The Secret Fast Food Item You Can Order From The Sonic Drive-In

Does ice make the world go round? Maybe not, but it does send us to one particular fast food chain when we need something to cool us down. You know the one! Winner of the top spot in our ranking of fast food ice cubes, Sonic Drive-In's famous nugget ice (sometimes referred to as pellet or pebble ice) is lauded not only for its ability to keep drinks cold but also for being immensely satisfying to munch on long after those Route 44-sized cups have run dry. It even has a fan in actor Matthew McConaughey, who once told Texas Monthly that he spent years looking for an ice maker that could replicate the chain's frozen H2O.

The star ultimately found his answer in the Manitowoc QF-400, though it's not exactly practical (or cheap) for most people to install a commercial ice machine in their house as he did. However, that doesn't mean you can't still have your nugget ice and eat it, too, because Sonic Drive-In sells bags of its beloved ice that you can bring back to your freezer at home.

The bags weigh in at 10 pounds each and cost around $3.00 (however, prices may vary by location). Don't be discouraged if you don't see bagged ice listed on the restaurant's menu, either. As TikTok user @wtfinrecipe discovered, all you need to do is ask for a bag of ice at the drive-thru or drive-up stall, and the restaurant will happily fulfill your request.

As much as people love their nugget ice, it does have a disappointing downside: it tends to melt much quicker than the traditional ice cube. As Reddit user u/madeupname-_- found out, this can pose a bit of a problem when you're transporting 10-pound bags from your local Sonic Drive-In back to your house. "If it melts even a little [bit] on the way home and freezes again it basically turns into a solid block of ice," they explained.

Gently dropping the bag on the ground is one solution to this problem that will break up the ice again. However, TikTok user @theballardbunch found a method to prevent it from even happening in the first place.

In a video shared in November 2023, the TikToker explained that once you return home with your Sonic Drive-In ice, you need to drain the bag before putting it in the freezer, which they did by cutting a small hole in the bottom corner. Once you've drained as much of the melted ice water out as possible, place the bag in the freezer for 15 minutes, after which you should take the bag out and break up the ice by gently hitting it on the ground or a countertop. Repeat this step one more time, then the ice should stay in the familiar nugget form we all know and love.