Making the Best Summer Blender Drinks

Whether you’re vacationing at the beach, or relaxing in the back yard, or on the balcony of your apartment building, a great way to chase away some of that summer heat is to enjoy a nice cold blended summer cocktail. The options are only limited by your imagination and your ability to search for new recipes.

More than the average chilled drink, a cocktail blended with ice or even ice cream is the perfect way to add some chill to triple digit temperatures. You can by the pre-mixed versions, but why waste the opportunity to toss in some of summer’s best fresh fruits?

Keep in mind that your home blender may not be able to handle ice or frozen fruit. So add them slowly until they’ve been reduced. That makes for easier blending.

Here are some great recipes for summer blended drinks. Keep in mind that these are just the basics. Recipe books or websites will give you plenty of other variations that will fit your mood and your theme.

Or you can experiment and make your own version. Who knows? You just might develop the next sensation in frozen blender drinks.

Frozen Margarita

While no one knows for sure, it is generally accepted that the Margarita was invented in Mexico in 1941 by a bartender named Don Carlos Orozco.

This is the basic lime version. But there are plenty of other flavor options available.

What you’ll need:

1 cup of ice
1 ½ oz. tequila
½ oz. Triple Sec
½ oz. lime juice
3 oz. sour mix Lime wedges for garnish
Salt for the glass rim (optional)

What to do:

Pour the ingredients into the blender
Blend until smooth
Salt the rim of a chilled margarita glass (salt is optional)
Pour the contents into the glass
Garnish with the lime wedge

Piña Colada

The Piña Colada was created in 1954 by Ramon "Monchito" Marrero Perez at the Beachcomber Bar in the Caribe Hilton of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He wanted to capture the tropics in a glass. Seems he did a pretty good job.

What you’ll need:

2 oz. white rum
6 oz. pineapple juice
1 ½ oz. cream of coconut
Maraschino cherry for garnish
Pineapple wedge for garnish
1 oz. heavy cream
What to do:
Blend all ingredients with approximately 2 cups of ice.
Strain into a hurricane glass
Garnish with cherry and pineapple wedge
Daquiri
The story is that an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox, in Cuba at the time of the Spanish-American War, invented the Daiquiri, which is also the name of a beach near Santiago, Cuba.
What you’ll need:
1 ½ oz. light rum
1 tbsp. Triple Sec.
1 ½ oz. lime juice
1 cherry for garnish
1 cup crushed ice

What to do:

Combine ingredients in blender
Blend until firm
Pour into a glass such as a champagne flute
Top with cherry

Grasshopper

A sweet mint-flavored, after-dinner drink that gets its name from the green color, the grasshopper is said to have orginated at Tujague's in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It gained popularity in the American South in the 1950s and 1960s.

What you’ll need:

1 oz. white cream de cacao
1 oz. green crème de menthe
½ cup milk
1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
½ cup ice
mint

What to do:

Blend crème de cacao, crème de menth, milk and ice cream until smooth
Add ice and blend to desired consistency
Pour into your favorite glass
Garnish with mint
For a special touch, sugar the rim of the glass

Give these recipes a try. But there’s nothing that says you have to limit your enjoyment to just summer.