Slush fun Couple’s chill skills conjure up unique fruity, freeze-dried flavours By: David Sanderson Posted: 2:00 AM CST Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026

Borrowing the title of a popular doo-wop song from the 1950s, Love Potion No. 9 is a 1992 romantic comedy about a biochemist played by Tate Donovan (Damages, The O.C.) who receives an elixir from a sorceress (late Academy Award-winner Anne Bancroft) that renders recipients irresistible to members of the opposite sex.

So what if the light-hearted flick, which also stars Sandra Bullock as the chemist’s love interest, has a lowly 25 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes? When Lenard and Sharlene MacCoy, the married couple behind Alchemy on Ice, a venture specializing in supernatural-sounding slush mixes such as Cherry Enchantment and Sangria Sorcery, were tossing around names for a new concoction, they ultimately settled on Mango Philter No. 9, a play on Love Potion No. 9.

Now, it’s not as if the MacCoys purport that their fruit-based blends — meant to use in conjuring up frozen cocktails or mocktails when merged with alcohol, juice or sparkling water — hold any special powers. That being said, there are people who, as if under a spell, have been known to make a beeline to their booth whenever they appear at pop-up markets throughout the province.

“They’ll rush over and be like, do we have anything they haven’t tried yet?” Lenard says, seated next to Sharlene in a Southdale coffee shop not far from the Island Lakes home they share with their two grown children, ages 25 and 24. “Or they’ll stop people walking by — complete strangers — and tell them they have to buy our stuff.”

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, allow the MacCoys to share a story about love at first sight. At a speed of 100 km/h.

In 1999, Lenard, who grew up in St. Vital, was travelling with a friend along Highway 1, east of Winnipeg. As their vehicle was being passed by a car with two female occupants, Lenard said, “Boy, she’s cute,” of the gal in the front passenger seat.

“We went to the drive-in for our first date and the rest, as they say, is history.”

As luck would have it, Lenard’s buddy recognized the pair from high school. He was able to get their attention and, yelling out the window, instructed them to pull over at the earliest opportunity.

“Len was all, ‘You guys have to come out with us,’ except he never did ask for my number,” says Sharlene, who was born and raised on a farm near Dufresne. “I finally had to call the other guy to get his (number). We went to the drive-in for our first date and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Around this time last year, Lenard, a Manitoba Hydro employee and self-described foodie, was wondering what to do with a gift bottle of vodka. Calling himself “not much of a drinker,” he says he went online to research cocktail recipes in an effort to treat Sharlene to something more visually enticing than a screwdriver or vodka tonic.

After spotting numerous articles about frozen cocktails being all the rage — “Creative ice cocktails are the trend of 2025,” blared a headline in Bar Magazine — he decided it might be an avenue worth pursuing. But first he had to find freeze-dried fruit crystals, which many of the write-ups listed as a key ingredient.

“If I remember correctly, the first slush he made for me was vodka mixed with freeze-dried oranges, raspberries and strawberries he ordered from a company in Quebec,” says Sharlene. “It was so yummy that I called my sister, telling her she had to come over and try it. The first thing she said after having a sip was, ‘Lenard, you should be selling this.’”

Heeding his sister-in-law’s advice, Lenard spent a couple of months in the kitchen mixing and matching a variety of freeze-dried fruit bought from the same firm. Because he often felt like a mad scientist as he was deducing which combinations worked best with what alcohol (Sharlene and a few close friends willingly served as guinea pigs, she says with a wink), when it came time to choose a moniker for their fledgling venture, they went with Alchemy on Ice, alchemy being a medieval term for chemistry.

(To play up the “abracadabra” angle even more, they named some of their mixes after 15th- and 16th-century alchemists. For example, one with apple, strawberry and coconut dubbed Grimoire of Agrippa — a grimoire is a book of spells — recognizes German-born physician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, who died in 1535.)

The MacCoys spent almost every weekend last summer and fall at one market or another. When they weren’t offering free non-alcoholic samples, they were instructing interested parties how to use their wares to prepare frozen margaritas, piña coladas and sangrias, to name just a few options.

“For the large pouches, which make six eight-ounce servings, you put the entire contents in a bowl, along with one cup of alcohol or non-spirit and five cups of water,” Sharlene says, repeating their spiel. “Stir everything until the fruit crystals dissolve then pour the end-result into individual freezer bags, making sure to lay the bags flat in the freezer.”

“Sharlene kept saying how surprised she was with the amount we were selling until I reminded her that Winnipeg is the Slurpee capital of the world.”

It takes three to four hours for the contents to reach the proper consistency, depending on whether one is using rum, whiskey, wine or juice, Lenard chimes in. He’s even heard of people using beer for their Spellbound Citrus mix, which makes sense when you consider that an ale such as Blue Moon Belgian White is almost always served in bars with an orange slice.

And while one might assume frozen cocktails are better-suited to sun-drenched patios than metre-high windrows, that hasn’t turned out to be the case for the MacCoys. One of their busiest sales weekends yet occurred in December, when the temperature outside was in the -20 C range.

“Sharlene kept saying how surprised she was with the amount we were selling until I reminded her that Winnipeg is the Slurpee capital of the world,” Lenard says.

Besides continuing to experiment with new fruit combos — although one with dragon fruit was “absolutely abhorrent,” another incorporating kiwi looks like a winner — Lenard and Sharlene are also taking the necessary steps to get Alchemy on Ice into retail outlets. They’ve spoken with a few managers whose companies promote made-in-Manitoba products. It’s their dream to visit, say, The Forks Trading Company or their neighbourhood Manitoba Liquor Mart and spot their product line on the shelves.

“Both kids help putting on the labels and whatnot and our daughter Rachel has definitely expressed an interest in doing this full-time, which would be amazing if that ever came to pass,” Sharlene says.

“It seems crazy — shock and awe, really — that it’s been less than a year since Len came up with the idea and yet here we are, talking about store opportunities. Who knows? Maybe there is a bit of magic to our stuff, after all.”

For more information, go to alchemyonice.ca.

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