So there is a thing happening in the Seattle summer happy hour and wine scene – it is pink, frozen, and fluffing around in a slushie machine and it is being called "frozé" a rosé wine slushie made with wine, fruit, ice and maybe a secret ingredient and/or sugar.
As some wine enthusiasts out there may know, rosé is all of a sudden a super popular type of wine to drink. It has been building, annoyingly so in my long time rosé drinking person's opinion, popularity over the last three years such that bottles from local wineries that I could buy throughout the summer season in the past, have become a contest of spring quickness to snap up by the case before other people do upon immediate release. Also most annoyingly, there is definitely not any left over for Thanksgiving.
But all of this aside, I was reading the Seattle Times foodie e-newsletter thingy about a week ago I came across an article breaking down some of the better Frozé offerings throughout the city and the anticipated release of some more now that summer was officially upon us. My eyebrows raised as I looked out the window to see the sun shining on a Wednesday afternoon in Seattle. Happy hour exploration was going to have to happen, for research purposes of course.
It just so happens that Frozé is a local Instagram sensation and any bar with a slushie machine is now, in light of our record breaking summer weather, putting out their own version of a pink wine slushie or Blushie as my friend is calling them. The progenitor of the trend in Seattle is a little place called Revolution Wine Bar – who is still ahead of the trend, currently offering way more than Frozé to its patrons.
In my personal research this week I was able to visit two places to ingest some of this pink snow to formulate my own opinion about the concoction (I made it to Bottlehouse and its relative Mr. West) and of course to determine if I could make some myself. The answer to the latter was – yes, of course, I can make some – even without a slushie machine (although I know where to find one).
To start find some strawberries of any quality, about 2 cups for every half bottle of wine you have. Mine were some sad things abandoned by roommates in the refrigerator I rescued to be in the service of this experimentation – they were very sad looking so I am certain any strawberry will do for this recipe. I chose a very inexpensive rosé found at Trader Joe's for the wine in this first rendition because it is slightly sweet and pleasantly effervescent and wouldn't be a great loss if my recipe was a complete fail.
Puree the strawberries in a food processor, then add about two cups of ice.
Blend it all together then add it to a container with the wine. Choose something you can cover and shake. I put a half bottle of the wine into a mason jar then added the strawberry ice mixture, covered the jar and shook. In the end it looked like this.
It looked very drinkable, so I poured it into a wine glass to determine if the experiment was a success.
Sure looked like a wine slushie to me and it tasted like a tasty refreshing homemade Frozay.
Perfect for summer deck drinking. Cheers!
Paprika Angel's Frozay
makes about 4 servings
2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
2 to 3 cups ice cubes
1/2 bottle rose on the sweeter side of dry or sweet (depending on your personal preference)
Step 1:
In a food processor blend the strawberries until smooth.
Step 2:
Add ice and blend until smooth again.
Step 3:
Add strawberry ice mixture to wine in a container with a cover. Cover and shake until well blended.
Pour into wine glass and serve immediately. Store the remainder in the freezer.