Frozen Booze

November 17, 2007 1:22 PM

Ever made slushy cocktails? We're renting a slushy machine for a party in a week. We're looking for recipe ideas...

The machine we've rented has two 12L barrels (it's just the same as the slushy machines at the gas station, or whatever).

All the recipes I've found online tend to rely of supplied mixes, which aren't available to us. We were hoping some here on the Green have made frozen boozy goodness in the past, and may have some suggestions.

Currently, I'm leaning toward the idea of Pina Colada and Margatita and may just scale up the recipes for the regular cocktails. Or just pouring Rum, Coconut Cream and Pineapple juice in the barrel until the fun starts.

posted by sycophant to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

vodka, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, a little ginger ale and some orange sherbert will give you a creamsicle drink with a bite.
posted by vrakatar at 1:56 PM on November 17, 2007

Best answer: Slushy margaritas are fantastic - any good book will give you proportions to scale up. One thing to remember is that the colder the drink, the less sweet it will seem. You might need to add some sugar syrup to your mixes to help the flavour and get that small-crystal goodness happening. Sugar syrup is just white sugar dissolved in as little water as possible.

Sounds like a good party!
posted by ninazer0 at 2:02 PM on November 17, 2007

Whiskey + coke. Simple and awesome.
posted by mr frosted at 2:10 PM on November 17, 2007

Response by poster: Wikipedia says a Margarita (according to the IBC) is 7 parts tequila, four parts triple sec, and 3 parts lime juice (no wonder it packs such a punch).

I'm thinking I'll go for an 60%-20%-20% mix.

I've asked the guy who's supplying the machine for recipes, but so far he's a bit slack.
posted by sycophant at 2:26 PM on November 17, 2007

Response by poster: And nina, if you feel like a flight across the ditch next weekend, you're welcome to come! :)
posted by sycophant at 2:27 PM on November 17, 2007

Along the lines of 'vodka jellies' (I think that might be translated transatlantically as jello made with vodka instead of water), you could add vodka to the 'slush' part of the recipe, and then just use undiluted fruit squash/cordial/concentrate. Be careful with quantities, though, because it won't taste that alcoholic, but...
posted by Marzipan at 2:33 PM on November 17, 2007

Alas, sycophant, I am pre-booked - I shall just content myself with being envious :)

Marzipan's comment has got me thinking about your slushy mix, though. You're going to have to bump up the lime (non-alcohol) portion of the mix as well - too much alcohol will prevent the mix from freezing. Rather than mucking about with sugar syrup and lime juice, how about adding some good lime cordial (syrup) made up with a small amount of water?
posted by ninazer0 at 3:16 PM on November 17, 2007

be aware that those premade mixes are formulated to make that nice icy slush. You're going to get mixed results just dumping juice and booze in there. Don't expect it to give you
"good slushie", since the chemical makeup of the juice is significantly different from the mixes. Also, booze doesn't get slushy.
posted by cosmicbandito at 3:19 PM on November 17, 2007

Here's a recipe without a supplied-mix requirement. Don't just dump in some things and expect them to form a slush; various unsuitable mixtures will either freeze to a brick, not get slushy at all, or not remain slushy in the cup for long enough to consume them.
posted by ikkyu2 at 3:30 PM on November 17, 2007

If you have access to a slushy machine it is illegal not to serve pina coladas, because there are never enough occasions in life to sip drinks with festive tiny umbrellas in them.

The secret to a great pina colada is to puree fresh pineapple chunks, use a dash of whole milk or cream in addition to the coconut milk, and float the top with 151 and a splash of fresh lime juice.

AWSUM
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:39 PM on November 17, 2007

My female friends had a drink called Call a Cab at a slushy bar on Beale street in Memphis, and raved about them for weeks afterwards. Shouldn't be hard to adapt to being slushified.
posted by chrisamiller at 3:54 PM on November 17, 2007

I have made (of course, on a much smaller scale) a killer blood-red strawberry and raspberry daquiri concoction. You may want to smush the raspberries through cheesecloth to remove the seeds (seeds never really bothered me, but I don't know what will happen to your MACHINE THAT I TOTALLY WANT NOW).

So, you just need white rum, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, sugar, and lots of friends in labcoats willing to taste-test.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 3:56 PM on November 17, 2007

I'm thinking I'll go for an 60%-20%-20% mix.

That's real strong for what can be experienced as a dessert drink. I guarantee you've never had a frozen one that strong at a bar, and you might have some unexpectedly drunk guests. You can add water, which acts like the ice in an on-the-rocks. You can splash a little tequila on top to make it feel stronger.

I would go for %50 %50 %50, plus water, and sugar as needed.

The absolutely key and defining aspect of a margarita, frozen or otherwise, is how close to fresh the lime juice is. If using actual fresh-squeezed juice (the Hamilton Beach citrus juicer is very fast and easy) then you must adjust the sugar by taste, becomes limes vary greatly in their sweetness.

The next best thing is if you can find frozen, unsweetened lime juice in a can. If you use simple syrup, (concentrated sugar water,) you should heat it in a pot to fully dissolve it.

Alcohol drinks freeze at a lower temperature than ice cream or sorbet or slushy cola. Some slushy drink machines cannot freeze alcoholic drinks, most take longer than you would think to became as frozen as you would like. Keep all your ingredients cold, the tequila almost frozen if possible.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:48 PM on November 17, 2007

Keep all your ingredients cold, the tequila almost frozen if possible.

Good luck freezing tequila.
posted by reeddavid at 6:40 PM on November 17, 2007

Red Roosters are fun. OJ, cranberry juice, vodka.
posted by weezetr at 9:15 PM on November 17, 2007

I still have very fond memories of Kahula Coladas served from a slushy machine in a beachfront bar down in Naples in 1990 or 91.
posted by xena at 10:06 PM on November 17, 2007

Good luck freezing tequila.

Good luck freezing a 60%-20%-20% mix in low powered slushy machine. In any case, be prepared for 12L to take an hour or several to freeze.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:16 AM on November 18, 2007

If you're careful with it you can freeze any alcohol including Everclear using dry ice. I was at a party once where the host made a concoction he called Rocket Fuel that was basically an Everclear/lemonade slushy made that way, served in tiny cups to limit the amount of damage you could do to your system at a time. It's even more potent than you you expect because the dry ice carbonates the alcohol, making it enter your bloodstream that much more quickly.
posted by scalefree at 11:23 AM on November 18, 2007

My wife makes a great that has all the same ingredients as the one I found here.
posted by pmbuko at 3:52 PM on November 18, 2007