Win New Year’s Eve With a Bougie (But Easy) Cocktail Hack

The big day’s finally arrived, folks. December 31st. We made it to the end of the year – and honestly, this one felt like a long one. So, it’s natural that you’ll want to see it out with a bang and more than a few cocktails, as you celebrate better times to come. Unfortunately, those cocktails may end up being a little bit of a damp squib. Sure, the first sip is to die for, but then you put it down for five minutes, and the ice starts to melt. You pick it back up, take a gulp, and you end up with a mouthful of diluted liquor. Not exactly the celebratory experience you want on New Year’s Eve.

But wait, there’s a solution! And it comes in the form of fruit juice. All you have to do is pour your favorite fruit juice (we’ve taste-tested the best ones out there) into your ice tray, freeze it, and presto: You’ve got fruit juice ice cubes that won’t water down your drink!

As the cubes melt in your cocktail, they’ll infuse it with even more flavor, keeping it tasting sprightly and lively as the night goes on, and keeping you in the party spirit as you count down to midnight. 

Fruit Juice Ice Cubes Are as Simple as Regular Ones, but Taste Way Better

Fruit juice ice cubes are especially useful if you’re making batch cocktails, like a fruit punch or a jug of Cosmopolitans, which involve dumping a lot of liquor into a large receptacle. After all, if you’re spending all of that money on a big old bunch of drinks, you don’t want half of it to become undrinkable after an hour, because it’s watered down too much. You can even use fruit juice ice cubes in some of the best cheap canned cocktails out there, to make them taste even better.

You might want to tweak your cocktail recipe slightly to accommodate the additional flavor your fruit juice ice cubes will provide. For example, if you’re making ice cubes out of fruit juice that is already in your cocktail (like pineapple juice in a cranberry-pineapple punch), then mix in less of said juice at the beginning. As the cubes melt, they’ll balance out the flavors. 

Crucially, though, you might want to avoid using fruit juice ice cubes in classic cocktails, which are made up primarily (or exclusively) of pure liquor, as opposed to liquor and mixers. If you throw cranberry juice ice cubes into a Dirty Martini, you’ll destroy its flavor and all of that briny, sparky intensity. That being said, there are certainly some old school cocktails that invite some innovation. For example, instead of using lime juice in a Margarita, just mix the tequila and triple sec, and then pour over lime juice ice cubes (and spruce it up with your favorite cocktail garnish). We promise you, you’ll be amazed by the results.