How to turn a bottle of soda into a slushy drink (video)

When we came across this video explaining how to turn any soda or sports drink into a frozen slushy, it sounded like too good of an idea not to try out. Beating the heat by sipping on a refreshing frozen drink this summer doesn’t sound half bad!

The idea is that you can put any bottle of soda in the freezer for a set amount of time and within seconds of taking it out, you’ll be able to instantly turn it into an icy frozen drink.

Grant Thompson, “The King of Random,” who posts weekly videos of hacks, experiments and projects, explains the science behind this slushy trick in the above video. He says to place soda in the freezer for three hours and 15 minutes—the point at which the liquid is colder than freezing, but not actually frozen yet. When you open the bottle to release the pressure, and then turn it upside down, the soda turns into a slushy—at least in theory.

I was curious whether or not this would actually work, so I tested it out at home. I grabbed three room temperature unopened bottles of soda and shook them vigorously, per the video instructions. I made sure to shake them as hard as I could to help build up the pressure in the bottle.

Hoping they wouldn’t explode, I placed the unopened bottles in my freezer. Following the tutorial, I left the bottles in the freezer for a little over three hours. And because I wanted to give this tutorial my best shot, I even used the same sized 500-milileter bottles of soda that were used in the video.

Once your bottles are ready to come out, Thompson says you should be able to use one of three ways to turn the drink into an instant carbonated slushy. I tried all three, and here’s what happened.

1. Turn The Bottle Upside Down

The first trick shared in the video tutorial is to release the pressure from the bottle by loosening the cap before tightening it again. (I completed this step off video).  You should then be able to turn the bottle upside down and it will transform into an instant frozen drink. Unfortunately, this method didn’t work for me.

2. Use A Frosted Glass Or Bowl

The second way you can turn your just-out-of-the-freezer soda into an instant frozen drink is by releasing the pressure slowly before pouring it into a frosted bowl or glass that just came out of the freezer.

This probably worked the best for me. While I wouldn’t call what I had a full-on frozen slushy, it was definitely icy. Perhaps I should have slowed down when unscrewing the cap?

3. Use An Ice Cube

The final method to create an instant frozen drink is to pour the liquid soda into a regular glass with an ice cube. This also did not work for me. Here’s the proof.

Thompson also stated that he’s yet to have trouble creating an instant frozen drink and that it has worked for him using a variety of sodas as well as sports drinks. Well, darn. Maybe I just didn’t freeze my soda bottles long enough?

I would’ve loved to have had a frozen drink, but you know, the few ice crystals swirling around in the frosted mug were good, too.

If you’re curious and want to try this trick for yourself, here’s a few additional things Thompson says to keep in mind:

• Every freezer is different, so you might need to play around with the timing to get the best results.
• You can also try this trick with a can of soda, but the can needs to be opened slowly or it will likely freeze inside of the can as you attempt to pour it out.
• If you wanted to to try this with a larger or smaller bottle, you’d also need to adjust the amount of  time the bottle is in the freezer.

Have you tried this slushy trick before? Let us know whether it worked for you!