Over the weekend my friend Melissa posted a picture of her daughter and nephew with the caption "Cousins eating snowballs" and a debate quickly ensued in the comments.
A snowball, to me, is a ball of snow you make and throw at your husband. It is not an icy treat covered in sugary syrup. Those are called snow cones.
Apparently this is a regional thing, and some people who grew up in Maryland refer to snow cones as snowballs... Well, kind of. There's actually a difference between a snow cone and a snowball, and the rest of the country has just been missing out.
According to one person who commented on her post, the "snowball" is made of fine, fluffy ice while the ice of a "snow cone" is coarse and crunchy.
"Commonly confused with the snow cone, the ice of a sno-ball is fine and fluffy; while a snow cone's ice is coarse, crunchy, and granular. Moreover, in a snow cone the flavored syrup sinks to the bottom of the cup; while in a sno-ball the ice absorbs the syrup."
So... Have you ever eaten a snowball?