11 Ingredients To Thicken Frozen Cocktails In A Snap

Frozen cocktails can be some of the most fun drinks to make and share with friends. They're the perfect way to cool down on a hot summer's evening, but for cocktail lovers, a frozen concoction is great all year round. In fact, even on a cold, gray winter day you may want a frozen cocktail to help you travel with your imagination to a warm, tropical beach somewhere. They're a crowd pleaser, and are the perfect drink to whip up especially on holidays or special occasions when everyone wants a fancy and delicious drink to socialize with. You can't go wrong with classics like frozen margaritas or strawberry daiquiris, or you can play and let your creative juices flow with brand new creations of your own. Plus, with the right blending tips for frozen drinks, you can make icy takes on old drinks like a frozen amaretto sour or a grasshopper.

You don't need to be a skilled bartender to make a good frozen drink, but there are some things you need to keep in mind so you get the right balance. Plus, you don't want to damage your blender by blending too fast too soon, or adding ice chunks that are too big to properly blend in with your drink. Another thing is that frozen cocktails can become too watered down if you don't use the right ingredients to thicken it up. Since you'll be adding a lot more ice (which is going to melt to water) to make them, you'll need to pay attention to which ingredients to add if you want to thicken it up. But don't worry, it doesn't have to be complicated, and there are many easy ways to do so. Here are some of the best ingredients to thicken frozen cocktails in a snap.

Everyone knows that you need ice to make a frozen cocktail, but for the average person making drinks at home, the type of ice isn't necessarily top of mind. Sure, you might be aware that you'll need a blender that can actually blend ice in the first place. However, it is important to take note that the type of ice you use can make a major difference in your result. While ordinary ice cubes might make okay cocktails, using crushed or shaved ice will give you a much better result in the texture of your cocktail.

Large ice cubes might shatter into smaller pieces, but in truth, the unevenness and jagged edges of the ice crystals can make your cocktail chunky, rather than a uniform, thick, slushy texture. Crushed or shaved ice can get you closer to that because the already small and even ice pieces will break down a lot easier and quicker in your blender and mix in better with the rest of the ingredients. Plus, the smaller pieces manage to frost your liquid and other cocktail components more effectively than rough edged blended cubes of ice, so your drink will thicken faster, and likely stay thickened for longer.

If you've just whipped up your frozen cocktail and find that it's still on the thinner side, the answer is simple: add more ice. Often a frozen cocktail just needs a little more ice to get it to the perfect texture, but make sure to only add a little bit at a time, since if you add too much, you do risk diluting your cocktail. Remember, you can always add more ice, but you can't take it out once it's blended in. If you have time to plan in advance, you could even use this mixologist's pro tip to prevent a diluted frozen cocktail and forgo ice altogether by freezing and then blending your cocktail mixer instead.

You might be tempted to use fruit syrups or juice when making regular cocktails, but if you do that with frozen cocktails, you could end up with a watery drink that will likely require too much ice to be as flavorful as you want. Instead, always use real fruit. Real fruit not only adds sweetness and the fruity flavor you're after, but it also adds body to your drink and can thicken it up instantly. So ditch that strawberry syrup and use real strawberries for your daiquiri, and real pineapple in your frozen piña colada.

Using real fruit is the first step, but to make a seriously luscious frozen cocktail you should use frozen fruit. Whether you buy frozen berries, pineapples, mangos, bananas, or make your own by freezing the fresh stuff, frozen fruit is the key to making thick and delicious frozen cocktails. Because they're frozen, they'll blend into an icy slush instantly, and keep your drink frozen for longer. A special mention needs to be given to frozen bananas, which, if you're a smoothie maker you'll know just how magical of an ingredient it is. Frozen banana can thicken up any drink in no time, and it blends into a velvety, creamy, texture that makes your drink feel richer. It also adds a pleasant sweetness, and compared to a fresh banana, frozen bananas have a more subtle flavor and won't overpower your drink.

If you're not familiar with xanthan gum you might be thinking it's some sort of science-y, molecular gastronomy type of ingredient. However, there's no need to be intimidated by xanthan gum, as it's a common thickening ingredient that many people use, especially for vegan and gluten-free baking. Xanthan gum is an all-natural ingredient that you can throw into your frozen cocktail to thicken it up. It works similarly to cornstarch, and its neutral flavor means you won't taste it at all.

Xanthan gum is not only a great thickener, but it's actually the perfect thing to use in a frozen cocktail as it also acts as a kind of glue, bringing all your drink components together into one uniform mixture, like emulsification. Instead of your cocktail ingredients melting at different rates and separating, forming two unappealing layers of ice and liquid as they sometimes do, xanthan gum makes the drink more cohesive so that you don't get this separation. Plus, you don't need much to have an effect. In my experience, a quarter of a teaspoon does the trick for about 2 cups of frozen drinks.

Thickening a cocktail can also be about using richer, more dense ingredients to make it. One of my favorite frozen cocktail ingredients to use is coconut milk. It makes your drink so creamy, while being non-dairy, meaning your vegan or dairy-free friends can enjoy it too. Its mild sweetness makes your cocktail even tastier, and it doesn't have as strong a coconut taste as you might expect. In a frozen cocktail, the coconut is mellowed out somewhat and you're left with a slightly fruity, creamy flavor that works great with other fruity ingredients. Plus, if you love the taste of coconut milk, you can ramp up the coconut flavor by adding in more, or even by scooping up more of the solid coconut paste that forms in your can of coconut milk if you don't shake it. Using this thickened coconut cream will make your cocktail even thicker.

You can use coconut milk to make a classic and refreshing frozen piña colada, but don't be limited to only using it in cocktails that might already include it. You can use it to add a creamy element to any cocktail, like this fun creamy frozen watermelon cocktail.

Egg whites are a crucial ingredient for many cocktails like a whiskey sour or gin fizz. What makes those cocktails special is the foamy topping and slightly more unctuous mouthfeel of the drink. This is all thanks to egg whites. It's much the same with frozen cocktails, and you can actually make yummy frozen whiskey sours and gin fizz in much the same way. Egg whites can help to make thicker frozen drinks, and even add a foamy touch to it too.

The process of egg white cocktails is often quite intimidating for non-bartenders or people making drinks at home, and there are mistakes you can make. You'll need to learn about using the dry shake method which involves shaking everything first with no ice, or the wet shake method, which is shaking everything together with ice. Often with egg white cocktails, you're meant to do a dry shake first and then a wet shake. Interestingly, when adding egg whites to your frozen cocktail mixture, you don't have to worry about dry or wet shaking first. In my experience, you can add everything in at the same time, egg whites and ice included, and blend. The high speed of blending is effective at getting everything to not only blend together, but the egg whites will foam up and emulsify at the same time. The result is a delightfully thick and foamy frozen cocktail.

To get the best possible thick frozen cocktail, you want to make better choices with all of your ingredients. That includes your sweeteners. If your cocktail ingredients are all a thin consistency of liquid, then your end result will be thinner. So when choosing your sweeteners, choose thicker ones like honey. You might not think it will make a difference, but the slightly thicker or more viscous sweeteners can help enrich the texture of your cocktail and contribute to its thickness.

Honey is the best to use if you're after maximum thickness, but if you don't like the taste of honey in your cocktail, then a more neutral syrup like agave would work well too, and the same can be said for maple syrup. If you still want to use a simple syrup of sugar and water, then make your own. However, make a slightly thicker simple syrup by increasing your ratio of sugar to water, more than you usually would. More sugar will make your syrup thicker.

Jam might be a surprising thing to add to a cocktail, but it's been an effective technique to use for a while now, and there are plenty of trendy cocktail recipes that involve adding some jam. While this concept is actually pretty old-fashioned (since people have been adding jam to coffees and other foods for ages), it seems to be having a resurgence at the moment, and I'm seeing more and more people adding it to their coffees, ice cream, and savory foods too.

Jam is a given for frozen cocktails. It's fruity and sweet, and its viscosity will help thicken your frozen cocktail nicely. You can use it when you don't have frozen fruit, or you can double up on fruit and jam to get a higher intensity of flavor. If you don't like your cocktails overly sweet, you can always use jam as your sweetener substitute. It's just one ingredient, but it gives three effects to your cocktail: texture, sweetness, and flavor.

If you love an indulgent frozen cocktail that's more like a dessert, adding ice cream is an obvious choice. Ice cream can make anything better, whether it's scooped on top of waffles, pancakes, brownies, or as some even claim, it's apparently a heavenly match with french fries. In a cocktail, it's a lot more intuitive, since you're adding sweet with sweet, and there are plenty of creamy cocktails out there that work amazingly as a frozen one.

Ice cream is already frozen, so it will only help keep everything cool and your drink will melt slower. But its luxuriously thick texture also thickens your frozen drink perfectly. So if you want to add a creamy or dairy component, ice cream is the best way to go. The best part is that you can pick your flavor and create new drinks of your choice that you can't get anywhere. Why not use your favorite salty, sweet, Ben & Jerry's flavor, or even play into your childhood dreams and pick a blue bubblegum ice cream. Your drinks will be all the more exciting and delicious no matter which way you go. And of course, you've always got vanilla if you're trying to keep your cocktail more neutral and let the liquor shine.

Sometimes the best solutions come from unexpected places, and even the ingredients you already have at home. If you want to thicken and enhance your frozen cocktail, coffee creamer can be a great addition. Coffee creamer is sweet and creamy, which is why we love it in our coffee, but the best part is its velvety texture. It can instantly make your cup of Joe feel richer and thicker and turn your homemade coffee into something similar to your order at your favorite coffee shop. It can do that for your frozen cocktail too.

The fact that coffee creamer is already a concentrated ingredient makes it the perfect thing to mix into a frozen cocktail. You only need a little bit to have its effect, and that means a more balanced drink. You won't run the risk of watering it down, and it gives your drink great flavor too. If you don't know where to start with pairing flavors, an easy place to start is with a coffee-based cocktail. But don't be afraid of using coffee creamer in fruity cocktails too. You could easily make a frozen piña colada with coconut creamer, or add some peanut butter creamer into a banana cocktail for dessert-like indulgence.

When you're making regular cocktails, it's well known that using sugar instead of syrup isn't the way to go. Syrup mixes in way better with your drink than sugar, which often doesn't dissolve well and you end up with non-sweet sips, and then an overly sweet bottom of the drink and clumps of sugar. However, the opposite can be true with frozen cocktails. In fact, sometimes the key to a better blended frozen cocktail is dry sugar. In a blender, the high speed motion forces the sugar to mix with everything, and the fact that it won't immediately dissolve actually works in the favor of a frozen, slushy drink. This is the key to a thicker and more frosted cocktail texture.

You can use regular granulated sugar in any frozen cocktail, but if you want more complex sugar flavor profiles, you can use any less processed sugar like muscovado sugar, demerara, or turbinado sugar. With frozen drinks in general, we tend to not taste sweetness as much as with regular drinks. This might mean you have to add a little more sugar to get the right balance of sweetness. You can always start with less and give it a taste to see if you need more sweetness.

Frozen drinks can be a way to enjoy something a little more indulgent than a regular cocktail, and if you get it right, your frozen cocktail can even be served as a dessert at a dinner party or gathering. This is especially the case if you're adding Nutella, which I recommend doing for frozen cocktails especially. With regular cocktails, Nutella and other decadent nut butters like pistachio cream, or even peanut butter, isn't as easy. It doesn't necessarily mix in or dissolve really well. But with frozen cocktails, you're naturally using a blender to whizz everything together, and this helps the Nutella to combine into a consistent connection.

Unsurprisingly, Nutella also thickens your drink beautifully. It can instantly transform your frozen cocktail into something richer and more dense. For inspiration on what drink to make, look no further than this frozen Nutella mudslide cocktail recipe. You can even drizzle some Nutella into your glass before pouring your drink in it, for an even fancier looking cocktail.