The ICEE Company is a beverage company located in Ontario, California

Ontario, California

Ontario is a city located in San Bernardino County, California, United States, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire region, it lies just east of the Los Angeles county line and is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its flagship product is the ICEE, which is a frozen carbonated beverage

Frozen Carbonated Beverage

A frozen carbonated beverage is a mixture of flavored sugar syrup, carbon dioxide, and water that is frozen by a custom machine creating a drink comprising a fine slush of suspended ice crystals, with liquid. The final ice crystal concentration changes from 10% to 50%. It depenses on a type of...

 that comes in various fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 and soda flavors. ICEE also produces other frozen beverages, and Italian ice

Italian ice

Italian ice, also known as water ice, is a sweetened frozen dessert made with fruit or other natural or artificial food flavorings, similar to sorbet. Italian ice is not shaved ice that is flavored; rather, it is made by the same process by which ice cream is made: freezing the ingredients while...

 pops under both the ICEE and Slush Puppie

Slush Puppie

Slush Puppie is a slush beverage marketed by Slush Puppie, which is a division of The ICEE Company, and through its Slush Puppie Distributors in the U.S. Slush Puppie was acquired by ICEE on May 30, 2006....

 brands. The company's mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

 is an anthropomorphic cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

 polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...

. It has been a division of J & J Snack Foods Corporation

J & J Snack Foods Corporation

The J & J Snack Foods Corporation is a food and beverage manufacturing and marketing conglomerate based in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Primarily involved with frozen beverages and "nutritious" snack foods, the group owns such well-known brands as ICEE, SuperPretzel, Bavarian Pretzel Bakery, Mrs...

 since 1988.

Today, the ICEE Company has over 75,000 ICEE machines across the United States, which serve 300 million ICEEs per year. McDonald's

McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

 and Subway

Subway (restaurant)

Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...

 restaurants inside Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

 stores sell ICEEs. Burger King

Burger King

Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

 restaurants in the United States and Canada sell ICEEs and ICEE Floats. Target

Target Corporation

Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

 and Wawa also sell ICEEs inside their stores. In Mexico, ICEE is widely available at department stores such as Sears

Sears Mexico

Sears Roebuck de México is a department store chain located in Mexico, operating more than 55 stores all over Mexico. Sears México is operated by Grupo Carso...

 and Wal-Mart, and inside movie theaters and convenience stores. ICEE is also the primary frozen beverage sold in Wawa and Quick Chek, two convenience store chains located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. Valero

Valero

Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power based in San Antonio, Texas, United States...

 gas stations co-branded with their CornerStore marts (except for those independently owned) sell the ICEE.

7-Eleven

7-Eleven

7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...

 licenses the ICEE and markets it as the Slurpee

Slurpee

A Slurpee is a flavored frozen drink sold by 7-Eleven. In 1967, 7-Eleven licensed the product from the ICEE Company, and began selling it as the Slurpee.-Slurpee history:Machines to make frozen beverages were invented by Omar Knedlik in the late 1950s...

. Circle K licensed the ICEE in 1998 as their ThirstFreezer.

History

The ICEE machine was invented in the early 1960s by Omar Knedlik

Omar Knedlik

Omar Knedlik , was the inventor of the ICEE frozen drink. He was born and raised a poor farm boy in Barnes, Kansas in 1916. Knedlik was a World War II veteran who bought his first ice cream shop after the war. He owned several hotels before moving to Coffeyville, Kansas, where he became the...

, a local Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen, often abbreviated DQ, is a chain of soft serve and fast food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc, who also owns Orange Julius and Karmelkorn. The name "Dairy Queen" is taken from the name of their soft serve product, which the company refers to as "Dairy Queen" or...

 restaurant owner, in Coffeyville, Kansas

Coffeyville, Kansas

Coffeyville is a city situated along the Verdigris River in the southeastern part of Montgomery County, located in Southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,295...

. He had been placing bottles of soda in his freezer until they were frozen since he did not have a soda fountain. The frozen drinks were extremely popular and he soon realized that he needed a machine to make the product. After 5 years, he had invented the ICEE Machine. He originally wanted his drink product to be called "scoldasice". However, he asked a local artist and friend, Ruth E. Taylor, to create a marketing name and logo for his invention. She developed the name "ICEE", as well as the logo's icicles hanging down from the top of the block letters, which has not changed to this day. She also created an accompanying "polar bear", which has undergone dramatic changes over the years. By the mid-1960s, 300 ICEE machines had been manufactured.