How To Turn Any Soda Into A Slushy Without A Special Machine

If you've ever wished for the ability to instantly turn your bottled Coke into a slushy, rejoice, for it's actually entirely possible. Arctic Coke machines are special machines that freeze your bottled soda in 30 seconds, and have been popping up all over the globe over the years, more recently at convenience stores in China and Thailand. But, as it turns out, you don't even need to find one of these unicorn machines to enjoy a soda slushy. With the act of supercooling, you can make it a reality all on your own (and avoid gross gas station slushies for good) using the freezer in your kitchen.

The process is a relatively easy one, and begins with choosing your bottled soda. Any kind will do (Coke, Sprite, one of the 11 flavors of Dr. Pepper, perhaps) as long as it's carbonated and in a plastic bottle. Then, you're going to do what would normally ruin a soda drinker's life: Shake it up real good. Then put it in the freezer. After around 3.5 hours in there, untouched, you'll notice that the soda doesn't look frozen and that's because it's not — yet. This is the part that will make you look like a magician: Unscrew the cap just a tiny bit to release pressure, followed by tightening it back up and turning the bottle upside down. Before your eyes, liquid soda will quickly turn to slush.

Supercooling isn't magic — it's science. What it's doing is actually cooling the liquid to below freezing, but not actually freezing it. This is because, in order for a liquid to freeze, there needs to be a nucleation point — a foreign particle or act to cause it to crystallize, because it won't on its own. When you shake up the soda, it gets rid of any air bubbles that would act as that kind of foreign particle. That way, after it's at a temperature below freezing, you take it out in its liquid form and introduce your own nucleation point (the pressure being released and the bottle being turned over).

As far as best practices go, it's a much better idea to use a plastic bottle of soda rather than a can. This is because it's easier to open a bottle of soda without disturbing the liquid (which is key to the supercooling process). If you don't want to drink your soda slushy out of the bottle, you could also pour it into an ice cold cup or bowl that's been in the freezer. This would also be good for combining soda flavors — after all, sometimes the best flavor of Coke is multiple flavors together.