Any experience with Hawaiian Shaved Ice?

I'm looking at other options to sell at some of the events where I will need to compete with more diverse food vendors. Just the combination of hot dogs and shaved ice seems like a natural fit. NOT grainy, icy SnoCones... I'm talking fluffy shaved ice with quality flavorings.

What do you folks think?

The snow like/Hawaiian shaved ice is much better than the old shaved ice ever was. Its a lite fluffy treat with toppings. They will go great at any event that families are involved with. I know my family can't walk by booth without buying one,,,,,,,,,,,Good luck..Bill

I think your on the right track.  I agree that Hawaiin ice is WAY better than the snow cone.   Is it a pain to do?  Do you need special equipment and such?  I have never done shaved ice even though I have done Italian ice for a long time.   

I never tried Hawaiin Ice before till I was at a fair and it sold well out the first flavor and most popular was Cherry, I tried the Pinapple ice it was heavanly,
 
and as a consumer, the smaller containers sold out, I had to buy the large one, which I loved.

Hawaiian Ice is better than Sno-cones but Italian Ice stomps both of them! But that's just my opinion (and my daughter who did a "happy dance" after tasting one).

We have our trailer set up to serve shaved ice and lemon shake-ups for hot weather festivals. We purchased a starter package from 1-800-SHAVEDICE. Our package is called the budget package and came with the shaved ice machine, paper goods, syrup concentrates, bottles, and mixing supplies. We paid around $2400.00 for it. Shaved ice blows away snow cones. There is a little more learning curve but it is not that difficult.  Your first decision will be what type of machine you want, then what brand you want. Shaved ice machines are either block ice shavers or cubed ice shavers. We purchased the cubed ice shaver because you can find cubed ice anywhere. Most festivals have cubed ice available to the vendors. Our machine is the Hatsuyuki HC-8E and it has performed flawlessly. At festivals we serve 24 different flavors plus a few cream flavors. At festivals really only offer one size (120z) of shaved ice and one size (20oz) of lemon shake-ups. Roadside we offer three sizes of shaved ice. Check out 1-800-Shavedice on the internet. They even have a guide you can download for free. If you Facebook look up Atlanta Tropical Breeze under pages to see pictures of our set up.

We looked into Italian Ice but it really needs to be stored at an specific temperature and in order to get good pricing you need to be able to purchase it by the pallet . The other problem is that most refrigerator / freezer trucks do not have tail gate delivery, which means that you have to ship it to a cold storage facility then pick it up there. A 20 pound bag of ice makes close to 40 /12oz servings at a cost of $2.75 a bag plus the syrup and cup. Our cream flavors rival Italian Ice. Little Jimmy's Italina  Ice use to have a Italian Ice manual you could download.

Let me tell ya.  I'm a man, and I can't get enough of that stuff.  It isn't just for kids.  I'm considering it for my food trailer biz during the summer months.  They say you should keep a stock of 5 or 6 popular flavors on hand.  I think wild cherry, strawberry, lemon, orange, and grape are right up there.  If I do it, though, you can be darn sure I'll have a surprise flavor or two on hand... Tiger's Blood, Blackberry, Tangerine.  Right on!  If they had beer flavor, I'd probably roll that out.

Only experience is watching it made, but go to Hawaii every month or two so seen it plenty ...
 
Firstly in Hawaii it's called Shave Ice ... not Shaved
 
Two top places are Matsumoto's and Aoki's in Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore.
 
All real places use the block machines that spin the ice ... not the cube grinder types.  And I believe Mats and Aokis make their own flavorings.
 
Any questions let me know ...  I should be there around Halloween.