Summer’s ICEE Guide: Rattlers (ICEE/Slush Monkey)


Rattlers is/was a local convenience store chain started by the Kolkhorst family back in 2004.  Rattlers has enjoyed immense popularity in our area and has 14 locations in and around the Brazos Valley area (for this guide, I’m just covering the four Bryan-College Station ones).  Staff there is always friendly, the prices reasonable, and they have good coffee too.  They had a great loyalty program that earned you a free ICEE after every ten.  They have always been my favorite ICEE supplier.

Alas, I also say “was” because Rattlers was bought out in 2016 by the Stripes chain.  As such, I debated including them in this guide because all Rattlers will supposedly be converted to Stripes locations, which means they will also lose their ICEE machines (or really just have them replaced with Stripes’ branded Slush Monkey machines or maybe Slurpee as some have apparently done).  However, as the stores thus far still retain the Rattlers name, I’ve kept them listed separately.  Any totally rebranded to Stripes will be moved to that page.

Note: I have only personally been to Rattlers #7 and #8, however as they generally are consistent from location to location, I presume the same information here holds true for the other one.

Locations

#7, 2050 Holleman Dr W, College Station (map)

#8 2411 E. 29th St, Bryan (map)

#19 1780 Greens Prairie Road W, College Station (map) – my favorite!

#3 891 Earl Rudder FWY, Bryan (map) – this one is unconfirmed on having an ICEE machine, I haven’t been in years, but don’t remember it having one when I used to go; I’ve included it though since most Rattlers do have them

Sizes & Costs

Rattlers offers all three ICEE sizes at the traditional ICEE prices.

Small $1.19
Medium $1.39
Large $1.59

They usually run specials a few times a year for any size ICEE for $1, but I do not know if anymore will happen before the ICEEs go away.

Flavors

Rattlers has a four flavor machine, and is fairly consistent in having Coke, Wild Cherry, Blue Raspberry, and Dr. Pepper.

Quality

Rattlers machines generally produce good quality ICEEs.  Some flavors do rarely hit the too thick level or have excessive CO2, but I suspect it is more from high usage and hitting it at just the wrong time versus any major issues with the machine.

The ICEE machine area is always clean and well maintained, and I know they are very proactive in getting ICEE out if there are problems with the machines, leading to a low number of outages.  As I tend to go there weekly, I probably notice them more than more folks LOL

Pics