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Say you are sitting on a patio at your local bar enjoying a delicious frozen Strawberry Daiquiri with some friends and you think to yourself: “I can make this at home! I have rum and strawberries…How hard can it be?!”

So, home you go.

Break out the ol’ blender, the rum, and a bag of frozen strawberries that has been hiding in the back of your freezer for God knows how long. You then procede to throw them all into the blender, top with ice, and let it rip. After a minute or so of blending, it looks good enough. Next, you pour it into that one hurricane glass you got on that one cruise that one time and take a big gulp. If you survive the brain-freeze, you are suddenly reminded that you are not a bartender. This frozen concoction is not good, at all.

What happened?

Science. Well, the lack of it, really.

There is quite a bit of thought that goes into developing the awesome recipes for frozen machines for all of you to enjoy. And that wonderful “slushi” consistency that comes from the machines is something unique that a blender just will never quite get. We can get close, but the fact is, a machine will slowly bring the ingredients to a temperature to where the water in the recipe will begin to freeze. A blender is working backwards from that. We are taking ice and adding friction to break it down.

So, how do we get the same flavor from a blender that we tasted at our local bar?

First, we must look at the recipe for the original cocktail. The typical non-frozen strawberry daiquiri is something like this:

2 oz. of white rum
.5 oz. of lime juice (fresh is best)
.5 oz. of strawberry syrup or puree

In order to get the flavor that we are looking for in a cocktail that is cooler than a polar bears’ toenails, we need to add a bit more sugar. What we are doing is allowing for the amount of water that we are about to add (a-la-ice). So the new adjusted recipe will look like this:

2 oz. of white rum
.5 oz. of lime juice (again, fresh is best)
1.5 oz. of strawberry syrup or puree

Before we continue, let’s take a minute to talk about ice. Some would argue that ice is ice. I mean, come on! It’s just frozen water, right?

Yes and no.

Yes, it is all frozen water. No, because not all ice is equal.

For example, the ice out of the standard ice maker from your freezer at home is using tap water and is freezing from all directions. That is why the cubes are typically not clear and full of striations (cracks). Now, let’s look at the ice that we get in a bag from the local convenience store that are shaped like little crystal clear pillows. This is because the company is either using purified or distilled water and has a giant freezer that allows for directional freezing.

               “What about those awesome spheres or giant cubes that I sometimes get in my whiskey or Old Fashioned?”

Those are created by artisans. These people take the pain-staking time to set up an elaborate system for freezing huge blocks, cut them down and then sell them to the bars.

Some have a person who whittle them down by hand to a sphere or cube such as this guy. I don’t know about you, but not many bars I know of keep an “ice-artist” on staff.

Others are now buying them from companies who are doing a good chunk of that work before-hand which is why there may be an additional charge for that awesome chunk of ice.

All of that to say this: when adding ice to your blender, it is important to consider the quality of ice as important of an ingredient as the quality of rum that you have chosen for this frozen delight.

Now, where were we? Ah, yes. The blender.

We have the rum, the lime juice, and about 2-3 times more sweetener than the original recipe in the blender. We are looking for a dilution amount of about 2 times the amount of alcohol in order for a proper freeze (this ratio also works for a frozen machine). Since we are working with a single drink recipe, it will seem like it’s a small amount, but the math will stand up when we increase the amounts for larger batches. We have 2 ounces of rum, so we will want 4 ounces of water (you figure a typical cube is about ½ oz. of water) so, 8 cubes or 1 cup of ice. So, now we have a final recipe of:

2 oz. white rum
.5 oz. lime juice (FRESH IS BEST)
1.5 oz. of strawberry syrup or puree
1 cup of ice

Now we blend. Blend that bad boy until the consistency is as close to that slushi-like awesomness you had the other day. Break out the cruise-glass again. The taste and consistency will be what you are looking for. I like to garnish with some fresh mint and a strawberry…just because I can. I just happen to have a paper umbrella (because who doesn’t have those just laying around) and decided to go all out.

               As briefly mentioned before, when you are wanting to make more than just one frozen concoction (because, let’s be real, no one is drinking just one), you simply just have to multiply the final recipe by whatever number you feel is needed.

               Cheers!