The 5 Best Blenders For Frozen Drinks - Fall 2024

The Vitamix A3500 is the best blender for frozen drinks that we've tested. This high-end blender makes quick work of big batches of crushed ice using its 'Frozen Drinks' program. Using its 48oz jar, it can easily crush a batch of a dozen ice cubes into snow-like crushed ice for cocktails and frozen drinks. It also makes a nearly perfectly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients, so it can make very well-blended frozen drinks with fruit like pineapple or strawberries.

It's very well-built, which is especially important if you blend a lot of harder ingredients like ice cubes. It's decently quiet and easy to clean by hand or in your dishwasher. However, it's an expensive option if all you plan to do is crush ice. If your frozen drink recipes mostly include ice and liquid, you might prefer a cheaper option below.

The Breville The Q is a good upper mid-range option if you want something less expensive. It's not quite as well-built as the Vitamix A3500 and doesn't perform quite as well for some purposes, like blending single-serve smoothies. However, it makes very uniform, snow-like crushed ice in its 68oz pitcher. Its 'Ice Crush/Auto Pulse' mode makes it a very easy process, although the Vitamix can do it a bit faster.

It makes a nearly perfectly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients, so you can use it for fruit-based frozen drinks and smoothies. This blender is decently quiet, like the previous pick, and even easier to clean by hand since its jar's wide base makes it easy to reach the blades.

The Ninja Detect Power Blender Pro is the best blender for margaritas and other frozen drinks in the mid-range price bracket. If you want a good ice crusher for less, you may have to compromise on versatility. This blender doesn't blend fibrous ingredients as smoothly as the previous picks, so recipes with fruit will have more unprocessed bits left over. However, using its 'BlendSense' automatic program, it can crush a big batch of ice very quickly, making it a great option for frozen drinks like slushies.

It comes with a 72oz jar that can be used for multiple servings. Its lid has a pouring spout, so you can easily serve blended margaritas or slushies from the pitcher without spilling. However, its louder than the Breville The Q. Its spiral blade design makes cleaning it by hand annoying. The blades are very sharp, so you must be careful not to cut yourself. That said, all of its components are dishwasher-safe.

The Ninja Professional Blender 1000 is the best budget blender for frozen drinks that we've tested. This blender has a simpler design than the Ninja Detect Power Blender Pro and doesn't perform as well for blending fibrous ingredients. However, it's just as good at ice crushing and easily makes snow-like ice, just like the previous pick. It also comes with a similar lid with a pouring spout.

Unfortunately, it makes a grainy blend with fibrous ingredients even after several minutes of blending, so it's not the best blender for frozen fruits. It has simple controls, with a few manual blending speeds and a pulse mode, but no automatic blending programs. If you want a blender that stops at the end of a blending cycle, you might prefer the Ninja SMOOTHIEiQ, which has an almost identical design with the addition of a 'Smoothie' blending program. However, it's mainly available at Costco (U.S.), so it's not as easy to get your hands on.

If you like making frozen drinks for a crowd at summer parties, you may want a blender with a large-capacity pitcher, like the other full-size blenders listed here. On the other hand, if you're not usually serving a lot of people or want to save space in your kitchen, the Ninja TWISTi High-Speed Blender DUO is the best small blender for frozen drinks we've tested. In terms of size, it's between a full-size blender and a personal blender. Its 34-ounce main jar can fit enough to serve one or two people and easily crushes ice for recipes like blended margaritas and slushies. There's also a personal jar included if you want to make a smaller batch.

The lid has arms built into it that you can rotate to stir your recipe as it blends. This 'built-in tamper' feature can make it easier to process thicker mixtures, like drinks with a lot of ice or frozen fruit like strawberries. This blender also makes a smooth blend with fibrous elements like blueberry skin, so your frozen drink will be free of unprocessed bits and grains. It's sturdy and offers a few automatic blending programs. Unfortunately, it's the loudest blender on this list, which will get annoying if you use it to make several batches in a row.