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.
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 9x13 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.