The Easiest Way To Make Frozen Margaritas Without A Blender

If warm and sunny days spent tanning on a beach chair could be distilled down into a beverage, the resulting drink would be a frozen margarita. If you're looking to get some of those tropical vibes into your life, making a frozen margarita at home is pretty simple, even if you don't have a blender. You might think you need a whole set-up to achieve the slushy cocktail, but all you really need is some advance planning and a freezer.

There's a super simple hack for making frozen margaritas without a blender, and anyone who has a juice box and a freezer can execute it. All that the trick entails is getting a juice box or pouch, putting it in the freezer, and letting it solidify until it reaches a slushie-esque consistency. All the other steps in the margarita process are exactly the same. You'll start by rimming the glass with salt, then you'd add the 'slushified' juice box to the cup, followed by tequila and margarita mix. In the end, you're left with an icy treat without any of the hassle of using a blender. 

Because you get to choose what kind of juice box you use, the flavor of your frozen margarita is really up to you. One unique combination is lychee and tequila, which requires using a lychee-flavored juice pouch to make the frozen cocktail. Lychee, for those who aren't familiar, is a sweet fruit whose taste can be described as a mixture of watermelon and strawberry with a hint of rose. Watermelon and strawberry are both pretty common margarita flavors, so lychee also sounds like it would pair well with tequila and a standard margarita mix.

If you want to stick to the classic lime flavor, you might have to get a little creative. A solely lime juice box might be a little hard to come by, but there are brands that sell non-alcoholic canned margarita mixers. In theory, you could transfer one of these to a plastic bag and put it in the freezer to achieve the same effect as a juice box. You could also experiment by freezing two different flavored juice boxes and swirling them together. Beach resort bars often sell frozen margarita and daiquiri combinations, and the same effect can be achieved by employing multiple juice box types. 

If you don't want to water down your margarita by adding lots of frozen juice, there are other ways to achieve that frozen effect without a blender. You could skip the juice box, mix all of the classic margarita ingredients together (minus the booze), and pour them into a plastic freezer bag. Seal the bag and get as much air out as possible, and then place it flat in the freezer. After a few hours, the contents should be frozen, and all you have to do is add the tequila and mash them up a little bit so they get that slushy consistency. This method also gives you a little more wiggle room if you have a specific recipe that doesn't include a juice box, like a frozen blood orange margarita.

Another way to go is to make your margarita mix as you normally would, and then use a mold to freeze it into cubes — much like how coffee ice cubes are the solution to watery iced lattes. All you'd need to do to take the cubes from frozen to slush is to give them a little smash inside a plastic bag. The texture might not be as great as if you had used a blender, but it's a good solution when you're in a pinch.