Baltimore Snowball

Last week Bert took a day off so he could spend it with us during our last day of Fall Break. Our first stop earlier that afternoon was at Peterson's Donut Corner where we sampled a few of their cronuts then headed straight over here...

to ANOTHER dessert place...

I'd never heard of Baltimore Snowball before and when I saw the coupon from the Get1Free website, I was intrigued. I read up on their website that the "snowball" originated from Baltimore and is not to be confused with Hawaiian Shave Ice due to the differences in the shaved ice's texture.

During the Great Depression, snowballs were considered a sweet but inexpensive treat. It was simply shaved ice and flavored syrups.  Marshmallow  was considered a "must" have topping, and sometimes the snowballs would be eaten with custard. At this place, you can have your snowball with a scoop of ice cream at the bottom. Snowballs are different from snowcones which are made from coarse, crushed ice instead of shaved ice.

One note - We ended up not utilizing the "free" aspect of the coupon since there were three of us, but rather, did the $2 off our whole order thing instead.

Baltimore Snowball is a tiny little building in a nondescript strip mall, near a Del Taco and a donut shop. You can order your snowballs via drive through...


or order your treats from the walk up window on the other side. There are several tables and chairs for outside seating.

At first glance (heck, even the second and third glance!), their menu options are overwhelming!

You can either make your own creation or choose one of their many combos...

as well as their "Summertime" Specials.  One thing I was impressed about this place was the quality of their customer service. As we were looking at their menu board, one of their employees, a young gal, came out and enthusiastically greeted us. She explained and tried to simplify the ordering process and when asked for her personal favorites, happily gave her recommendations to us.

Bert was bent on getting "The Elvis":

I ended up getting our server's personal favorite, the Salted Caramel Mocha, one of their coffee flavored combos.

She also recommended this one...

Remember those big sticks from childhood?

(image from popsicle.com)

I remember I used to save up my money to buy them in junior high when they were still a mere .50!

Here are a couple more interesting combos:

The Matt Dean is named one of the employees!

Here are all three of our Baltimore Snowballs (size small):

TC had a really nice combo - Watermelon, cucumber melon, and mango flavors with strawberry ice cream hidden at the bottom and marshmallow cream topping. This was quite refreshing as well as pretty to look at.

This was my Salted Mocha Caramel - I really liked the texture of the ice. It wasn't gritty and had a soft feel to it, but not so soft that it melted quickly. It's not as "fluffy" as Hawaiian style shave ice. The ice cream inside meshed well with the ice and the whipped cream and caramel topping. I couldn't really taste the salt as much, but I did like the mocha flavor.

Bert's Elvis was quite interesting. He loved PB (and so did Elvis), and you could really taste the prominence of the PB, the banana snow with the swirled sauce. He had two types of sauce on there, PB and chocolate. All of this on top of a scoop of chocolate ice cream! This was a winner.

TC's cross section...she tends to eat her ice cream or snow cone/shave ice desserts in a methodical manner, excavating to the center slowly!

Here's one last look....

Even though it's not Christmas, take a gander at this mouthwatering video...

Doesn't this make you want to go and try one?

Baltimore Snowball
148 W. El Norte Parkway
Escondido, CA ZIP 92926
No phone number listed

www.baltimoresnowball.biz and their facebook page

They now have another location open in El Cajon at the Westfield Parkway Mall. I may have to check that place out to compare, you know, for "research" purposes, heh heh.

Reviews:
tripadvisor
yelp

Articles about the Baltimore "snowball" and its origins:
"Cold Comfort - On the cultural significance of the snowball in Baltimore" City Paper, Sept. 18, 1996
The history of the snowball" Baltimore Fish Bowl, June 8, 2011
"Summer is for snowballs in Baltimore" The Baltimore Maryland Agent, June 24, 2012
"The history behind Baltimore snowballs" Baltimore.About.Com, Aug. 7, 2012

Can't wait to go here again!