Frozen Lychee Soju Slush

A frozen drink for a party usually means someone standing at a blender all night making two servings at a time. This is the other way to do it: the whole batch goes into a pan, into the freezer, and stays scoopable because of a bit of freezer-chemistry. Alcohol does not freeze solid at household freezer temperatures, so a mixture with the right proportion of spirit sets into a granita texture you rake with a fork rather than a block you have to chisel.

That proportion is the thing to respect. Roughly two cups of soju to five cups of liquid is the range that gives you a slush. Go much higher and it never sets. Go much lower and you get an ice cube the size of a baking pan. If your batch comes out too hard, the fix is a splash more soju stirred in and another hour in the freezer, not a hammer.

Canned lychees are the right call over fresh even when fresh are available. They come in syrup you use as the sweetener, they are peeled and pitted already, and they cost a fraction of what fresh lychees do outside of a short summer window. Any Asian grocery carries them for a couple of dollars a can, and larger supermarkets stock them in the international aisle.

Frozen Lychee Soju Slush

A freezer batch of lychee, lime, and soju you scrape with a fork and scoop into glasses — made three days ahead, serves ten, no blender at the party and no ice needed.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 0 minutes mins

Total Time 6 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine Asian

Servings 10 drinks

Ingredients

  

• 2 cans lychees in syrup 20 ounces each, drained, syrup reserved
• 1 cup lychee syrup reserved from the cans
• 2 cups soju or vodka
• 3/4 cup lime juice fresh, about 6 limes
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 pinch salt
• 10 lime wheels for serving
• 10 whole lychees reserved from the cans
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves optional

Instructions

 

• Drain the lychees and reserve the syrup. Set aside 10 whole lychees for garnish.
• Blend the remaining lychees with the reserved syrup, soju, lime juice, water, and salt until completely smooth. Work in two batches if your blender is small.
• Taste the mixture before it goes into the freezer. It should be slightly sweeter and slightly more tart than you want the finished drink — freezing mutes both.
• Pour into a 9×13 metal baking pan. Metal conducts cold faster than glass or plastic and gives you a better texture.
• Freeze for 2 hours, then drag a fork through the mixture, scraping the frozen edges into the liquid center.
• Repeat the fork-scraping every hour for the next 3 to 4 hours, until the whole pan is a loose, scoopable slush.
• Cover tightly and hold in the freezer for up to 3 days. Scrape once more right before serving.
• Scoop into short glasses and top each with a lime wheel, a whole lychee, and a few mint leaves.

Notes

Soju is one of the best values in the liquor store — a bottle usually runs three to five dollars at an Asian market and less than ten anywhere else. It is lower proof than vodka, which is part of why this sets into such a good texture.

If you substitute vodka, use 1 1/2 cups rather than 2. Vodka is nearly twice the proof, and the same volume will keep the batch from freezing at all.

Buy limes by the bag rather than singly. A bag of ten or twelve usually costs about what four loose limes do.

One can of lychees is enough for a half batch. Halve everything and freeze it in a loaf pan for a smaller group.

Scrape it at least four times. The number of scrapes, not the freezing time, is what determines whether you get snow or a solid block.

Make it alcohol-free: replace the soju with 1 1/2 cups of cold green tea plus 1/2 cup extra lychee syrup, and freeze it in an ice cube tray instead of a pan — without alcohol it will set hard, so blend the cubes to order, or scoop them into a glass and top with sparkling water.

Serving note: 2 cups of soju across 10 servings is about 1 1/2 ounces each. Soju runs around 40 proof, roughly half the strength of vodka, so each scoop is lighter than it tastes.

Keyword big-batch cocktail, frozen cocktail, lychee, soju cocktail