Should you eat snow cream? Opinions differ on the social-media-fueled winter confection

A major winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow to parts of the East Coast this weekend. Amid freezing temperatures, many will be hunkering down and sipping hot cocoa by the fire or trying out new warming winter recipes.

Others will be getting creative with an ingredient that won’t be in short supply: snow.

“First snow of the year means SNOW CREAM,” one TikToker posted earlier this month. “This is literally my childhood,” another wrote in the caption of her video, combining fresh snow with milk, sugar, and vanilla to make a bowl of dessert.

Other snow-based recipes that have gone viral in light of the recent weather include using snow as a way to freeze ice cream, adding whipped cream, vanilla, and icing sugar to a mixing bowl pressed into the snow. Another is “sugar on snow,” also known as maple taffy, made by pouring hot maple syrup directly onto snow and rolling it onto a stick for a simple cold-weather treat.

While many of these concoctions aren’t new, comments online are mixed. “Ohhhh girlfriend you’re not supposed to make snow cream with the first snow of the season,” one warned. Another wrote, “Hey so I saw an under the microscope of snow and I’d just put that back on the ground.”

These fears aren’t entirely unfounded. The National Snow and Ice Data Center suggests avoiding ingesting the first layer of snow covering the ground.

“As snow falls through the sky, it can lock in pollutants into its intricate latticework. The most common is black carbon from coal-fired plants and wood-burning stoves,” the organization explains. “Snow acts like a scrubbing brush as it falls through the atmosphere. So, the longer the snow falls, the cleaner the air, and also the snow.”

If you do want to try your hand at making snow cream this weekend, avoid any discolored or yellow-tinged snow (for obvious reasons) and anything that could have been in contact with chemicals, such as salt or ice melt.

City snow is also more likely to be contaminated than rural snow. If you live in Manhattan, perhaps you should sit this one out.