Lets talk about Ice.

We live in Mesa, AZ where ice is an essential part of our existence. Not just any ice either. We don’t drink coffee but we take a coffee break just the same, well a soda break. Two or three times a day we head down to Circle K to get our addiction. I’d like to say that it’s the soda, you know with all caffeine in it, but that’s not entirely true. No it’s really the ice.  If we were going for the soda, we would head over to the nearest convenience store and get one. We might even buy a case of soda at the store and keep it around that way. No. No like coffee drinkers we have our little preferences that make our soda perfect! Or I mean our ice.
We load up in the car and drive pass two different Circle K’s before pulling in at OUR Circle K a mile and half away. We also pass up a Chevron and truth be told although QT is awesome we pass them up too. I know it’s crazy but here’s the issue; price, cups and Ice.
No one else in the valley offers a 44 ounce soda for as little as Circle K. How can you beat $0.79? We are compelled slightly by the price. Second, no one else offers a Styrofoam cup that size!  Other places have Styrofoam cups, just none that big. Let me digress, I know that Styrofoam is an evil in this world. I know that we are killing the planet by using them, I make no excuses, only beg forgiveness if I must. The Styrofoam cup keeps our drinks and the ice in them cold for an exceptional amount of time. If you have ever lived in a place where 118*F is a regular temperature for about six weeks straight then you know how important cool liquid is. We’re being slowly baked alive here!
Third and most important, ICE!
Circle K is the only vendor with the small crush ice. This ice we often call micro pellet ice. QT has pellet ice and a lot of other Circle K locations have it too, but I’m talking about the small stuff. It is often used in sports medicine and in fact whenever anyone needs to ice down a injury (we have 7 kids three husbands and ourselves, someone seems to hurt themselves on a rotational schedule.)
It seems counter-intuitive I know. This ice has more surface area and therefore melts faster than any other ice cube out there. I know but it is also perfect crammed into the cup as Mardell likes it. She drinks her soda down and then crunches her ice all day, or sometimes she pours water in and drinks that down before crunching it. I don’t like my soda too watered down so I fill mine half way up and drink fast. Rachel is likely the most sane one of the bunch, she just drinks her soda.
Whatever we do we have to have our soda and ice! We are really grateful for the amazing lives we live that we can be so picky about ice!