Fresh Snow Is The Ultimate Ingredient For Frozen Cocktails (But Be Careful)

A cold cocktail can be satisfying, but there's just something so refreshing about drinking a frozen one. Frozen cocktails are typically made with ice that is blended up with the other ingredients to achieve a slushy consistency. Sometimes the ice is substituted for frozen fruit, or is shaved instead of blended, but have you ever tried using snow? Much like snow ice cream, snow cocktails offer a novel way to enjoy a traditional frozen treat, adding a wintery element to the drinking experience.

While snow cocktails can be tasty, you do have to exercise some precaution when making them, not because they're challenging to make, but because you can't automatically assume all snow is fresh. Depending on the current weather conditions and when and where you retrieved the snow, you may accidentally end up putting ingredients you don't want into your cocktail like traces of black carbon or pesticides. But don't let this scare you — pollutants in snow are generally never high enough to be toxic. Drinking one snow cocktail definitely isn't a health hazard, but it's still in your best interest to use the freshest snow possible.

It goes without saying that yellow snow wouldn't make a good cocktail, but in addition to avoiding discolored snow, you should also avoid snow that has been sitting on the ground for a long time or has been through a snow plow. Even though it might look clean, that isn't always the case. You might assume the first snowfall is the freshest, but the opposite is true. As snow falls, it helps cleanse the atmosphere of pollutants, making later snowfalls cleaner.

Whether you're making a traditional frozen margarita or a spring sangria slush, the best way to retrieve snow for your cocktail is to wait a little longer after the first snowfall and let it gather in a bowl placed high above the ground like on top of a picnic table or car. Make sure not to do this when it's windy, as this could introduce unwanted dirt from the ground and nearby landscape.

The amount of snow you add to your cocktail depends on the recipe. The texture of the snow is a lot like shaved ice, so if you use it in a recipe that calls for shaved ice, you can easily substitute the snow at a 1:1 ratio. With drinks that normally use ice cubes, it's a little different. In most frozen cocktails, the amount of ice used is typically double that of the other ingredients combined. You don't have to measure out the snow, but to get a better idea of how much to add, it will help to compress it down or even pack it into an actual ice cube tray so the texture and density resemble ice.

When making your snow cocktail, keep in mind that you're working with an ingredient that melts pretty quickly at room temperature. Therefore it's best to keep it in the freezer as you're making your drink. Technically you can make a snow cocktail in advance and store it in the freezer, but only if it has a lot of alcohol to keep it from melting. Otherwise, once you've made your snow cocktail, make sure to serve it immediately.