Classic Cocktails You Should Try Frozen, According To A Bartending Expert

Just like how a hot toddy or a cup of mulled wine can warm you up on a cold winter's day, on a hot summer afternoon, cold cocktails are the way to go. While simple drinks served over ice can be tasty and flavorful, why not blend your favorite cocktail into a frozen beverage that will take you back to your childhood days, sipping on slushies after school?

Some cocktails, such as piña coladas and mudslides, are not unusual to see as blended drinks. But you can also turn some other classic cocktails into frozen delights, too. The Daily Meal spoke with Justin Lavenue, owner and operator of both The Roosevelt Room and The Eleanor, two swanky cocktail bars in Austin, Texas, in an exclusive interview, and he offered a few suggestions. He says, "I personally love a frozen Hemingway Daiquiri and frozen Bees Knees." The sky's the limit when it comes to experimenting with different boozy libations and giving them a cooler twist. 

If you're going to do this, however, you'll need to pay attention to the type of sweetener you use in the drink. Plus, you'll also have to adjust your ingredient ratios slightly to make sure you get a cocktail with a good flavor.

Blending traditional on-the-rocks cocktails isn't as simple as it might seem at first, and there are a few tips for making the perfect frozen cocktails to be aware of if you're going to attempt it. For one thing, you'll want to ditch the granulated sugar to get truly velvety frozen drinks. Granulated sugar won't dissolve into the drink the same way it would in a liquid cocktail, which means you could wind up with a grainy texture and inconsistent level of sweetness throughout the libation. Instead, opt for liquid sweeteners like honey, agave, or simple syrup.

On top of that, Justin Lavenue says that one thing "to keep in mind when making these drinks is that the sweetening agent, simple syrup and honey syrup, respectively, will need to be increased to offset the added water content from the amount of ice you're using." This helps ensure you wind up with a beverage that's still got enough flavor and doesn't taste weak.

Once you've mastered the art of transforming your favorite liquid libations into frozen alternatives, you can start to bring out your creative flair and play around with layering them. Justin Lavenue says that he's "a big fan of mixing a frozen margarita with a frozen Painkiller." Both drinks are refreshing and have citrus notes to them, although the Painkiller brings a more tropical, creamy twist that balances out some of the salty and sour flavors of a margarita. Have fun playing around with your own flavor combinations and coming up with a mix you love.

Just note that some layered frozen drink mistakes are all too easy to make if you're not careful. That's because if the density of the beverages you're combining is off, they'll wind up mixing together, and you won't get clean layers. Luckily, this is easier to pull off with frozen cocktails, but you'll still need to blend carefully and make sure to get them to the same consistency. As the days start to get warmer, swap out cocktails on the rocks for frozen versions, whether they are layered or not, and get ready for a fun adult way to cool down this season.