Providence: Del’s Lemonade

Del’s frozen lemonade

According to the Del’s company website, there are thirty locations selling Del’s frozen lemonade.  Presumably, a “location” doesn’t include the dozens and dozens of cornerside carts shlepping the stuff that have popped up all over the city, since I think I could find thirty of them within ten minutes of my apartment.

Del’s is supposedly in many states but I never heard of it before I came to Providence.  It is, as advertised, frozen lemonade: I think literally lemonade that is frozen and then milled to grains small enough that they feel grainy on your tongue but that don’t require any actual chewing, as opposed to shaved ice with lemonade flavoring poured on top of it, since the ice doesn’t get paler as you suck the melted liquid out from the bottom.  Probably not totally free of artificial flavors.  I think the lemon is real enough–there are even little scraps of actual lemon peel dispersed throughout, which gives the lemon a more fragrant, fruity taste, away from pure sourness–but the sweetener definitely is processed sugar.  Still, it’s a cool, soothing little regional thing, an easy $1.75/3 (depending on how much frozen goodness you want) as you pass by the cart.