During the Roman Empire (27 B.C. to A.D. 395) snow was hauled from the mountain tops to the city. Syrup was added to make the world's first frozen dessert, the sno-ball.

The first manufactured snow was made by hand tools such as a wood plane. Such tools can shave a block of ice into fluffy snow. Hand held ice shavers were designed solely to produce sno-balls. Ice shavers made by numerous manufacturers were available in the late eighteen hundreds. In New Orleans the sno-ball cooling tradition was popularized around the 1920's.