America’s Not-So Secret Love Affair with Sonic Ice

Great design is form meets function, and Sonic’s ice seems to score perfect tens in both categories. “In my view, the brilliance of Sonic ice stems from the fact that it arrives in crunchy, small pebbles,” Ward Brown, 60, of Liberty, Missouri wrote me. It seems this golden surface-area-to-volume ratio creates an ideal environment for soda pop, cocktails and miscellaneous imbibements. Emily Perry, 27, from Columbia, Missouri elaborated, “[You] can fill up almost an entire cup and your drink sort of absorbs the ice so that the ice doesn't get all clumped together. It also seems like even with a bunch of Sonic ice in your cup, you're still getting a lot of liquid. It also doesn't melt the same way other fast food ice does.”

While other ice sloppily melts and dilutes a drink’s flavor, devotees revel in Sonic ice’s ability to elevate the drinking experience through the last sip. In fact, Brown contends that the ice retains the taste of the soda, “which certainly is an extra treat at the end.”

With traditional cubed ice, I am usually disappointed if my drink contains too much ice,” Brown told me. “But just the opposite is true with Sonic ice…too little ice is unacceptable. In fact, many order their drinks with ‘extra ice’ at Sonic in a preemptive effort to avoid this problem.”

A Cherry Coke. An Arnold Palmer. A Route 44 Powerade Mountain Berry Blast Slush. Jessica Able of Louisville, Kentucky tells me that buying a bag of the good stuff is how she elevates her annual Kentucky Derby party. “There are a couple of signature drinks (Mint Julep and Lily) that are traditionally made with crushed ice. The Sonic ice just elevates it a little in my opinion. People are always excited when they see it :).

Perry agrees. When asked how often she goes to Sonic for ice, she responded simply: “As much as humanly possible.” When she lived near a Sonic, she would even make it a multi-stop occasion, “If I'd buy lemonade at the grocery store, or want to make iced tea at home, I'd really want Sonic Ice to make a perfect Arnold Palmer. It somehow tasted better with Sonic ice.”

But enthusiasts are also thinking outside the cup. Television producer Lara Wilinsky is a self-proclaimed lifelong Sonic ice lover, who put her money where her mouth is while working on a BBQ competition show and suggested the ice for the meat “beauty shots.” It became her job to load up on bags of Sonic ice before each shoot. For the “whole hog” finale, she recalls it took two cars and two Sonic locations to get the shot. For Wilinsky, it was worth it.

And let’s not forget our friend in Michigan who, thanks to the ice’s shape and size, used the moldable and flexible ice during his double knee replacement recovery. What can’t this ice do?

As the messages rolled in, it became abundantly clear that chewing ice is America’s favorite pastime. Nearly all my informants seemed to be spiritually moved by its chew factor. “The best chew of any ice. Also never TOO cold or...icy. No slipping around in your mouth, the texture is rough so easy to absorb liquids and, again, best chew,” penned Smith. I envisioned her reciting it as a spoken word poem at an open mic in the back of a Sonic. Snaps all around.

Popular belief seems to be that Sonic ice won’t chip your teeth, but Smith warned that any ice chewing can result in “micro cracks.” Essentially my own one-person Spotlight team, I knew I had to follow the ice. So I called an informant—my dad, a dentist. Together, we drove to a Sonic where we ordered a bag of ice, two Diet Cokes, a burger (for him) and fries (for me).

Here’s a transcript of that event:

Dad: This is for work?

Me: Yeah.

Dad: I don’t understand.

Me: What do you think about the ice?

Dad: It’s good!

Me: Does chewing ice cause micro cracks?

Dad (Enjoying his burger): Look, ya gotta be careful. Chewing on ice can cause micro fractures, which you can’t repair, and as you get older those can turn into cracks. But this ice seems have holes in it and has a softer feel to it. But you gotta be careful. Don’t quote me.

Me: OK.

In the background of every American coming-of-age story a Sonic Drive-In looms large. In Perry’s Missouri high school years, Sonic was the go-to lunch spot once they had their driver’s licenses. “Everyone would buy Route 44 Cherry Limeades or Arnold Palmers or Powerade Slushes. It was always so fun to go the rest of the school day with your massive Sonic drink, shaking the ice—everyone knew the sound.” So if you experience a Pavlovian response to that unique jingle coming from a Styrofoam cup, you can blame it on nostalgia. But there’s also the darker side of the ice on America’s youth. Tony McDonald-Neidenbach, who grew up in Georgia, remembers a high school friend who gave up Sonic ice for Lent because she was “addicted” to chewing it. No word on whether she made it all 40 days.

And yet, some things weren’t adding up for me. Greenhaw says the ice melts slower because it’s less dense with greater surface-area-to-volume, but wouldn’t that mean it actually melts faster? I kept digging. (Googling.) “Follow the ice,” Donna’s voice (angry as ever) compelled me. And so, I went back, back to the source: Scotsman’s website. And there it was, what Big Ice had been hiding all along: Nugget ice is good for the bottom line. The architect of nugget ice writes, “Consumers enjoy how the chewable nugget ice absorbs the flavor of beverages, while operators appreciate its lower operating costs and higher liquid displacement, which lowers syrup costs per cup.”

“Cost per cup,” Donna’s disembodied voice whispered in my ear. “Cup…cup…cup…” I muttered aloud. And then, an epiphany! The ice is only part of the equation. We’re all talking about the melting point of frozen compressed water but failing to consider the environment in which said ice typically lives: a Styrofoam cup.

Yes, Sonic still uses foam cups. In 2014, a Change.org petition with 2,357 supports implored the restaurant to stop using the material due to environmental concerns. Sonic responded that while there is no perfectly friendly environmental option—see: the harvesting of trees for paper cups—user experience is central to their decision: “Like many other restaurants, SONIC does use foam cups based on attributes customers desire, including lack of condensation or ‘sweating’ and the superior ability to keep drinks cold or hot.”

Alas, it doesn’t really matter at which speed Sonic ice changes states of matter because the foam cup creates an insulated home where all those nooks and crannies can soak up your Cherry Limeade while melting at glacial speed (a metaphor which makes less sense every day, thanks to corporate impact on climate change).

While there’s a larger discussion to have about materials and global impact, when it comes to Sonic ice stan culture, all roads lead back to chewability, not melting point. So it makes sense that those who seek out 10-pound bags of Sonic ice and enjoy it outside the walls of a Styrofoam container are not bothered if it melts a little faster than it would in a more insulated structure.

And let’s be honest, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t really care about the cups, the melting point, the air pocket or the Big Ice cover-up of the century. What you really want to know is if there a nugget ice maker we plebs can get our hands on? Uehlein conceded there are a few different makers of home units that make a similar style of ice, but the one of note is the GE Opal nugget ice maker, which goes for $500 (a steal compared to the $20,000, 2-ton machine from Scotsman). Rachel Gulmi, PureWow managing editor, who tried and tested the Opal, raves about the appliance: “It’s not cheap, but the ice is incredible.” If you don’t have $500 to drop, you can pick up a bag of Sonic’s for around $2.59 (ya know, depending on the local health department regulations, Uehlein says).

But anyone who’s on the up and up knows you can also just ask for a Route 44 of ice, which they’ll usually give you on the house when you order something else. Word on the street is that the mozzarella sticks are legit. Maybe I’ll investigate.