Why Sonic’s Ice Is the Best Ice

Ice, these days, is huge. Cocktail fanatics treat perfectly clear, evenly cut ice as a holy grail. And in the great cocktail-ice arms race of the modern era, there are separate factions: There’s team Big Cube, the devotees of which are often whiskey drinkers, and there’s team Long Stick, who like their highballs and their gin drinks. There’s team Crushed Ice (tiki fans) and team Frozen Cocktails (frosé all day, yeah, we get it!!).

And then there’s team Sonic Ice.

Team Sonic Ice doesn’t really have a specific beverage affiliation; they are more interested in refreshment than any particular liquor. But they are enthusiastic; they are vocal; they are legion. Rabid Sonic Ice fans range from non-boozers who love a good cherry limeade to serious cocktail nerds to, um, Matthew McConaughey.

“Dude, that’s Sonic Ice!” he once gleefully informed Texas Monthly writer John Spong before meticulously detailing how he searched for and eventually found a machine that will make the same style of ice in his home kitchen. “He had the coolest house on the block and a view of half of California,” wrote Spong. “And all he cared about was his ice maker.”

Often called pellet ice or nugget ice, its shape is something like a tater tot or a beer keg, only tiny. Sonic isn’t the sole place you can get it: The machine McConaughey bought, for example, is available to the public. But it is inextricably linked to Sonic in the public eye. Bartenders brag about serving “that good Sonic Ice”; college kids pick up coolers-full for 21st birthday parties.

Bartender Jayce McConnell of Edmund’s Oast explains the appeal thusly: “It’s porous and chewable, and every little pebble can carry some of the beverage with it.” He recommends using it in smashes and juleps: “I like pebble ice for its staying power.” At the bar, he serves two drinks that use it: a Chartreuse Colada (which “is exactly what it sounds like,” a piña colada with green chartreuse instead of rum) and the Cowboy Song, “a whiskey smash based around my childhood in Idaho, picking huckleberries in the piney foothills of the Rockies.”

Is Sonic aware of the cult following their ice has attracted? They sure as hell are. Scott Uehlein, VP of Product Innovation and Development, says, “We’ve definitely heard of people tracking down the maker and buying our ice machines to keep at home so they have access to SONIC [emphasis his] ice 24/7.” He credits the ice’s high surface area, as compared to traditional cubed ice, as a primary selling point: “The ice melts at an optimal speed without diluting the drink flavor too much.” The goal is to have some ice left over once you’ve finished your drink for, um, snacking.

At home, pebble ice is great in all kinds of cocktails, from margaritas to tiki drinks to spiked cherry limeade. But, unfortunately, Sonic doesn’t serve booze. (One can dream.) So what’s the Sonic Ice lover to do? According to Uehlein, “Many drive-ins sell Sonic Ice by the bag, depending on their local health-department regulations.” (And do note that McConnell advises against attempts to make it at home, without the machine: “Any approach you make at home will basically end up the same: crushed or shaved ice.”) So either head to your closest Sonic, or save your pennies and go the McConaughey route. The only caveat is that, when you make your first drink with the stuff, you have to loudly say, “All right, all right, all right!”