The 'Today with Hoda & Jenna' stars shared Laura Bush's "snow ice cream" recipe, which has become tradition for both their families
Reese Witherspoon sparked a debate on Friday when she shared a video of herself making a recipe with freshly-fallen snow
Some people on social media questioned the cleanliness of the snow and Hager joked that "we tried to make sure it wasn’t yellow but if it was white we were going for it”
On Today with Hoda & Jenna, the co-hosts spoke about this weekend’s silly internet debate over Reese Witherspoon’s wintry dessert.
The actress, 47, posted a TikTok on Friday sharing her recipe for a creation she called a "Snow Salt Chococcino" using freshly-fallen snow. Soon after, Witherspoon received a wave of questions about whether or not snow was okay to eat. These inquiries prompted her to post three videos defending her choice of snack.
Hager, 42, and Kotb, 59, are two people that the Sing star doesn’t have to explain herself to.
On Monday’s episode, Kotb explained that the situation is “a whole thing and we don’t understand it but it’s a thing.”
“[Reese] posted a video using snow, freshly-fallen snow on her car. She made this thing she called a 'snow salt chococcino',” she said. “Apparently the internet was mad because, ‘Don’t eat snow because it must fall through pollution.’”
Hager chimed in to say that Witherspoon was even more hygienic than she has been in the past. "We’ve been eating snow and we would eat it like three days later,” she laughed. “We tried to make sure it wasn’t yellow but if it was white we were going for it.”
Hager explained that when it snowed “once a year in Texas,” her mother, Laura Bush, would make “snow ice cream.”
The childhood delicacy has even become a tradition for Kotb and her kids.
“When the snow falls we get cups, we fill it up, we take half and half or heavy cream, you add some sugar or sweetener, mix it up and it’s called snow ice cream,” Kotb said.
“That was her recipe that we passed down," added Hager.
Witherspoon's recipe was a caffeinated take on a similar snow dessert. She added salted caramel syrup and chocolate syrup into mugs of snow — "just 'cause we like how they taste together." Then she filled the snowy cups with cold brew for a "yummy coffee flavor," per Witherspoon.
To prove the cleanliness of her food, Witherspoon "went and took snow from the backyard" and microwaved it. It resulted in clear liquid.
"Is this bad?” she asked with a laugh. “Am I not supposed to eat snow?”
Witherspoon then decided that she’s “in the category of ‘you only live once,’ and it snows maybe once a year here,” in another video, before adding that the snack was “delicious.”
In her third and final video on the subject, Witherspoon said that she’d grown up not drinking filtered water anyway. “We actually put our mouths on the tap,” she admitted. “So what you’re saying to me is I have to filter the snow before I eat it? I just can’t. I can’t filter snow, I don’t know how to do that."
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