Frosé Recipe

Frosé Recipe

Fruity, icy, and delicious, the frosé quickly became the go-to summer drink after its 2016 debut. The frozen cocktail is easy to make, extremely versatile, and a great way to use rosé wine. While the frosé’s trendiness may have slowed down a bit after a few years, the beautiful pink slushie remains an absolute delight to share with a few friends on hot days.

The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

The frosé is simply frozen rosé wine blended with fruits. Credit for the wine cocktail’s invention goes to Bar Primi in New York City’s East Village. The original recipe blended rosé wine with vermouth and strawberries in a slushie machine. Today, there are many ways to make frosé, and they’re all fabulous. You can stick with the original strawberry—a natural pairing for rosé’s berry notes—or go with any fruity combination you dream up.

For a quick frosé, pull out the blender and use frozen strawberries. You can also freeze the wine mixture overnight (the alcohol keeps it slushy). Either way, serve frosé in chilled glasses to ensure it stays nice and icy. Try to use stemware (a coupe, martini, or wine glass is perfect) so drinkers can hold onto the stem and avoid melting the frosé.

You don’t need an expensive bottle of wine to make a spectacular frosé, and it’s an excellent excuse to buy a less expensive bottle. Look for a drier still rosé—those from dry red wine grape varietals like merlot, pinot noir, and syrah are perfect—and let the strawberries and sugar sweeten the drink. If you end up with a sweeter wine, start with half the sugar, taste the blended drink, and add more if needed.

Frose Recipe/Tester Image

“Frozen berries and ice turn cold rosé into an incredibly easy and delicious slushy cocktail. It’s so refreshing on a warm evening and fun to drink. The lemon juice and sugar were the perfect amount to balance the flavors in the drink.” —Danielle Centoni

A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (375 milliliters) dry rosé wine, chilled

  • 2 cups sliced frozen strawberries

  • 8 to 10 ice cubes

  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, more as needed

  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, more as needed

  • Fresh strawberries, or frozen strawberry slices, for garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ingredients to make frose

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  2. In a blender, add the wine, strawberries, 8 ice cubes, sugar, and lemon juice.

    A blender filled with wine, strawberries, ice cubes, sugar, and lemon juice

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  3. Blend on high speed until smooth. Add a few extra ice cubes and blend again if the mix is too thin. Too thick? Add a little more wine. Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice if needed.

    A blender filled with blended frose

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  4. Pour into frozen stemmed glasses and garnish with strawberries.

    Four glasses of frose garnished with strawberries

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

Tips

  • For a blended frosé, use frozen strawberries because you’ll need less ice and end up with a more flavorful cocktail. If you have fresh fruit, slice it up (eight to 10 large strawberries produce about two cups), lay them flat on a plate, and freeze them for an hour or two.
  • Citrus juice adds a nice tang that brings balance to the sweet drink. While lemon juice is popular in a strawberry frosé, fresh lime juice is an excellent alternative.
  • The standard wine bottle is 750 milliliters, and the recipe requires only half a bottle because it’s the perfect volume for the average blender. To use up the remaining wine, make a second batch and keep it frozen, or pour some of the chilled wine into the frosé-filled glasses.

How to Store

  • You can make frosé up to a few days in advance and keep it frozen. A hard-sided freezer container works great, and the frosé just needs to be forked until fluffy.
  • You can also pour it into a freezer-safe zip-top bag. When ready to serve, squish the bag to break the frosé into a slushy mix.
  • Frosé can also be reblended to chop it up; blend in a few ice cubes if it becomes too liquidy.

Recipe Variations

  • To make frosé in advance without ice, blend an entire bottle of rosé wine with the recipe’s strawberries (fresh or frozen), lemon juice, and sugar, and adjust it to taste. Pour the mix into a 9 x 13-inch baking dish and freeze for at least four hours. The alcohol prevents it from freezing solid, and you can fork it into a fluffier slushie.
  • It is possible to make frosé without a blender using the freezer method and fresh fruit, though you’ll still need to produce the strawberry purée. A food processor is the best alternative, a food mill will work, or you can muddle chopped strawberries into a juicy pulp. Mix the strawberry purée with the other ingredients, pour it into a plastic freezer bag, and lay it flat in the freezer for three to four hours, or until slushy.
  • Replace some of the strawberries with other summertime fruits. Raspberries and watermelon will retain the pink color, while blackberries, blueberries, peaches, and other fruits are wonderful in frosés as well.
  • The pomegranate grapefruit frosé takes another approach, replacing some of the wine with pomegranate vodka and grapefruit juice. Use it as inspiration for experiments with other fruity liquors and juices.

How Strong Is Frosé?

The volume of the nonalcoholic ingredients affects the amount of alcohol in frosé. Ice dilutes the cocktail, so the quick blended version is only around 5 percent ABV, or about half the strength of the wine. If you skip the ice and opt for a wine-only freezer frosé, it will be a little stronger, weighing in around 8 percent ABV.

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