In hoity-toity cocktail circles, the blender has become something of a joke. It’s too closely associated with the dark years of the 1980s and 1990s, when frozen drinks were sickly sweet and garishly colored from artificial mixers. But blended drinks go back – way back, to the mid-1800s, when drinks like the Absinthe Frappe were all the rage. Let’s reclaim another one: the Frozen Daiquiri.  – Andrew
Frozen St-Germain Daiquiri
2 oz Bacardi Rum
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz St-Germain
1/2 oz Rich Simple Syrup
Combine all the ingredients in a blender with an equal amount of crushed ice. Start to blend at the lowest setting and slowly add more crushed ice, a bit at a time, until the drink starts to fold over on itself. Pour into a chilled glass and enjoy!
Illustration by Dinara Mirtalipova for Oh So Beautiful Paper
This is an easy enough technique once you’ve mastered it, but plenty easy to screw up. I recommend practicing ahead of time so you’ve nailed it down once it’s time to serve your guests. I definitely screwed up a few batches before I got the right consistency down, watering down the drink with too much ice or not blending enough and leaving the drink full of big ice chunks. The ideal frozen daiquiri is smooth enough to sip easily through a straw, but still with enough body to chew on. (As a texture eater, I love chomping on those micro-ice crystals.) It should taste just like a St-Germain daiquiri that you’d shake with ice – sweet and tart and floral – but feel like a smoothie. You might consider adding a bit more sugar, since the cold will dull your sense of taste a bit (the same reason we put so much sugar in ice cream). Delicious. Just watch out for brain freeze.
Calligraphy by Lauren Saylor of A Fabulous Fete
Styling by Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper
Photos by Sweet Root Village for Oh So Beautiful Paper