City envy: we want a snowball vending machine like Minneapolis

A post shared by Refresher Česko (@refreshercz) on Feb 5, 2018 at 5:01am PST

Admittedly, we couldn’t hack the sub-zero temperatures in Minneapolis right now – the mercury plunged to -17C last week – but it’s easy to feel all warm and fuzzy about the city’s new snowball vending machine. Created by local ad agency Space150, the contraption dispensed real, hand-packed snowballs to people visiting the city for the recent Super Bowl, as a celebration of Minnesota’s annual big freeze.

Each missile comes in a ring-pull plastic tin (like a tennis ball) and costs $1 – the proceeds of which go to an organisation that helps people connect with the great outdoors. The closest most Londoners get to nature is moaning about the weather, so we reckon access to snowballs (preferably at every tube station) would put smiles on plenty of sun-starved, wind-chapped faces.

Now read all about London's best winter walks.