I grew up in the Philadelphia area, where water ice is as iconic a summer dessert as ice cream cones and Popsicles. Maybe more so.
It’s a frozen treat made from water, sugar and some sort of flavoring — usually fruit. It is firmer than a slushy, softer than sorbet and smoother than granita. Unlike with a snow cone, the flavor is mixed in before freezing, instead of being poured over a frozen ball at the end. You might know it as Italian ice, but it bears little resemblance to the hard, frozen variety you find in supermarket freezers.
For more than a century, Philadelphians have been cooling themselves down with this icy dessert. As a kid, I assumed the rest of America was doing the same.
Then I moved to San Francisco and, eventually, Boston, and found my water ice options severely limited. If there were shops selling water ice in those cities, I never saw them. And I was looking.
Today, thanks in part to the chain Rita’s Italian Ice, water ice is steadily spreading across the country. Founded by a retired Philadelphia firefighter named Bob Tumolo, Rita’s began as a small store in Bensalem, Pa., in 1984. It now has more than 600 stores selling the dessert from California to Georgia and Minnesota to Texas.
Photos: (top and bottom) Courtesy of Carmen’s Italian Ice, (center) Courtesy of Rita’s Italian Ice
Pronounced “wooder ice.”
