Eight-year-old Jeffrey Parker and his sister Serena Chant, 9, can attest to that truism.
The siblings were at the 7-Eleven store at 2330 Battleford Rd. in Meadowvale this morning when they poured themselves a free Slurpee: Pepsi-flavoured for Jeffrey, banana for Serena.
It was the convenience store chain’s 81st birthday and to celebrate the occasion theywere handing out 1,000 free 7.11 ounce cups of the iconic drink in each of its stores. Since there are three outlets in Mississauga, that means as many as 3,000 free Slurpees could be given away.
“It’s a nice cold drink that’s really good during a hot summer day,” said Serena, sounding like a commercial.
“We usually come here for Slurpees once a day — sometimes twice when the weather is hot,” said Jeffrey.
According to 7-Eleven, the event is one of the largest single-day product giveaways in Canadian history.
Slurpee was first created in 1959 by Omar Knedlik, a Kansas hamburger stand owner.
Using a car air conditioner, he created a piece of equipment that would freeze a carbonated soft drink and serve it in a ‘sherbet-like’ form. In 1965, a 7-Eleven manager saw the machine and brought it into three stores in Texas.
The drink became a sensation and by 1967 was in all U.S. 7-Eleven stores. It made its first appearance in Canada in 1969 when the first 7-Eleven store opened in Calgary.
Canadians drink approximately 2.35 million Slurpees per month for a total of more than 28 million Slurpees per year.
Slurpee got its name during a brainstorming session when, while drinking the product through a straw, someone commented it made a ‘slurp’ sound. The rest is history.
jchin@mississauga.net
