Slushy
flavored frozen drink
A slushy (also spelled slushie and less commonly slushee) is a type of drink made of flavored ice and a drink, similar to granitas but with a more liquid composition. It is also commonly called a slush, slurpee, or frozen drink. A slushie can either be carbonated or non-carbonated; the carbonated version is sometimes called a frozen carbonated drink.
History
The first carbonated slushie machine was invented by Omar Knedlik, the owner of a Dairy Queen franchise. In the late 1950s, the soda machine at his restaurant experienced constant issues. Sometime in 1958, his machine completely failed and he decided to store his soda in his freezer, where it became slushy when pulled out. He decided to sell the slush to his customers, and the drink soon became popular. Knedlik decided to pursue making slushies and commissioned Ruth Taylor to create the name and logo of the Icee Company. These early machines used an automotive air conditioning system and worked by combining and freezing a flavor mix, water, and carbon dioxide.
In 1960, Knedlik partnered with John Mitchell to mass-produce slushy machines, gaining a patent in 1962.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Slushy” as flavored frozen drink. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as flavored frozen drink. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q13296. The Library of Congress control number is sh2014002256. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1960 and 1962.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Slushy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.