Cape Codder

In the midst of one of the coldest snaps to hit Wisconsin in a generation, we came across a tidbit of alcohol trivia on the internet. The claim was that 80 proof vodka freezes at -17 degrees. Sceptical as always, we thought that we might as well do an experiment ourselves, given that we still had a night left of -20-something temperatures.


So we poured Smirnoff into our round rubber molds and placed the tray outside for approximately twelve hours of temperatures well under -17. Verdict? Well, in the end we had four slushie one-inch diameter vodka ice balls. Not really what any Lounge Lizard would call frozen. Using a spoon, though, I could get them in their semi-round state into cranberry juice for a fun Cape Codder. I believe we would have greater success with much smaller cubes or by placing the vodka in a thin layer on a metal sheet pan, but, realistically, vodka frozen at -20 temperatures doesn’t have much practical cocktailing use. If you really need to freeze booze, liquid nitrogen is the way to go!

Cape Codder

Classic Pour

3 parts cranberry juice

2 parts vodka

Usually a Cape Codder is shaken on ice and garnished with a lime wedge. We just dropped our vodka slushie ice balls into cranberry juice and stirred!