Best Blender for Frozen Drinks
[amazon table=”3772″]While it’s nice to enjoy a frozen drink or two at a bar in summer, there’s a different kind of satisfaction to making your own at home.
You’ll be the envy of the neighborhood if you can make frozen drinks from home, and it’s a great way to get people over.
With a powerful enough blender you’ll have the power in your hands to make everything from nutritious smoothies to cold cocktails.
👑 Our Pick for Best Overall
[amazon box=”B00939FV8K” title=”Ninja Professional BL660″ description=”The Ninja Professional BL660 is hard to beat due to its superior power, and ice crushing ability. It has all the settings you need to make the perfect frozen drink every time, and provides multiple serving options.”]⭐ Our Other Top Best Blender for Frozen Drinks Picks
- Best of the Best: Ninja Professional BL660
- Runner Up: Blendtec Classic 575
- Best on a Budget: Oster Reverse Crush
Best Blender for Frozen Drinks Reviews
Ninja Professional BL660 (👑 Best of the Best)
The best blender for frozen drinks has to be the widely praised Ninja Professional BL660 countertop blender.
If you’re looking for a reliable yet powerful blender that can do it all, then this is an excellent option. Made by the top blender brand Ninja, this blender has plenty of admirers, and it’s easy to see why. For a blender with premium performance, the price is very reasonable, and that’s not to mention all of the features and extras that come with it.
The Ninja Professional countertop blender ticks the most important box for making frozen drinks – it’s powerful. With a 1100 watt base, there’s almost nothing you can’t blend in it, so crushing ice and making frozen drinks should be a breeze. But perhaps even more important than its impressive power is the Total Crushing pitcher, which is fitted with a 6-blade assembly specifically designed to take care of ice. This combination of high power and blades made for ice make it incredibly easy to create the exact texture you’re looking for in your frozen drink.
There’s also various settings you can experiment with on this blender, which give you ultimate control over how your drinks turn out. With 3 different speeds and a pulse option, you can blend your Margarita or cold smoothie to perfection every time. If you like your frozen drinks to have a certain consistency, then you should have no problem achieving it with this blender. The pulse option is especially important for keeping things moving, and breaking down larger chunks of ice if necessary.
To add yet more value to the already over performing blender, you’ll get 2 16oz Nutri Ninja cups with travel-friendly lids. While this might not seem as cool as the blender itself, having a couple of to go cups lets you take your frozen drinks with you wherever you need to be. So if you enjoy a cold smoothie in the morning but don’t have much time, you can blend it quickly straight into the cup and take it with you as you leave.
When you’re not in a rush and have time to prepare frozen drinks for guests or family, you’ll love the XL 72oz pitcher. With such a large pitcher you can create a big batch of frozen margaritas when you have friends over. Or simply store the pitcher in the fridge if you just want drinks on tap throughout the day.
Features:
- 1100 watt motor
- 72oz pitcher
- Total Crushing 6 blade assembly
- 3 speed settings and pulse
- Single serve function
- Includes 2 16oz cups
- BPA-free
- Dishwasher-safe
Blendtec Classic 575 (🥈 Runner Up)
Blendtec is a brand known for its powerful blenders, and the Classic 575 is no exception.
This is exactly the kind of blender you’d appreciate if you’re interested in making frozen drinks quickly and efficiently. There’s a whole host of useful features and functionality which make this premium blender worth its steep price tag.
This blendtec blender sports an impressive 1560 watt motor which should immediately alleviate any concerns as to whether or not it’s up to the job. One of the main obstacles to making great frozen drinks is how tricky frozen ingredients can be to grind down in a blender. Having a powerful motor is one way to essentially bypass this problem, since provided that the blade is sturdy, the frozen ingredients will be crushed with no problem at all.
We can confirm that the blade of this blender is indeed sturdy, with a patented design and made from 80% thick stainless steel. The blades have been forged with wings for the smoothest blending, and the brand claims that its blades are 10x stronger than those of other blenders.
As well as being fitted with an efficient motor and blades, this blender has 4 pre-programmed cycles, 5 manual speed controls, and a pulse setting.
This makes your life very straightforward, even if you’ve never laid hands on a blender before. The pre-programmed cycles are especially useful, since you can just press a button to make the smoothies or cocktails of your dreams. If you’re more experienced with blenders, you can take more control over the end results with the 5 different speed controls and the pulse setting. There should rarely be instances of food or ice getting stuck inside this blender. There’s even an LCD display that will tell you how much time is left, so you can get on with other things.
With the WildSide+ jar, you’ll have as much as 90oz to work with, and a blending capacity of 36oz. This can make frozen drinks for around 4-6 people at a time. As a result, this blender from Blendtec is one of the better options for hosting parties in which you serve fun frozen cocktails.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there’s a self-cleaning function with this blender, which means with a little soap and water the jar will clean itself in under a minute. This helps make post-party cleanup as simple as possible.
Features:
- 1560 watt motor
- 90oz WildSide+ jar
- 4 pre-programmed cycles
- 5 speed settings
- Pulse setting
- Patented stainless steel blades
- Self-cleaning mode
- LCD display
Oster Reverse Crush (💰 Best on a Budget)
Our top budget blender pick for frozen drinks is the Oster Reverse Crush, which more than holds its own.
This blender from Oster is fitted with 600 watts of blending power, which should be enough to take care of most ingredients you could want in your frozen drinks. What’s interesting about this model though isn’t as much the power as it is the reversing blade technology. The blender is fitted with dual direction 6-point stainless steel blades which alternate backward and forward for smooth blending. This helps ensure that the results are excellent every time, and that nothing gets stuck in between the blades.
For a budget blender, the Oster Reverse Crush has a lot of features and functionality. First, there’s the pre-programmed Smart settings, which allow you to determine the time and function of each blend with one touch. Then, there are an astonishing 7 different speed settings, which gives you plenty of control over your frozen drinks. It also helps you make drinks whether you’ve got time on your hands or your schedule is full. Simply set the speed that’s best for the moment, and the blender will take care of the rest.
There are also a couple of handy features when it comes to serving. The 6 cup glass jar is large enough to be suitable for social gatherings and parties, but more interestingly, there’s something unique about the 2oz cap. The filler cap actually has built-in markings on it which will allow you to measure the ingredients as you pour them into the jar. This might not sound like much, but it’s just another small way in which the blender helps make your life easier.
Finally, and a very big factor given that this is a budget blender, Oster provides a generous 10 year warranty. That means your investment should last long into the future, provided that you’re happy with it.
Features:
- Available in red or black
- 600 watt motor
- Pre-programmed Smart Settings
- Dual direction 6-point blade
- 10 year warranty
- 7 speed settings
- 6 cup glass jar
- 2oz measuring cap
Ultimate Guide to Selecting a Frozen Drinks Blender
Selecting the perfect blender for frozen drinks can be tricky, given that a lot of blenders aren’t up to the task of crushing ice and frozen fruit.
The most challenging aspect of making frozen drinks with a blender is crushing all of the ingredients to a smooth consistency, without anything getting stuck in the blades.
To do this with perfect results every time, you’ll want to make sure you find a blender that has plenty of power, features, and an effective blade assembly.
Related: Best Bullet Blender
Power
Arguably the most important prerequisite for a blender that can make frozen drinks is power.
By power, we are referring mostly to the wattage of the motor or base, since this is what moves the blades.
If the power is insufficient, you’ll find that ingredients get stuck quite often, and the blender will really struggle with chunks of ice of frozen fruit.
So what is a good level of power for a blender to make frozen drinks?
The minimum you could probably get away with is a 500-watt motor, and anything above this will probably do the job perfectly well.
This is more or less standard for a countertop blender, so most countertop models should be fine.
If you’re looking for a blender that’s great for frozen drinks, you might have to disregard personal/single serve blenders, since they are more compact and fitted with less powerful motors.
Some countertop blenders like the Blendtec Classic 575 and Ninja Professional BL660 have exceptionally powerful motors of more than 1000 watts, it’s not essential to have a motor this powerful.
The Oster Reverse Crush for example, makes up for its less powerful 600-watt motor with dual direction blades that are powered with reverse technology that allows them to go forwards and backwards until a smooth consistency is achieved.
Blade Assembly
Aside from power, the blade assembly is another way to guarantee effective results every time.
However, the blade assembly isn’t as important as the power of the blender, since it relies on the motor to work efficiently.
But, if you have a powerful enough motor, the blade assembly can further enhance the ability of the blender to deal with frozen ingredients.
As well as the composition of the blades, there are many different technologies which brands use to get the most out of them.
Here are some of the features which make the blades of blenders in this guide stand out.
Reverse Blade Technology
Reverse Blade Technology, as seen with the Oster Reverse Crush blender, utilises dual direction blades to ensure the smoothest consistency possibly.
By having the blades move both forwards and backwards, there is less likelihood that parts of food or ice get stuck inside the blender.
Total Crushing
The Total Crushing technology featured in the Ninja Professional BL660 blender features a 6 blade assembly that has been specifically designed to take care of ice.
This technology makes it easy to get the perfect consistency of ice you’re looking for in your frozen drinks.
Winged Tips
The Blendtec Classic 575 blender is interesting in that it has patented wing-tipped blades, which it claims are 10x stronger than other blender blades.
As a result, it’s very simple to slice through ingredients in this blender, and combined with the powerful motor, perfect frozen drinks are guaranteed every time.
Features
The last thing which will directly make a difference in the creation of frozen drinks is the features that the blender has.
The features and settings of a blender will give you more control over the consistency of your drinks, and can make the process far more straightforward.
Pre-programmed Cycles
A pre-programmed cycle is an incredibly helpful tool which can streamline the blending process down to a simple press of a button.
This is ideal for those who aren’t comfortable using blenders, or don’t have much time to fiddle with the machine as they are making drinks.
A pre-programmed cycle will let you create a specified drink or food item with one touch, such as a smoothie, cocktail, or sauce.
It’s not very common for more affordable blenders to have these pre-programmed cycles, so you’ll probably have to spend a little more for this added convenience.
Pulse
The word pulse should be one of the first things you look for in a blender.
While it’s not absolutely essential, it can really help you create the perfect frozen drinks every time.
The pulse option provides you with a way to control what’s happening in the blending process, as well as giving you a way to free up the blades if something is stuck in between them.
This can be very effective for breaking up large chunks of ice or whole pieces of frozen fruit.
Speed Settings
You always want to make sure your blender has some speed settings on it, since this is what will let you adjust the speed with which your drinks are made.
First of all this is important for making drinks according to your lifestyle. If you’re in a rush, a high speed option is imperative for example.
Second, adjusting the speed will bring different results, so it’s nice to have several options you can experiment with.
In some cases, the more speed settings the better.
Self-cleaning
Self-cleaning is an incredibly useful feature that will make the cleanup process much easier.
While the last thing you want to think about is cleaning up the mess you’ve made, looking for a blender with a self-cleaning mode can be a great move.
Jar Size
The size of the jar or pitcher is incredibly important, since it will determine how much of your frozen drink you make in a single blending session.
If it isn’t big enough, then you’ll have to use the blender for multiple runs, which isn’t ideal.
Consider how much you’re going to want to make before you dive in and buy a blender.
Are you going to be making margaritas for all of your friends, or just for yourself and your partner?
Aside from the size of the main jar or pitcher, it’s also worth thinking about the cups that come with the blender.
These extra cups (if you get any) will allow you to take your smoothies or other frozen drinks with you, which is ideal for the person with the busy lifestyle or the fitness enthusiast looking for a refreshing post-workout drink.
Again, think about how much you normally drink, and this should accurately inform your decision as to what cup size is best.
Related: Best Portable Blender
[elementor-template id=”5885″]Frequently Asked Questions About Blenders for Frozen Drinks
What is the best blender for cocktails?
We believe the best blender for cocktails is the Blendtec Classic 575, due primarily to its immense power and large serving jar.
The Classic 575 is an excellent countertop blender which can make light work of ice and frozen ingredients with its sturdy blades and powerful motor.
The large WildSide+ 90oz jar should have be perfect or creating a party-sized batch of your favorite cocktail.
What is the best blender for crushing ice?
The Ninja Professional BL660 in our view is the best blender for crushing ice.
There’s no denying that this is one of the best countertop blenders in its price range, and its ability to crush ice is one of its standout features.
The powerful base and Total Crushing technology is designed to take care of tough ingredients like chunks of ice.
How do you make frozen drinks in a blender?
To make frozen drinks in a blender, you’ll need a powerful motor and sturdy blades.
First pour the desired amount of crushed ice into the blender, and throw in some frozen fruit to get a flavourful base for your drink.
When you turn the blender on, make sure it is on a low speed setting, and use the pulse option occasionally to keep things moving.
Related: Best NutriBullet Blender
A Final Word From Energetic Lifestyle
Blenders are a fun and easy way to create all of your favorite frozen drinks, so pick carefully as you want to get the right one for your preferences.
You should choose according to what kinds of drink you want to make, the quantities you prefer, and the amount of features and settings you’d like to have.