Del's Etiquette

Two things usher in the summer for me, getting our beach pass in the mail and on the car, and purchasing my first Del's for the year. The latter goes back to the 70's for me when we would chase down a Del's truck for a "35 cent small." Occasionally, my father would pull off the road on the way home from the beach when we spotted a Del's truck. We would dig into the seat cushions of the Ford Country Squire, looking for stray change to up our Del's size. Back then, the Del's trucks were staffed by long haired hippy types who were looking to make some scratch to feed their drug habit. By the 80's, the college kids took over manning the trucks. They were a lot nicer than the hippies. While the hippies often shorted us, the college kids piled it on.

Del's is a Rhode Island based frozen lemonade drink which is far more than a smoothie. Del's is ice and water in thermodynamic equilibrium. This is what separates Del's from shaved ice. Del's is made by a machine that adds just the right amount of energy to a mixture of water, lemons and sugar, cooled to the freezing point. A paddle stirs the frozen concoction to ensure that it remains a slush instead of freezing. The proper engineering term for Del's is a "saturated liquid-solid," which simply means some parts are freezing (solid) while other parts are melting (liquid). That's why Del's is much finer than shaved or crushed ice. Not even a double blend can make a drink as smooth as a Del's. And that's all the science I'm going to talk about.

Angelo DeLucia constructed the first Del's machine in 1946. In 1840, his great grandfather made frozen lemonade in Naples, Italy from snow insulated with straw and stored in caves. Today, Del's is sold worldwide. You can get it in Hawaii and Japan. The original shop is still in Cranston, Rhode Island. I used to live in an adjacent town, but I never got my Del's from the world headquarters. I thought I would pull my kids from their computers and make the short trek for our first Del's of 2017 from the original store. After the griping and moaning subsided, I got all of them, including my wife, Christine, loaded into the car. She complained the most,

"We're gonna drive a half hour for Del's when its 65 degrees outside?" Christine protested.

They all like Del's, but they acted like I was asking them to do chores or go to church. All I wanted was to see the first ever Del's store. I know, my bucket list is a bit shallow. I wasn't asking all that much, and besides there was Del's in it for all of them. Christine is from New York so I introduced her to Del's on one of our earliest dates.

"Can I have a straw?" she asked.

I quickly objected and rightly so. You don't drink Del's with a straw. It will drain the drink of all the fluid, leaving just the ice. The key to Del's is to shake the cup in your hand which melts the ice while keeping you cool. Maintaining thermodynamic equilibrium is very important for a proper Del's experience.

One time while getting Del's, my son, Aidan, asked for a plastic spoon.

"No son of mine puts a spoon in his Del's," I interjected.

I made it clear to Aidan that there would be no spoons as well as no straws. You can get a lid on your Del's if you are transporting it from one place to another, but in general a lid is frowned upon.

"How do you feel about a napkin?" Aidan asked.

A napkin is ok, I guess.

There are eight official flavors of Del's. Blueberry and cherry, peach mango. I don't care for any of these. In my day there was only one, lemon, and that was good enough for us. We were happy even though we didn't have any money or go on family vacations. We did have Del's though. Some of the flavors like blueberry leave your lips and tongue the color of the drink. The only new flavor I find palatable is grapefruit.

Grapefruit is adult Del's. Like beer grapefruit is an acquired taste. As a kid I thought grapefruit was what happened to orange juice when it went bad. My dad bought grapefruit juice because we kids hated it. We regularly polished off the orange juice whenever it was in the house. Buying grapefruit was the only way my dad could have juice with his bowl of Total.

I almost always "stop at the sign of the lemon," and I hope someday my sons will bring their children to see grandpa who will take them for a "35 cent small" which will cost twelve dollars and probably be a half caffe, latte, skim mango peach unicorn Del's. It will be purple but, change to mauve if you stir it.

And we'll be happy.

Editor's Note: Originally published on May 9, 2017.