Sweet Ice 2014!

Hey guys! As you may have read in our last post, Sweet Ice has some exciting changes coming this year. The biggest change is that we're moving away from street service and festivals, and spending more time in the world of weddings. We've loved our time at Art Crawl, Supercrawl, and so many other amazing local festivals. We are so thankful for all the times you've lined up at our booth, and enjoyed our snow cones - thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Getting ready for Art Crawl!

Over the years, however, we've become more and more excited about the thing that has always set Sweet Ice apart - our all-natural, made from scratch syrup. Our syrup is something we create very slowly, in small batches, with a lot of care, and we love to be able to chat with people about the syrup, the fresh ingredients, and 'slow food' in general. The fast pace of festivals just doesn't allow for that. We've come to find that the creativity and relaxed vibe at weddings really works for Sweet Ice. What that means, however, is you won't be able to find us in public very much this year, except for a few occasions! (read on...)

Supercrawl was always the BEST. Hamilton's Christmas!

We always had our cooler, if we wanted to take a little break. :)

There are three important things that you, our beloved snow cone fans, need to know:

1) Feel free to let your friends know about snow cones at weddings. It's just the cutest idea, and so refreshing, delicious, and unique. Without street service, we'll need our pals to help us get the word out there, so we appreciate you sharing the love! If anyone you know is interested in booking, they can email 'info@sweeticesnowcones.ca' for more info and prices.

2) There's an announcement! Sweet Ice Soda is back!

We want people to continue enjoying our syrups, and they are amazing as Italian sodas! So, beginning this weekend and next, we're rolling our syrups into a few of our favourite Hamilton coffee shops. We started this last summer, and are eternally grateful to the Cannon for giving us a cozy home to work out all of our kinks! This summer, we're expanding, and will be in four local shops! Spanning from east to west, you'll be able to enjoy Sweet Ice Soda at The Cannon, Cafe Oranje, Cake & Loaf, and Detour.

Check them out here:

The Cannon

(beginning this Friday, for Sew Hungry)

179 Ottawa St N, Hamilton

Cafe Oranje

(beginning this Saturday)

312 King St E, Hamilton

Cake & Loaf

(beginning next week; stay tuned for an announcement on Facebook or Twitter)

321 Dundurn St S, Hamilton

Detour

(beginning this Saturday) 

41 King St W, Dundas

3) We'll be having pop-up shops throughout the summer at these locations, so people can still enjoy a Sweet Ice snow cone! Keep your eyes on our Facebook and Twitter pages, to get announcements on where we'll be set up. There won't be much notice - basically we'll just see if it's hot enough for a snow cone, announce the location, and then show up to sell our cute treats!

Looking forward to another season of Sweet Ice, where things are always exciting and new. Thanks for following along!

(photos via Oak & Myrrh Photography, @iamjohnston, Cafe Oranje, and Jesse Senko)

Delicious, Refreshing News!

You wouldn't believe how often people ask if we have a store somewhere. Like...I guess they think it would be a really great idea to have a whole shop that just sells snow cones. Hmm. Well, anyways, so far our delicious all-natural syrups have only ever been available at our booth, in the form of a snow cone, but we have big news!

*Drum rollllllll*

That's right! You can now get Sweet Ice Soda, all summer long, at The Cannon! We're so excited to provide our fresh-fruit, made-from-scratch syrups to our favorite coffeeshop, and Anne and Cindy are so excited to add some refreshing new items to their menu! Starting THIS WEEKEND you can pop by 179 Ottawa St North and try an icy cool Sweet Ice Soda!

And of course, you can still get the Sweet Ice Snow Cones that you're craving. We'll be set up at the Art Crawl tonight, outside Mulberry Street Coffee House on James Street North. Art Crawl starts around 7, and goes...as late as you want it to!

See you there (and probably at The Cannon too, since that's where we are more often than not), and stay cool, Hamilton!

(Photos: Oak & Myrrh Photography)

Heads Up, Feelin' Inspired.

Oh, hi!

It's July! (WHAT?!) Prime snow cone season! You may be wondering (or you maybe haven’t been wondering) where we’re setting up lately. Well friends, things are a bit slow moving with Sweet Ice these days. We do have a bunch of great snow cone events booked for the next few weeks, but they are mostly private as we work towards getting our trailer renovated and getting licensed by the City of Hamilton. It's a bit of a trudge these days, but with so many amazing new things happening around us, it's easy to keep our spirits up and march on. We'll get there! The trailer will SOMEDAY be renovated, and then there will be snow cones for all! We promise.

A few things that have kept us inspired lately?

We visited Manual Labour Coffee, which is a mobile espresso shop that runs out of a (get this) VINTAGE TRAILER. The trailer is named Frankie, and the operators of this brilliant little scheme are Matt and Katie, who are just the sweetest (Not sure if you kept up with our tweets or instagrams of this meet & greet, but we’re basically SMITTEN). They set up at the Oakville Farmers Market and serve amazing Detour products from their trailer. It’s magical.

 

We strongly suggest making the trip to Oakville to visit MLC, but we're also hoping they make their way to Hamilton soon! There is talk of setting up a vintage trailer meetup, so stay tuned for that. Oh man, that's the cutest idea ever. Cute-o-meter just broke.

Speaking of people being cute and us being inspired, a few weeks back we had a potluck with some of the most amazing people.This affectionately titled 'Lady Business Partner Potluck' (needs a new name!) was basically a night spent in the company of some of the most inspiring women we know. Needlework, White Elephant, The Cannon, Cake + Loaf, Beaux Mondes...the ladies behind these amazing initiatives were all in attendance, so you can imagine that the conversation was delightful and the food was divine. One of the highlights: going around the room and finding out how each duo came into existence. Another highlight: we had ice cream in tea cups. And all the pictures you see were taken by the one and only, Hollie Pocsai. :)

We’re going to be doing this regularly, so we can just hang out and dream together. SO nice.

So! That’s where we’re at these days. Still slinging cones, and planning to see all your lovely faces at the July Art Crawl. Send some happy trailer wishes this way, and we’ll keep you posted.

Happy Valentine's Day!

If you saw last week's post, you'll know that we silk-screened some t-shirts at The Print Studio. We made these as gifts for some of our favorite business partners in Hamilton - here are a few more photos from our time at the studio, since we didn't do the big reveal last week.

Again, we had such a great time at The Print Studio, and highly recommend taking a workshop there. It was so fun and a really wonderful learning experience and now that we have memberships, we can go back and screen-print any time we want to!

Okay, so here we go with our Valentine's deliveries! Gahh, so much fun!

Stop #1: Cake + Loaf! (The best bakery in town...in our opinion). They are so sweet - they knew we were coming and had amazing Valentine's cookies waiting for us. YUM! Cake & Loaf is such a nice place to stop in - you're always greeted with a big smile and an amazing selection of goodies to choose from.

Stop #2: Needlework! This stop was so fun and giddy. Kate and Liz squealed and immediately tried on their shirts. We had a hilarious argument: "You're the cutest business partners" "No, you're the cutest business partners!". It was also the day of their grand opening (which happened during the Art Crawl and was a huge success), so there was so much excitement in the air! Congrats on such an amazing endeavor, Kate and Liz!

Stop #3: The Cannon! This is our favorite coffee shop in the city, but I suppose we're a bit biased. But REALLY - it's so great. Anne and Cindy are dear friends of ours, and have recently opened Cannon Coffee Co., where they serve amazing coffee and bake up absolutely delicious treats. There's a great fresh-but-cozy atmosphere and you'll always be swept off your feet with Anne and Cindy's pleasant smiles and conversation. Go there, k? 

Stop #4: Kitestring! Well, this was fun! There was just so much screaming and laughing and of course we got to partake in the Kitestring-stash-o-candy. You can tell that Chris and Jenn have a lot of fun together but there's also a really deep friendship and mutual respect that is really evident, and that's so great to see. What nice business partners!

Stop #5: White Elephant! If you know Hollie and Jane, or if you've ever been to White Elephant, you'll know that these girls are a power couple (in the business sense of the word)...there's nothing they can't tackle! Their store is gorgeous, their banter is hilarious and they're just delightful people in general! We stopped in here during art crawl, and as usual, the shop was just packed (with people and amazing merchandise!) Yay!

Stop #6: Detour! Unfortunately we couldn't catch Kaelin, but we did stop in and see Crystal. This husband-wife duo and their wonderful coffee shop is a reason to visit Dundas in itself...what began as an amazing direct-trade roastery has turned into an incredible cafe, and it's been amazing to see these two work together towards their dreams. Also, they are our source for the beans we use for our Sweet Espresso syrup!

Stop #7: Our final stop! We met with Chris and Amy - future owners of what will surely be an amazing coffee shop in the core (#cafeoranje). While their doors aren't open for business yet, you can already see that these two are an amazing match when it comes to working out your dreams and running a business together. It was such a joy to sit down for coffee with them and hear about their process so far, and we can't wait to support them on this amazing whirlwind adventure!

We had an amazing time delivering our Valentine's Day gifts! It's such a honor to know all of these people and to gain from their knowledge and experience. During this process we've realized that this is only be 'Round One' of handing out these shirts, because there are just so many other talented and inspiring (and cute!) business partners in Hamilton. It's just thrilling to be part of a city with so much talent and with such excitement in the air! It was also nice to catch up and share a bit about what we have in store for Sweet Ice - which you'll be hearing about soon! Lots on the horizon for these business partners!

(See 'Part 1' of our silk-screening adventure here and little video from our workshop here!)