mix and marry that ice with the syrup which it once knew.  And that’s your payoff, right there.  Now there’s no worry of chipping a chunk of ice off the top and making a mess, no – now you’ve got your flavor meshed throughout the perfectly contained ice.  Now it’s spoonful after ever-loving spoonful of artificially flavored, corn syrupy bliss.  It’s at this point when you know if your server was generous with the good stuff… or not.

I’d give my first visit to this – let’s just call it the Douglas – location 8 out of 10… somethings.  Spoons?  Yes, spoons are an essential utensil to enjoying a Tropical Sno treat, so spoons will be my unit of awesomeness.  Pros were the servers, two young men who were very courteous, efficient and prompt, also generous with the syrup.  Cons were the lack of any kind of designated seating areas.  We pulled up a curb and hoped a car didn’t whip around to the spot we were in and squish us.  Also, slight con: didn’t have a comprehensive list of what flavors were included in each treat.  For example, you wouldn’t know that the Tiger’s Blood treat uses the strawberry and coconut flavored syrups, unless you were an insider. 

Then, Saturday afternoon, my sister and I went to the Tropical Sno in Marshalltown in the parking lot where the BP station used to be on Center Street & Anson.  I got a medium this time with cherry and grape flavors.  I hate to say this visit only ranked at about 7 spoons, the first time I went to this location it was pert’ near 10.  The SIX girls running the show were not doing a great job.  It seemed very chaotic and it wasn’t even busy with customers.  The syrup level for me wasn’t quite up to par and the seating was limited due to the giant “tropical sno” banner whipping in the wind that would have hit anyone sitting in any place around one of the picnic tables (props for there even being 2 picnic tables, though).  We did find two lawn chairs that were adequate although mine was wet, and it had not rained.  Hmmm.  Let’s hope it was ice.

Sunday evening Jett and I went to the Tropical Sno location on Mills Civic Parkway that Rachel alerted us to – THANKS Rach!  I’m going to give it a 6-spoon visit.  When we arrived, we were the only customers.  I ordered a small “green” sno for Jett and a medium pink lemonade + cherry sno for me.  Syrup was definitely lacking.  There was a picnic table, but it was very dirty.  I invested in a spill cup for Jett, but after two bites, a gust of wind came and toppled the whole thing over – all over him – the entire cup.  Poor kid.  I had exactly enough money for the visit and they must have a strict no refund or replacement policy because the kid working ignored us and pretended it didn’t happen.  And when I went back up to request more napkins, he only gave us one measly extra napkin to wipe Jett off.  He also knew I didn’t have any more money because I asked him if taxes were added on or included, because I had just enough cash.  Oh well.  Not his fault or Tropical Sno’s fault.  Jett refused to share with me so I finished my sno and we both walked over to the ATM conveniently located in the same parking lot and took out cash.  For a $3 fee!  I was paying $3 to buy another $2.50 small Tropical Sno.  Urgh!  But, I wasn’t going to deny my baby his shave ice – a perfect treat for just having one’s tonsils out.  He chose blue this time and enjoyed much more of his treat than the first time.  He eventually lost interest and left me to finish it.  It had even less syrup than mine, maybe because it was only one flavor or maybe he thought a 3 year old wouldn’t care.  For a 40 mile roundtrip, it was a bit of a let down.  I’m willing to try it again sometime, but think I’ll wait until I have other business in the area.

I’m looking forward to my next fix, although I don’t know when that’s going to be.  I’m hoping for at least an 8-spoon visit next time.  I can’t stand the disappointment; it’s played up way too much in my mind.