Snow cones are a summer treat that I have plenty of fond memories of and months after going vegan while I was passing a small town I gathered those memories from, well, I wanted a snow cone. There was my first-week vegan brother in the car as well, and he asked the question: “Are Snow Cones Vegan?”
I figured they would be, and figured I just would get the blue one in case the red was made out of crushed beetles. But to make sure, we pulled out the phone and asked google if snow cones are in fact vegan. The Result? Ambiguous.
That wasn’t the result I was, or rather, my brother was looking for. We went, he asked to see the syrup’s ingredients, and they were in fact vegan. But as for you, are YOUR local snow cones vegan?
What might not be vegan in snow cones?
The only thing that may not be vegan in snow cones is carmine, which is made of crushed beetles for red coloring. 99% of the time with snow cones, they use red #40, which while it’s not the healthiest thing, it’s still vegan.
Otherwise, snow cone syrup doesn’t contain anything that may not be vegan, as the sweeteners they use is generally corn-syrup based or made from alternative sweeteners rather than generic white sugar that may be made with bone char.
Other than snow cone syrup all there is in snow cones is ice, and ice is of course vegan ‘ya goof.
Where can you get vegan snow cone syrup?
Since most snow cone syrups are vegan you can pick up vegan snow cone syrup at most places that sell snow cone syrup. Walmart and Target have a few flavors such as cherry, blue raspberry, and grape, but rarely do they have much more of a selection than that. Not to be prudish, but I wouldn’t recommend them. They weren’t the best to put it simply and didn’t really give me that “I’m at a snow-cone stand” type of flavor.
Last year I brought snow-cones to my little cousins birthday party and they were far better than the one I recently tried from Walmart, I got them on Amazon (You can get the same ones by clicking here) in a pack that had snow-cone holders and stuff too. I looked into the company that makes it (Hawaiian shaved ice) and as far as I was able to find all their syrups are 100% vegan and don’t use any carmine. But looking now I really should have just got this one since it includes the shaver I bought separately anyways and is a bit cheaper. If you have a specific favorite flavor like I do, blue raspberry, you can find them here.
