“Ice isn't just for chilling drinks anymore, or for packing fish and treating sprains. It's a hot snack.”

So says a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, titled “Chew This Over: Munchable Ice Sells Like Hotcakes.”  The article is entertaining and comes complete with a short, funny video about ice-chewers.

Though the anecdotes are interesting, the really compelling information here is this little factoid:

“Sales of machines that make easier-to-chew ice jumped about 23%, to 16,673 units in 2006 from 2003, according to data from the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute.”

So why not test out the waters of this consumer trend?  Different people enjoy chewing different styles of ice, but there are a couple of varieties that are especially popular.  The fast food chain Sonic is renowned for the ice from their Scotsman nugget ice machines.  The nugget shape is very popular, but there are other options as well.

Here’s a quick run-down of the basic types of cubes ice machines can produce:

• Cube ice is clear and comes in various shapes—rectangular, crescent, pillow-shaped, pure cube, or other regular shapes. The largest dimension is about 1.25 inches (3.18 centimeters). Pieces of cube ice range in weight from 1/6 to 1/2 ounce (4.8 to 14.0 grams) and contain minimal amounts of liquid water. More than 80 percent of ice machines sold in the U.S. make cube ice.
• Flake ice comes in chips or flakes that contain up to 20 percent liquid water. Flake ice tends to conform to the surface of items that rest on it and is typically used in supermarket display cases, on fishing boats, or anywhere food needs to be preserved for short periods. Flake ice may also occasionally be used in soft drinks.
• Crushed ice consists of small, irregular pieces made by crushing larger chunks of ice. Its primary use is for keeping drinks cool.
• Ice nuggets, made by extruding and freezing slushy flake ice into small pieces, are also used primarily to cool drinks.

Chewable ice may seem like an odd selling point, but when you read the article and hear of restaurants selling bags of frozen goodness to ice chewing fans, you may just be tempted to try it yourself.