Baby it’s cold inside with these frozen cranberry daiquiris! It’s a festive holiday twist on the classic daiquiri that’s sure to make your holiday a blast!
I’m totally loving these festive frozen cranberry daiquiris! Maybe you’re imagining me in the tropics wearing a Santa hat with a drink in my hand. Sounds lovely but no, I’m still in the foothills of West Virginia, wearing hats and scarves inside to stay warm.
You may think I’ve fallen off my rocker. Who makes frozen cocktails during the winter season? But to me, Christmas is all about the cold. The idea of snow on pine trees and frost on the windows seems romantic, so why not celebrate with a frosty drink?
It’s actually pretty welcome idea because when the house gets packed with party-goers, it’s not long before someone’s opening a window to cool off the house. Save some heat and pass out frozen cranberry daiquiris instead!
Just like our strawberry margaritas, these drinks take a little prep work to get the perfect frozen consistency. I started with fresh cranberries because I wanted to get things really icy, but not compromise the drink’s flavor by watering it down.
That meant making a syrup that was rich and sweet and bursting with cranberry flavor. It’s quite like making cranberry sauce, so after the cranberries are cooked and strained, it has a jammy texture and dark ruby color.
Then we combine the syrup with white rum. lime juice, and agave and freeze it overnight. This ensures that when the daiquiris are blended with ice they don’t turn to liquid.
It’s all about the perfect frozen cocktail! It might seem like a pain but this prep work means you can mingle more and bartend less!
You can impress your guests with the fun stuff, like adding a white sparkly rim to your favorite stemware. The look is quite festive, especially once you add a slice of lime and a cocktail pick loaded with cranberries.
I made the mistake of sugaring my cranberries. It was a total waste of time because once they hit the cocktail, the sugar started melting off. But they looked super pretty anyway!
It’s such a festive looking drink! But it’s the flavor that will impress the most. These cocktails are just the right mix are tart and sweet with a boozy rum base that will kick the party up a notch!
Frozen Cranberry Daiquiris
Ingredients
Cranberry syrup
- 4 cups fresh cranberries
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
Frozen Cranberry Daiquiri
- 2-1/2 ounces white rum
- 1-1/2 ounces cranberry syrup
- 1/2 ounce lime juice
- 1/2 ounce agave
- 8-10 ice cubes
Garnish
- Decorating sugar
- Lime slices
- Cranberries
Instructions
Cranberry syrup
- Wash the cranberries and place them in a medium or large pot with the water and sugar.
- Place pot over medium heat and cook until the berries have popped and there's a thick syrup, about 20-25 minutes.
- Run syrup through a fine mesh sieve, pressing all of the pulp out. Discard skins and refrigerate until ready to use.
Frozen Cranberry Daiquiri
- In a freezer proof container combine rum, cranberry syrup, lime juice and agave and freeze overnight. (You're likely planning to make more than one cocktail, multiply as needed and make sure to mark your containers so you know how many cocktails are in each).
- When ready to serve, combine the cocktail mixture in a blender with 8-10 ice cubes (for each drink) and pulse until smooth.
- Pour into a glass rimmed with sugar and garnish with lime and cranberries.
Notes
- One drink recipe makes one large drink or two small drinks. For reference, 3 recipes filled the five glasses pictured in the post.
- This recipe can also make a chilled but not frozen daiquiri. For chilled daiquiris, there's no need to freeze the ingredients beforehand. Just place them in the blender and pulse with the ice cubes until the mixture is smooth.
- The cranberry syrup recipe makes about 4 cups, enough for about 20 drinks.
- The cranberry syrup will look gritty and as it cools will have a jam like texture. If you'd like it to look smoother, you can puree it in a blender, but there's really no need to do this since it will be blended later. I did try blending it and it came out looking like cranberry curd. Much more appetizing looking if you plan to have a bar set up with cocktail ingredients.
Nutrition
Love this drink? Check out all our cocktail recipes!
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Linda says
These were delicious and I love that I could prepare ahead of time and when ready blend with ice. Perfect for helping me slow down and enjoy time with others, and no mess in kitchen during the busy holiday.