The 8 Most Iconic Frozen Drinks From Latin America

Latin American culture is vibrant and full of life, so of course the drinks that originated there are no different. As Carlos Camerena of La Altena Distillery says in "Spirits of Latin America," "Latin spirits are the base for our celebration," and Latin America sure knows how to celebrate. On heat-stricken days, there's nothing more satisfying than an icy, frozen drink with drops of condensation running down the sides of the cup, cooling your fingertips, and Ibero-America delivers some of our favorite frosty cocktails.

There are endless recipes for frozen cocktails, as mixologists will always be patiently waiting to craft the next big thing; but we have to acknowledge where so many inspired flavor profiles came from and honor the rich culture. The basics behind your average bar are very diverse, but some of the most mainstream cocktails have Latin American roots. If not the particular alcohol, then the preparation. After WWII, go-to vacation spots expanded into the Caribbean islands and tourists brought their favorite refreshing cocktail recipes back with them, sharing the flavors of Latin America with anyone who would listen. Practically all of the spicy-sweet, funky flavors and creamy frozen textures making up the world's most popular cocktails can be linked back to this special part of the world.

Puerto Rico is proud to be the birthplace of the Piña Colada, so much so that it was made the island's national drink in 1978. Anyone on vacation time has come to gravitate towards this sweet, frozen refreshment. While the cocktail got a little gimmicky after Rupert Holmes belted out "If you like drinking Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain" in his 1979 ballad, it's a drink rich in both flavor and culture. There is some fiery discussion surrounding the true creator of the iconic drink, with some crediting Roberto Cafresi', a Puerto Rican pirate, and others thanking Ramon Lopez, a professor and creator of Coco López. However, most historians point to Ramon "Monchito" Marrero of the Caribe Hilton Hotel.

 As the story goes, sometime in the early 1950s, Monchito's employers tasked him with crafting a drink that symbolized the territory by capturing the flavors of Puerto Rico. He nailed it, combining two of the island's juiciest fruits with creamy ice cream. The nutty coconut flavors blended with tart pineapple to make pure magic. The frozen drink was well received, and eventually, smooth Puerto Rican rum was added to the mix. Directly translating to strained pineapple, a Piña Colada tastes just like the tropics. With the cocktail's quick rise to fame, it's no wonder everyone is fighting for credit. Today you'll find the frozen cocktail on most beachside bar menus all over the world, but a true Piña Colada is made with Puerto Rican rum.

Coco Loco is a cocktail name thrown around all over oceanfront bars in Latin America. It is popular in the Dominican Republic, mostly at resorts, but it has ties to Colombia's picturesque Caribbean coast as well. The Caribbean might be a top food destination, but we can't forget drinks.

The cocktail's recipe is pretty flexible, with different beachside cabanas serving up slightly different blended versions, but they're easy to spot -– they'll be the frozen drinks served in a whole coconut. It's a fun tropical vessel, but it's not just for looks. The Colombian cocktail utilizes the coconut's sweet pulp and water to blend with a jungle juice of vodka, tequila, rum, whiskey, and a whole lot of lime. They're commonly sold on the beaches of Cartagena, prepared fresh to order. The Dominican Coco Loco is a fruitier style, often with the addition of pineapple, amaretto, and grenadine. The cocktail has almost become a blanket statement for any creamy coconut-based punch, just as long as it's served right out of the coconut. It definitely caters to parched tourists, but Latin American-born folks enjoy a good Coco Loco every now and then too.

For anyone who loves mango, this drink is a masterpiece. Mexico has captured sweet, spicy, and smokey with the chamoyada, a popular treat found at just about every street-side stand in the country. It's made with fresh mango, shaved ice, lime, chamoy, and a generous amount of Tajin. The spicy drink, also commonly called a mangonada, can be sipped through a straw or eaten with a spoon, but the alcoholic riff on the treat is typically blended with tequila to be perfectly smooth and easy drinking. The complex flavors pair well with tequila's spicy burn to make a unique frozen chamoy-mango-margarita.

As delicious as each ingredient is, the real star is Chamoy, a tangy fruit-based syrup that's both sweet and spicy. Made with pickled fruit, dried chilies, sugar, and lime, the condiment adds a unique zesty sweetness to every dish it touches, especially cocktails. Traditionally, the fruitiness comes from ume plums, but these days it can be made with anything from apricot to tamarind pods. Sometimes Chamoy is drizzled over chunks of watermelon or pineapple, but the chamoyada is its low-key signature dish. The evenly blended mangoes quickly form a thick sorbet, bordering on a dessert, but with some spicy, sticky, funky, flavors thrown in. 

Fruit is abundant in South America and Brazil takes full advantage. The Brazilian Batida, or Batido, takes after its Portuguese heritage, translating to "shaken" or "beat" with respect to its magically icy consistency. American milkshakes traditionally veer more toward vanilla and rich chocolate flavors, with the occasional old-fashioned strawberry shake, but most of the time fruit is saved for smoothies. In Brazil, milk is blended with local fruits for a smooth tropical shake that's impossible to resist. As long as it's fresh, any fruit is on the table, such as mangoes, guava, papaya, creamy coconut. 

The Batida dates back as far as 1944, when Brazilian bartender João Zarattini put the frozen cocktail recipe to paper in his book, "Coquetel em Suas Diversas Fórmulas." It caught attention, but nothing compared to the popularity the drink later found during the Tiki bar craze of the '60s and '70s.

The creamy drink is enjoyed in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, with variations of the simple frozen beverage all over Latin America. However, when batidos reach the bar in Brazil there's only one spirit to feature: Cachaça. It serves as Brazil's emblematic alcohol, thanks to the country's wealth of sugarcane. The sweet alcohol is made from fermented sugarcane juice, bearing a similar flavor profile to rum, and is a bit earthy, dry, and floral.

The frozen daiquiri became an international sensation the moment travelers had a taste, fell in love with the drink, and brought it back with them to the U.S. Ernest Hemingway was one such traveler, who was known to order the famous frozen cocktail with double the rum and citrus, and devoid of the sugar. 

Despite its strong Cuban influence, the original daiquiri recipe is credited to an American engineer, Jennings Cox, who was living in the country at the time. As many recipe origin tales go, the first daiquiri was allegedly the unexpected result of a makeshift punch one night back in 1896. The visionary blended rum, lime juice, and sugar with plans to top it off with gin. However, he ran out of gin and instead reached for the nearest spirit — rum. With direct credit to Cox, the happy accident was later documented in its frozen form in the 1928 book, "When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba." The old-school cocktail really is as simple as lime and sugar, but today, strawberry daiquiris are almost as popular as the original, if not more so. 

Margaritas might be the most popular frozen cocktail out there, and while the original recipe is undoubtedly Mexican, the iconic frozen version was actually developed in Texas. The original tequila-based cocktail is simple to make, shaken with orange liqueur and lime, and served in a glass with a salted rim. A margarita on the rocks is sour, sweet, and always refreshing, but it's hard to beat a frozen one on a hot day.

The frozen margarita was yet another chance discovery, and we can thank Mariano Martinez for bringing the much-loved drink to life in East Dallas. After dozens of complaints about inconsistent margaritas, a lightbulb went off for Martinez back in 1971 –- a soft-serve machine could spit out more than just dessert. In hopes of a perfectly blended batch of cocktails, he poured the classic margarita ingredients into the machine and voila, the frozen margarita was born. By tweaking his margarita recipe and adding simple syrup, Martinez was able to get the tequila to freeze. This was the launch of the modern day margarita machine.

If there's one constant between all of these frozen cocktails, it's lime, and never just a drop. Mojitos may only require five simple ingredients – rum, lime, mint, club soda, and sugar -– but each component really pulls its weight. The magic is all in the muddling. Fresh mint is muddled with lime and sugar to create a fragrant mixture, and once topped with bubbly water it's like a homemade mint soda. With such minimal ingredients, a quality white rum is often the go-to choice, but Plantation 3 Stars' dark rum surprised us, ranking as the No. 1 rum to blend into your mojito.

The earliest mojito has links all the way back to 16th century Cuba, when Francis Drake, who supposedly only docked his ship to steal treasure, fell ill and was cured by an elixir of aguardiente (similar to today's rum) and all of the cocktail's fixings. While his visit was unwelcome, Cubans hung onto the magically healing tonic recipe, known today as the mojito. At some point during its rise to popularity, a genius decided to blend the fresh ingredients into a smooth frozen cocktail rather than filling a highball to the brim with crushed ice. It is unclear when and where the mojito adapted into its iconic slushy consistency, but these days, mojitos are often one of the delicious cocktails churning in frozen drink machines at the bar. We owe it all to the original Cuban classic. It doesn't stop at cocktails either -– chefs are even whipping up Mojito ice pops and Mojito ice cubes.

Simply put, Limonada de Coco is a frothy, frozen limeade, but it's somehow even better than it sounds. As if frozen limes weren't refreshing enough, the Colombian beverage is also made with cream of coconut. The outcome is an airy, creamy, frozen treat that could easily be mistaken for a milkshake. Sugar is a huge component of Latin American drinks and should be embraced, but always alongside copious amounts of acidity from limes and other fresh, tangy juices. 

Limonada de Coco is an equilibrium of tart sweetness that's fitting for any time of day, but especially tasty at happy hour. Lime and coconut is a match made in paradise, and mixologists weren't slow to pick up on that. The zesty lime and creamy coconut are a natural match for rum, which is what bars in Cartagena often blend into the classic Colombian frosty.