Thanks for the advice. We are considering that idea - probably substituting apple juice for some or all of the water. As far as "powdered flavoring". Do you use a drink packet like Kool-Aid/Wylers?

The recipes I've seen on web are much like yours with the amount of sugar varying from 3/4 a cup to 2 cups.

Here's another one for a gallon:

2 quarts, 16 oz of water
5 pounds of sugar
flavoring as desired

The water doesn't have to boiling, but the warmer it is, the better the sugar dissolved.

Apparently the homemade stuff has a shelf life of 5 days to 2 weeks unless you add preservatives.

For us, we'd just make up a batch as needed. I sure don't want to add "food poisoning" to the list of PTO accomplishments.

I don't know yet what route we'll go. I'm still interested in ideas.

Thanks!

I use a powder to make my snow cone juice...powder, sugar and water. Could you substitute 100% juice for the water and therefore make it fall into the nutritional guidelines?

I found this recipe for the syrup, but again, thinking you could substitute juice for the water. You'd probably need to adjust the sugar as well.

SNOW CONE SYRUP

1 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon favorite extract or flavored syrup*

Heat water and sugar until warm and sugar dissolves. When, cool add extract or flavored syrup. Store in a container such as an empty water bottle.

Use Toroni or da Vinci flavored syrups. Hawaiian Ice Syrup is sold at Target stores during the summer months when they sell shaved ice machines.

[ 09-18-2003, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: venzmama ]

With Texas' new nutrition rules for elementary schools, we can no longer serve traditional snow cones during school hours. (Texas weather is HOT, and we use snow cones frequently for parties, for class prizes, at Track and Field, etc.)

To be allowed, the syrup must be at least 10% fruit juice. I've had no luck locating a source yet, although Gold Medal Products out of Ohio (a major manufacturer) is investigating options.

Has anyone come across any snow cone syrup that has at least 10% fruit juice?

Or have you done any successful experimenting? In a pinch, we might be able to use juice instead of syrup (but it won't be a very strong flavor). Or we might be able to mix 100% juice with our syrup so the result is 10% juice. We'd just have to keep the batches small and discard any leftovers.

Anyone else dealing with this? Ideas?

Thanks for the help.

[ 09-18-2003, 12:24 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]