A snow cone is usually a mound of crunchy hailstones sitting in a pool of synthetic sugar syrup. But shaved ice is altogether different.

A new breed of snow moguls draws inspiration from a whirling blizzard of these treats around the world: Hawaiian shave ice, Mexican raspados, Korean bingsu, Baltimore sky-blue ¡°snowballs¡± topped with marshmallow, and Taiwanese bao bing flavored with palm sugar syrup. Indian golas and chuskis, sold by street vendors or gola wallahs, are flavored with rose, cardamom, orange and saffron.

Most of them hail from places where summers are hot, and fruit plentiful: Latin America is packed with shaved ice treats, like Nicaraguan piraguas - named for their pyramid shape - Cuban granizados, and frio-frio (coldcold) from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

¡°I¡¯ve seen them in Cuba, I¡¯ve seen them in Uzbekistan, I¡¯ve seen them in Korea,¡± said Nathalie Jordi, an owner of People¡¯s Pops in New York, who makes shaved ice topped with organic and local fruit syrups. ¡°It¡¯s the simplest possible summer dessert.¡±

Fresher than Fresh is a snow cone start-up in Kansas City, Missouri, owned by Lindsay Laricks, a graphic designer who grows many of the herbs for her blackberry-lavender and watermelon- basil syrups. Ms. Laricks sells her snow cones at local markets and art openings. ¡°I hope to completely reinvent the snow cone,¡± she said.

At Pulino¡¯s, an ambitious new pizza restaurant on New York¡¯s Lower East Side, the pastry chef Jane Tseng freezes a puree of almonds, sugar and water, then sends it through the fine grating blade of her ice shaving machine so that a light snow gathers in heaps. It tastes like essence of tortoni, sweetly fleeting.

Shaved ice is soft and snowy on the tongue, and disappears instantly when pressed against the palate. The technology for shaving ice runs from Ms. Jordi¡¯s simple approach (a large block of ice and a shaver) to the complex (the Japanese-made Hatsuyuki HF500, priced about $1,500).

Shaved ice is a wonderful carrier for fruit flavor, beautifully demonstrated by Ms. Jordi¡¯s lemon-plum combination, or the dry applegrape concocted by the chef Daniel Holzman of the Meatball Shop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The notion of ¡°perfect¡± shaved ice - dry, light, with the slightest possible crunch ? becomes clear from one¡¯s first mouthful of the bingsu at Koryodang, a Korean cafe in the heart of Koreatown in Midtown Manhattan. The ice here is powder-soft; the house-made green tea ¡°sauce¡± that¡¯s poured over it is milky and lush, but with no heaviness.

This is the modern version of patbingsu (kakigori in Japanese), a traditional and basic treat of shaved ice with sweet bean paste. Popular in many parts of Asia, bingsu has morphed into huge, tottering sundaes like the ones at Koryodang and its neighbor, Ele Cafe. (Many Filipino sweet shops also make versions of this treat, called halo-halo.) Chunks of mango and strawberry, scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, toasted mochi, tapioca balls, canned corn and every color of bean adorn the most exorbitant creations.

But Mexico might win the global prize for best, or at least most, variations on shaved ice. Mexico¡¯s cooks expertly wring all the flavor out of fruit in their raspados. Even a modest pushcart in a beach town may boast of its delicious treats.

¡°It¡¯s hard to imagine any place being more creative with ice and fruit,¡± said Fany Gerson, a pastry chef and author of the forthcoming ¡°My Sweet Mexico.¡±

Apart from basic fruit raspados, she said, there are special treats like the challengingly sour chamoyada, which incorporates shaved ice and chamoys, a childhood treat of salted, sweet fruit spiked with chili powder found at candy stores all over Mexico.

¡°It just explodes in your mouth,¡± Ms. Gerson said.

As for Ms. Laricks, her blackberrylavender snow cones already had enough of a following in Kansas City to inspire dreams of a snow cone empire.

¡°I think people have very affectionate feelings toward snow cones,¡± said Ms. Laricks . ¡°I know that what I¡¯m making is actually shaved ice, but that sounded too snooty for Kansas City.¡±


By JULIA MOSKIN