The Trick To Better Blended Drinks Is In The Ice

When making frozen drinks, ice plays a big role as it impacts the consistency of your favorite drinks. Whether you're trying to create a delicious morning smoothie or make frozen margaritas to serve guests at happy hour, the ice your choose can make or break your attempts at textured perfection.

Ice is not created equal, especially when it comes to hosting. The shape and size of the ice cubes you choose to use in your recipes can impact not only a drink's presentation but also the overall taste of the drink. Texture and temperature have a big impact on the drinking experience, particularly when you're blending drinks. Too much ice can result in a drink that is noticeably watered down, while too little can have a negligible impact on the overall temperature of a beverage. So before you start taking out ice from your ice cube tray to toss into your blender, you may want to consider the kind of drink you're hoping to serve.

While most of us are familiar with standard ice cubes and the crushed ice that pours out of soft drink machines at gas stations, ice shaped in spheres, blocks, and larger cubes are beginning to appear at cocktail bars and restaurants in increasing numbers. But for the smoothest smoothies and perfectly blended cocktails made at home, the best pieces of ice are actually the smaller ones.

Think of those smaller pieces of ice they are satisfying, but not painful to bite down on. They're called nugget ice or pellet ice and an individual piece is usually about the size of a marble. Distributors favor this kind of ice, as the softer texture is less likely to jam or damage ice machines. The same goes for your blender at home. 

The size of ice pellets that are ideal to blend up in recipes like frozen daiquiris and healthy Black Forest smoothies may require you to break down the ice cubes sitting in your freezer, but that's easy enough to do. Place standard-size ice in a plastic bag and use a wooden spoon to smash it into smaller pieces so that you can easily whip up drinks that are cold, flavorful, and as delicious as a professional might serve.