New Orleans is famous for its delicacies: Po-boys, jambalaya, gumbo, beignets. But here's one you might not have heard of: Snoballs. From March to September, hundreds of shops in the city have lines of customers waiting to get their hands on this New Orleans tradition.

The snoball (also spelled snowball or sno-ball depending on the stand) is a cup of finely shaved ice topped with fruit syrup. If you think this sounds exactly like a snow cone, don't you dare say that in New Orleans.

The difference between the snow cone and the snoball is more than just a name. It has to do with the way the ice is actually shaved down into soft, snow-like flakes. The texture is achieved thanks to machines manufactured and sold in the Big Easy, most famously by SnoWizard - one of the city's major snoball ambassadors.

SnoWizard was started in 1936 by New Orleans grocery store owner George J. Ortolano. Using his mechanical skills (he would later build ships in World War II), he invented the snoball machine. Owners insert a block of ice, rotate a lever and watch soft ice come out the other side. (Decades later, the design is still largely unchanged.)

Read - 80-year-old New Orleans firm cranks out 'snoballs'

Previously:
In New Orleans, the sno-ball must go on
New Orleans: The food that got them through