Shaved Ices

A variation on a granité is the shaved ice, which is made by simply freezing water (or a flavored liquid) and then shaving the resulting ice block with a fork, ice pick, or ice shaver to obtain small, pure ice crystals. The shaved ice is placed in an appropriate vessel (such as a bowl or glass), and, once it is placed in front of the customer, a flavored liquid can be poured in when using unflavored ice. This flavored liquid can be anything that can be used to make a granité. In fact, it is believed that shaved ice was the original frozen dessert, created by the Chinese. The Romans would pour sweet wine on top of snow. In some places, this is incorrectly called a frappé.