Convenience-store cocktails

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2010 (5544 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AFTER our little non-Slurpee slush tasting (see page F1), I thought it would be fun to look at the boozier side of frozen drinks. My first inclination was to talk to a bartender about the per­fect margarita, daiquiri and other fun, frozen cocktails. After some thought, I decided to go DIY, embracing what so many — how should I put this? — “nov­ice” drinkers have done before me… I made some slush-based cocktails.

After running around town with a cooler full of chill packs in hopes of getting as many flavours as possible, I managed to pull off a couple of great frozen cocktails. I wanted to try to recreate actual cocktails, be they originally slushy or not. The results, as you’ll see, weren’t worthy of serving in any cocktail lounge, but they were pretty darn tasty.

First, some general tips I learned from this exercise:

 

"Ø Lime slush is the go-to flavour for making boozy frozen drinks: almost every convenience store and gas station has lime; it mixes well with most different types of alcohol; it will work in a pinch for a drink that calls for lemon, etc.

 

"Ø Most straightforward pop flavours don’t work as well. Cola- and lemon-lime- (Coke and Sprite) flavoured slushes didn’t do well in this exercise. Having said that, the Dr. Pepper and amaretto combination proved stellar. Side note: has anyone ever seen or tasted ginger ale-flavoured slush? I don’t think I ever have…

 

"Ø Adding the booze to your slush breaks down the ice particles fairly quickly, and typically turns whatever presentation you’ve managed to cobble together into swamp water.

 

"Ø Garnishes like citrus fruit or berries can be replaced by dollops of orange or berry-flavoured slush.

 

"Ø Peach would have been a great flavour to have on hand — I kept thinking how well a Bellini would have done in my experimentation. Sadly, the flavour was not to be found in my travels.

 

"Ø 7-Eleven’s vanilla-berry swamp-water-flavoured Slurpee mixes well with nothing.

 

Each "part" listed is one shot glass full of said material…

uncorked@mts.net twitter.com/thegrapenut

 

Lime Margarita

 

3 pts lime slush

1 pt orange slush (subs for triple sec)

1 pt tequila

Dash of lime juice

 

Result: I was hoping the colour would be truer to a lime margarita, but adding the orange slush for the triple sec essentially killed that. The lime slush alone wasn’t quite tart enough to carry the load alone, so I jazzed it up with a splash of lime juice to bring tartness rather than overpowering sweetness. Garnish with a spoon straw.

 

‘Berry’ Daiquiri

 

3 pts berry slush (in this case, berry pomegranate from 7-Eleven)

1 pt white rum

1/2 pt orange slush

1/2 pt lime slush

 

Result: Great colour on this drink — pure, deep red, just like a daiquiri. The balance of sweet and tart works very well here, and the kick from the rum does make this taste pretty darn tropical (despite the fact it came from a machine next to some pepperoni sticks and old hot dogs in deep St. James). The balance of sweet and tart here works too — if it’s too sweet, add a splash of lime juice. Garnish with a spoon straw.

 

Amaretto sour-ish

 

2 pts lime slush

1 pt Dr. Pepper slush

1 pt orange slush (for orange slice)

1 pt berry slush (for cherry — in this case, berry pomegranate)

1 pt amaretto

Dash of lime juice

 

Result: While this isn’t normally a slushified drink, I thought it would be fun to give this tasty drink a try. The berry colour dominates, but barely — this is a brown, insipid-looking drink. The original tartness wasn’t quite strong enough, so once again I hit the lime juice. Delicious and much more visually appealing than the margarita.

 

Blue-ish Lagoon

 

3 pts blue slush (Gatorade G2 berry flavour, in this case)

1 pt vodka

3 pts lime slush (in place of lemonade)

 

Result: This was a little too green for a Blue Lagoon, but in taste it was pretty close. If I could have tracked down some lemonade-flavoured slush, this would have been a knockout — as it stands, it was tasty.

 

Failed slush cocktails: Rye and cola, Tom Collins.

 

If we’re going to retain the title of the world’s Slurpee capital, we need to embrace the recognition (and the kitsch) with heads held high. For the adventurous, the blender-less and those who just can’t get enough slush, consider making your own frozen summer cocktails using the drink we’re known to love.