Yep, it is true. And the logic is pretty cool. Living here in SoCal, we don’t have to deal with ice and snow on a regular basis, but even this makes sense to us. At 15 degrees rock salt stops being effective at melting ice, and clumps together and becomes a mess that does NOT help people drive on roads covered in it. So what to do? Well, it turns out that sugar helps. What? Well, think about it. Soda pop doesn’t freeze until it gets into the very low single digits, and before that it is slushy. Hence Slurpees, and hence the beet juice.

By adding 10% sugar beet juice to the mix of salt and calcium chloride, the brine does a much better job in single digit temps. And because it is sticky it also keep the salt on the road instead of flying up and hitting cars. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to us. Too much? Yeah, probably. But this is cool, you have to admit.