The Frozen Drink Guide to Slushy-Goodness

This month we’re featuring frozen beverage dispensers, because it’s summer and cold drinks go perfectly with hot weather… and because there’s great opportunity here for you to increase bar sales. If you’re looking to invest in a new frozen drink machine or have one and are just looking for some more info, here’s our list of top know-how’s to ensure the perfect drink mix every time.

1. Most drink mixes that are recommended to go with a frozen drink machine come with a recipe to follow; however, if you’re ever caught without a recipe, remember that most mixes call for equal parts mix and water.
2. If you’re going to add alcohol, make it one part alcohol, two parts mix, and two parts water.
3. The machine works to freeze the water into slush, so there’s no need to add ice; in fact, don’t add ice, it can break the internal parts.
4. Feel free to leave the alcohol out of the drinks so that you can serve to a larger audience, including alcohol-free drinks and patrons that want less alcohol in their drinks.
5. Alcohol added to the dispenser can cause the process of creating the slush to take longer. Think about how alcohol reacts in the freezer – it never freezes, right? This same process happens in the beverage dispenser, whereas the alcohol acts as a heat against the cold. This doesn’t mean that the machine can’t handle this process, but it will take longer for the slushy state to come around.
6. You can mix things up a bit with flavored sodas and fruit drinks for the main ingredient in your drinks. The carbonation dies out quickly, but because of that, sodas like Coca-Cola will taste off. Sticking with fruity drinks will work best.
7. Allow for 1-2 hours for the drink to be at the proper temperature and slushy-consistency.
8. If you’re using a pre-made mix, make sure to match up the number of gallons it makes with the number of gallons your machine makes… you don’t want to start mixing for 10 gallons and later find out your machine can only hold 5 gallons (rookie mistake, but it happens).
9. Water always goes in last.
10. For specific recipes, try searching Google for some fun ideas.
11. If you want to get adventurous and start mixing up your own frozen concoctions. Start off with pre-made mixes first, and once you have that down, try creating your own mixes. Just remember, don’t put anything chunky in the frozen drink dispenser – everything going in should be nice and smooth.