As a kid I had somewhat of an addiction to mountain dew slushies – or slurpees, slush puppies, freezies, whatever you prefer to call them. I hated to go even a week without stopping by the convenience store in ym town that had them.
Eventually they quit making them there but thankfully the Speedway in my town started selling them. Just within the last year or so, my local Quality Diary added on the mountain dew flavored slurpees as well.
I remember trying to make slushies from home in so many different ways. We had a snow cone machine that I tried, but the ice chips were big and it wasn’t even close to a slurpee.
When we got a blender, I tried blending ice shavings and then pouring soda over it, but the ice ships stayed too big and hard, so it was more like a finely-blended snow cone than a slush – and the soda would run to the bottom and the ice on top was flavorless.
One day we were in a store when I saw a slushie machine! It immediately got added to my Christmas list and I was so excited when it arrived. It was the first present that I actually stopped to use before going any further with presents.
I unloaded ice into the machine, turned it on and waited. It looked like snow coming out of the machine, so I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be snow-cone like. The texture was better, but still had bits of ice in it and the soda ran to the bottom, so the flavor wasn’t distributed well.
Eventually I sort of outgrew my addiction to slurpees and just gave up on making them at home. Though, I have joked over the years that if we ever end up rich, Ryan will owe me a professional slushy machine like 7-11 and Speedway have.
Then last week I poured myself a glass of soda and put the rest in the fridge. Ryan wanted some too, but it was still warm. He put it into the freezer “for a few minutes” to help it get colder quicker and then he completely forgot about it.
The next day we found it completely frozen. Oops! I put it on the counter to thaw and my blender caught my eye. Then it just hit me – THAT’S how to make a slush that isn’t watery – make the SODA the ice instead of adding soda TO ice.
I waited for the soda to thaw until an inch and a half or so of soda had pooled into the bottom of the 2-liter and then I filled the blender with the contents of the 2 liter.
I hit the ‘pulse’ button a few times and then let it blend on low until it was thoroughly mixed. Here is the consistency that I got.
It was perfect, just like 7-11, speedway and other stores that offer slurpees/slushies/etc. Seems how the soda isn’t added to ice, the flavor stays in each bite and because the frozen soda wasn’t as stiff as a pure-water ice-cube would be, it blended without any ice chips remaining.
I am so excited to try out other varieties of sodas or even fruit juices. If you want to make individual portions, there are affordable slush cups like The Chill Factor Slushy Maker available.
I’ve had a lot of people contact me asking if this method works for non-soda drinks such as juices. I decided to give it a try and came up with these Sour watermelon slushies as a result.
What is your favorite slush flavor? What do you call them? A slush? Slushie? Slushy? Slurpee? Slush puppy? Something else?
Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
My teenager wants a Soda Stream for his next gift… this could be a good idea to pass along to him. I love how some innovations happen by mistake. I like to freeze coffee to make iced coffee. I’m actually not a fan of ice- but frozen drinks are awesome!
Awesome discovery! I, too, was completely addicted to slurpees from 7-11 all through my childhood. I still crave them and have never been able to DIY them. Will definitely give this a try! 🙂
Emily, I love this post! Mostly because I’m obsessed with slushies! Thank you so much for telling me how I can make my own opposed to buying them 😉 Also, thank you for joining in our #PinUP Pin Party! We loved all your submissions… I hope you’ll join us again tomorrow.. there’s a new theme every Friday!
My sister and I loved our shaved ice machine, very primitive back then, but it did the trick. I don’t drink soda so I’d go for the juice slushies for sure.
I don’t have a slushie machine so i’m glad this recipe doesn’t need one,it sure does look yummy and as soon as the weather warm i will be trying this.Thanks so much for sharing Strawberry is my favorite flavor.
Very clever deduction! We call them Slurpee (from 7-Eleven) or Icee or just plain ol slushy 🙂 These days I find them too sweet, but my favorite was flavor was cola or cherry cola. I wonder if this would work with iced tea if I added some sparkling water before freezing?
Love this – I am also an addict – not Mountain Dew, but others – and especially when I am in or shortly out of the hospital, multiple times a year – and I spend a fortune having people get them for me. This is perfect, thank you so very very much.
The first time I saw these at a convenience store they were called Icees so that’s what I refer to them as. The blue has always been my fave. I am going to have to try this out, I have texture issues, so if this works for me, it would be wonderful.
Hi, Emily! Thanks for your discovery how to make slushi. I too had been wondering and trying and gave up finally. Cant wait to go home and try your technique! I too am calorie counter. Wonder if no flavor or just lemon juice is palatable. Thanks for sharing!
Lucy
I’m in tears!! I am 6 months pregnant in South MS and my local Circle K hasn’t fixed the Icee Machine in like a year… you have saved my life!!! Cravings Managed.
Nope, no ice cubes. That would make something more like a snowcone. For this, you just freeze the soda the way it naturally comes, and then put the frozen soda into a blender.
EMILY?? Would still like to know, and I’m not alone I can see, how you got the semi-thawed soda OUT of the bottle into the blender?? Those bottle tops are tiny, so did you cut off the top of the bottle to get the contents into the blender???
A shame that you have made such a great discovery but that step is a mystery still???
If you leave it in the freezer just long enough you can shake the plastic bottle to sort of rattle the hard chunks ad get them to break down into more of a slush-with-hard-chunks texture that you can push out of the spout. If you leave it for longer and it gets harder then you can just cut it. I try to catch it when it’s not super hardened but sometimes I just forget. So I’ve done both methods at different times. I’ve also poured soda into a large ziploc bag (gallon size only half filled or less, doubled up and left as upright as possible to reduce odds of leaking) because then even if it gets fully frozen, I can get the entire block out of the bag pretty easily.
Thank you for your innovative if not accidental discovery on making a ‘slurpee’ type slushy. The cola variety is my preference.
However in reading your directions, I think I’m missing a step. You said , you waited until the bottle thawed a bit until “an inch and a half or so of soda had pooled into the bottom of the 2-liter and then I filled the blender with the contents of the 2 liter.”
Did you cut/scissor open the plastic bottle to get the frozen soda out? How did you get it from the bottle to the blender i guess is what I’m asking
In case anybody reads this, I thought I might share that I wondered if the semi-famous Margaritaville Slushee and Frozen Concoction machine ( seen many times on QVC) might be a kitchen gadget to make slushees like you did without the machine. I wrote to the company and to my disappointment they advise their machine does NOT WORK with carbonated mixers such as a COLA.
So if anyone reads this I’ve saved you some time in case you were wondering about that machine.
Oh well it was worth the try, but I am excited to try your wonderful discovery method for Slushee/slurpees. I will come back after to report my success
EMILY?? Would still like to know, and I’m not alone I can see, how you got the semi-thawed soda OUT of the bottle into the blender?? A shame that you have made such a great discovery but that step is a mystery still???
Tory Blum
Deb E
kathy downey
natalie nichols
Rosie
Dandi D
Kristen
Saundra McKenzie
Desiree Glaze
Jeanine Carlson
shannon fowler
Lisa Coomer Queen
Lucy
Belle
?Kenzie Row?
David Putnam
Kayla
My teenager wants a Soda Stream for his next gift… this could be a good idea to pass along to him. I love how some innovations happen by mistake. I like to freeze coffee to make iced coffee. I’m actually not a fan of ice- but frozen drinks are awesome!