A couple of tips. First, my wife and I made a living from Shave Ice. 27 years to be exact. Somewhere around 200,000 shave ice, San Diego. DON"T open a store front business even in San Diego. Too seasonal. Strive to get into street fairs is where the money is. Big ones! One or two day events or large parties like a school event. We would go to an elementary school and serve the entire school in less than 3 hours (2 people 500 shave ice). Lastly. Don't freeze your own ice! Yes it works but the product is inferior and blade freeze is always an issue. Best is purchase 10 lb blocks from an ice house. Split them and trim. In emergency buy ice carving blocks and cut them in pieces. Trust me, we have done it. Lastly, the block must warm up to near melting point. Notice I said block. A large chest freezer filled with blocks will take 2 days to warm up once unplugged. The ice must be warmed up throughout. A single block set out warms up quickly on a hot day but usually only on the outside. Warm it up slower in a cooler to get the temperature throughout the block near melting. Your shave ice will be soft and moldable. Blades won't freeze. The ice will come out as long slivers and not like sugar. Kind of sticky Like a snowball on a warm winter day. Check your ice company for CLEAR blocks. Some use pressed block or don't have a process to make perfectly clear blocks. Such as they use in ice carving. No impurities in the center. Looks like a block of glass. Clear. That is gourmet shave ice! HOPE YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL!
@@BrandonBaunach We paid all our bills for 6 months out of the year from Shave Ice and even saved a little (San Diego). The other months we had a stained glass business. Times are different today. So many rules. Even street fare promotors are engulfed in regulations, security, permits, insurance etc. which means you pay much more to be there and have to charge more. In the beginning, early 80's we could get a booth space for under $40 - $75 for a day. Might get in the event a month or even a few weeks in advance. Now you may get turned down a year in advance. Prices can be 10 times higher for a weekend event. When we first started we bought a shave ice machine and a freezer. We had a prime location at the U.S. Sandcastle Competition in Southern California. Lines 50 people deep. Now a custom cart will cost 10 grand or more with a zillion sinks to make the health dept happy. Booth space and often insurance is required. You can't keep your cart at home but require a commissary to store it where it can be inspected. State fare nearly impossible to get into. You'd have to buy someone's business and even then no guarantee. Some want money upfront AND a percentage. If you don't sell enough they may not let you back the following year. Even events that we had been in for 10 years there were no guarantees that you would be back the following year which happened more than once. We tried 2 store front businesses and failed quickly. If shave ice was the major sale you will fail anywhere in America, at least if you had to count on it 365 days a year. To be honest, if with all my knowledge and experience, I tried to make a go of it today, I would probably fail as well. I still love the product but would highly recommend you NOT make a business of it. Perhaps a hobby of sorts where you just had fun and made a few bucks from time to time. However, if you are determined to make a go of it, I wish you the best and hope you prove me wrong. Hope this helps.
Appreciate the highly qualified perspective! I’m planning on getting an ice shaver and setting it up at a few events a year for family and friends (including car club gatherings) to give away quality, Hawaii-like shave ice. I know the good shavers are pricey and I’m fine with that. Which shaver(s) do you suggest and your favorite syrup brand(s) for the best quality results?
Great advice. Captive audiences are best ie. Schools , sporting events. The hotter the better. I disagree re. Making your own ice. I use plastic paint buckets and you have to cover. Fill to 1 gallon mark. Chest freezers. We use Swann machines for the past 30 years.
@@michaelgadilhe1509 Not all wines are the same. Not all ICE is the same. Not only can you not produce a thousand pounds of plastic paint bucket ice a week (which we would use quite often when I was in the business, but you will NEVER see a CLEAR block of paint bucket ice. When it spins on your Swann ice shaver it won't compare to the clear crystal block ice made for professional ice carvers. It doesn't shave the same it doesn't taste the same. Of course in a pinch I have used your bucket ice which most people won't detect the difference. Best wishes.
How do you keep the ice block from sliding around while shaving? Although we have it in position and lower the spikes to hold the ice in place it continues to move off center.
Based on the speed the shaved ice came out and the SOUND it made I can tell you that you need to re-adjust your blade for the perfect SNOW like shavings... I have been to numerous shaved ice places and they all make that mistake. Also another indicator is that the hole you had in the middle... that would never happen to a REAL SNOW, so if you re-adjust your blade (where it's lower so the shaving is a lot slower) you would get a better consistency & Save on SYRUP also (good snow = less syrup) =)
Im having issues with this shaver. the shaved ice is sticking to the blade and its causing the it not to shave the ice. i then have to remove the block of ice, clear out the stuck ice on the blade, put the ice block in and restart. do you know what i am doing wrong?
Andrew Garcia there’s not much you can do about that, the blade just freezes over every once in a while, you just have to keep taking it off and I usually scrape it off with the corner of the block and throw hot water on it. Also the block tends to stick more if it’s being used straight out of the freezer, you should let it sit out 5-10 minutes before using it
If New maybe Iceshavers com but I feel be patient and find one used. I really like all the improvements snowie has made to block ice shaving, just wish I would have had a chance to try the snow so I could truly recommend it.
So it’s possible that you may be shaving the ice too fine? What kind of cup are you using? Maybe an insulated type cup will help as well? Like styrofoam?
Swan si-100e. As far as quality it will last for the large volume and its built really well. As far as speed, it'll just depend on how good you get at using the machine. Are you looking to buy one or rent one? Snowie just came out with a block ice shaver that looks pretty cool. It'll fill a cup in about 4-5 seconds. Haven't tried it yet so can't recommend it but check out the video and compare the 2 machines. Let me know if that helps answer your question and if you have any others.
Well if you do it the Polynesian style the higher the better! Lol! We don't know how to measure "small" so we pile ours up to a big dome almost the size of the cup itself!
This model new is about $2,000. That's why we found one used!! We Bought a mobile shaved ice stand on a local online classified site. but with to party business I had to many things going to try and run a stand at set hours. We found it was best for us to rent out the machine or to cater to events and ended up selling the stand and keeping the ice shaver equipment. We got such a good deal with the guy before us putting in a lot of work/money into it and then just not working out for him.
Jared Collings what model shaver is this, I want to improve our band snow cone fundraiser business. The snow cone machine we use is not as good as the Hawaiian shaved ice.
so not sure about all the parts. It's a high quality machine so I can't Imagine something going out. If I remember right I think I got a replacement blade for $35. If you take care of the blade they can last a while though. Make sure to let the ice temper or melt enough to be transparent...that makes the ice softer. I
We just sharpen our blades. Replacement blades are expensive, so we have opted to sharpen them ourselves. We've been doing this for almost 7 years so saving a little money here and there helps.
Big Ben's Lawncare , so not sure if you’re still thinking about starting a stand but we never tried to do that for a full summer. We had bought a stand that was mobile and set up just a couple of times in some parking lots with not much success because I think it would take some time to establish business. But with all the other businesses I was working on we just decided to sell the shack and keep the shaver and rent it out or we provided it as a full serviced option for parties/events
You can do that. There are companies that make a milk or cream based block with flavoring. Then its shaved down in ribbon kind of form. I think in Taiwan they use milk blocks for their popular shave ice. I could imagine freezing a bloody mary mix into a block, shaving it, then pouring some alcohol over it maybe for a party. Meat, thats getting strange to me.
