Do You Make These Mistakes Making Wine Slushies?

I hope you are enjoying your wine slushies! I wanted to write a short post that you may have seen in a past newsletter to answer any questions that may come up.

Using The Wrong Wine

All of the wine slush mixes I have go with dry white (with the exception of Dublin Mudslide and Blackberry-Sangria).

The wine slushies that go with red or white are Berry and Sangria. 

The Blackberry-Sangria is best done with red only. Dublin Mudslide is made with Bailey’s and milk…or just straight vodka for a chocotini…hello!

Another mistake is using a wine that is too sweet. A lot of people like a sweet wine such as moscato, but because the mix is sweet, when they use a sweet wine with a sweet mix it may make the drink sicky sweet.

Then you won’t like it, think it's terrible, and blame me. You use a dry white like chardonnay or pinot grigio or a dry red like merlot, bordeaux, zinfandel, or pinot noir.

Using the Wrong Amount of Wine

Sometimes, people use too little. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking “That’s not a problem here”, but there are some people who are unsure how much to use.

The basic rule is to cover the ice with wine. Each dry mix package makes 56 oz of goodness, so if you are making a full batch, fill the blender with 56 oz (7 cups) of ice, a full slush mix package, and a full (750 ml) bottle of wine.  

If you don’t have a blender that big, cut the standard recipe in half.

In that case, add 28 oz of ice to the blender, use ½ of the dry wine slush mix (you are estimating how much half is when you are pouring out the silver packet), and add ½ of a 750 ml bottle of wine.

You may have seen this before, but here’s the YouTube video How to Make a Wine Slushie. I’ve included it here as this might be good to refer to. I am making half a batch in the video.

Or you may use too much. Ok, I still know what you are thinking…”Is that really a mistake?”

I just want you to have the optimal experience and I want you to enjoy the flavor of the drink.

If you have a smaller blender and only use ½ of the dry mix package but a whole bottle of wine, you lose some of the flavor of the mix.

Common Mudslide Mistakes: Too Much Ice and Adding the Ingredients Out of Order

As for the ice, I find it mixes better when I use less ice than if I was making a regular slushie because it is so thick.

Use about 1/2 a blender of ice when making a full batch, about 1/4th when making half a batch. Of course, if you use a little too much ice, you could just add a little more Bailey’s :)

As for the order of ingredients, if you put the ice in first, then mix, the powder tends to stick to the sides of the blender.

With the other drinks, it doesn’t matter if you put the ice in first.

Here, I recommend the mudslide slush mix in first, then ice, then liquids. (As a side note, I recommend adding the liquids last in all so you don’t splash yourself dropping ice cubes into the liquids)

Using the Wrong Amount of Hard Liquor

When making a slushie with hard liquor (vodka, rum, or gin), use 1 1/2 cups for a full batch.  

One customer asked me how much hard liquor to put in and when I said 1 ½ cups, he said “2 cups? 4 cups?” 

Yes, you can add 1/2 cup more of hard liquor (2 cups total) if you need a little more liquid to blend the ice.  Or you could add an extra 1/2 cup of tonic water instead.

Drinking it Too Fast or Too Slow

If you drink it too fast you can get brain freeze. (This may have happened to you when you first saw me at a show and sampled some)

If this happen, put the tongue (or thumb) on the roof of your mouth.

As for drinking it too slow, I can hear you chuckling and thinking “No problem here” (coincidentally, the same person from mistake #2)

But if you let it sit out too long it melts and doesn’t have as good a taste as when it’s first made. The ice gives it texture that makes the drink come alive.

Last Thoughts

I always recommend making all wine slush mixes with ice by the way.

If there are only a couple of you drinking and you don’t think you can polish off a whole blender full in 20 minutes or so, you may want to make ½ a batch at a time…1/2 blender of ice, ½ package, ½ bottle of wine.

Again, a full blender makes seven 8 oz glasses.

You can put what you don’t drink in the freezer, but it will freeze solid and you will have to defrost slightly when you want to drink the rest.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Dan