Let’s dive into some Slurpee history, shall we?
There’s no doubt that you’ve probably tried a Slurpee from 7-Eleven at least once in your life…in fact, the slushy drinks are so popular that the chain sells out enough Slurpees to fill 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools every year.
But how did this phenomenon get started…?
Surprisingly, the carbonated drink didn’t get its start at a 7-Eleven, but rather at a Dairy Queen in Kansas in the late 1950s. A man named Omar Knedlik owned the restaurant and discovered that the soda bottles he put in his freezer to stay cool were a big hit with customers when they still had some frozen slush in them.
Knedlik created a machine made out of a car air conditioning unit that made semi-frozen, carbonated drinks. He perfected the machine with an engineering firm in Dallas and began selling his ICEE machines to all kinds of businesses.
7-Eleven licensed the ICEE machine in 1965 and rebranded its drink as the Slurpee. Two flavors were originally offered: Coca-Cola and cherry. The Slurpee was a huge hit and the machines were in all 7-Eleven locations by the 1970s. The number of flavor options also exploded and there were 27 different Slurpee flavors by the ’70s. Since then, hundreds of different Slurpee flavors have been available to customers.
Slurpees were so popular that a 1960s jingle called “Dance the Slurp” was released on vinyl and handed out for free at 7-Eleven locations.
And you know that spoon/straw hybrid that allows you to dish it out AND drink from the cup? You also have the Slurpee to thank for that: an MIT-trained mechanical engineer named Arthur A. Aykanian created that masterpiece that we still use today specifically for the Slurpee.
And one more thing before you go: can you guess which country drinks the most Slurpees in the whole world?
Surprisingly, it’s a country that’s known for being COLD…Canada!
Hey, you learn something new every day…
Now go ahead and run to your nearest 7-Eleven and have a Slurpee for us!
