If someone were to suggest that frozen margaritas represent the best alcoholic beverage innovation in the last 200 years, I’d be inclined to agree. The only problem is that unlike wine or beer you can’t stock up on frozen margaritas. You also can’t just put all the ingredients in decanters and mix it up all classy-like when the occasion calls. No, frozen margaritas are divas. They need a lot of attention and care – a bowl of M&Ms in their dressing room with all the yellow and brown ones in separate bowls. That’s why frozen ‘Ritas’ are a Tex-Mex restaurant staple, but not a spontaneous at-home after-dinner drink.
Until now! You’ve tried making frozen margaritas in a blender, and they weren’t quite right, right? Have you ever tried making them in a frozen margarita maker? Here’s the secret: shaved ice. Not crushed, not chunked, not decimated by blender blades, but delicately shaved into icy whorls. The entire Margaritaville line of frozen drink makers specializes in perfectly shaved ice and perfectly blended ingredients, but there are a bunch of other features that make it easy to choose the right one for you. The entry-level machine, the Margaritaville DM0500, also known as the Bahamas, is the perfect machine for a family or a small group of friends.
The Best Small & Simple Drink Maker on the Market
The Margaritaville DM0500 is the smallest blender in the Margaritaville line, but since the machines operate nearly identically, your margarita is going to be of the same caliber as one coming from the most expensive machine. If you’re only focused on quality (not quantity or options), I highly recommend the Bahamas.
- Shaved ice makes smooth, creamy drinks
- Blending in stages ensures a perfect texture
- Easy to use, easy to clean
- Convenient size, capacity, and functions
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The Secret’s in the Shave
When you put ice into a blender, what happens? If you’ve got a cheap blender, you burn up your motor. If you’ve got a good blender, you’ll get chunks of ice in varying sizes, from pebble to pea and maybe smaller. If you’ve got a really great blender, you’ll get even smaller pieces. But that’s the problem: all your ice is in pieces!
The Margaritaville DM0500 doesn’t blend ice – it shaves it. With a special ice compartment and dedicated ice-shaving blades, each ice cube is shaved into fine, crumbling slices that blend invisibly into your drink and never get stuck in your straw. (If you’re making frozen daqs, though, I can’t guarantee the same for the strawberries.) As a result, you get a thick, creamy texture rather than a chunky, chewy one. Now, if you like chewy margaritas, by all means keep your blender.
Automatic Two-stage Blending for the Perfect Mix
This feature might be one of the best things about the Margaritavilles. The DM0500, like its brethren, blends all drinks in two stages. One, the ice is shaved and deposited into the pitcher. Two, the ice and mix are blended in the pitcher, not once, but twice with a little pause in between for the heavy ingredients to settle. This is all done automagically. All you need to do is put the ice in the top and the mix in the bottom. And then press the button.
And this is important because…? Well, your ice-shaving blades never do anything but shave ice, which extends their life. Second, if it turns out you want just a little more ice, you can run the shave-only function to add a bit more without overblending. If you have a lot of ingredients and you want to blend them more thoroughly without changing the ice texture, you can run the blend-only feature. Long life, perfectly customized drinks, room to experiment: two motors are the way to go.
So Easy Even a Child Could Use It…
…although I don’t recommend that. The ice-shaving blades, while not exposed, are quite sharp. Procedure: dump ice in top reservoir. Pour mix into pitcher. Press button. Pour, drink, repeat. Clean up is equally klutz-proof: rinse out the pitcher. Dry it. If you’ve got too much ice in your reservoir, it’s not a problem. As it melts, it’ll run off into a separate reservoir that you can remove and dump out.
Most Convenient for Small Homes and Gatherings
At a foot and a half tall, the Margaritaville Bahamas is not the shortest blender on the block, but in order to get that perfect ice, your ice reservoir’s just gotta be on top. It’s certainly not too awkward to carry around to games and parties. The ice reservoir can hold up to one pitcher’s worth of ice, and the pitcher will hold 36 ounces. That’s three big margaritas all in about five minutes’ time with none of the hassle of going out.
The Margaritaville DM0500 only has one drink function – margaritas – but that won’t stop you from making other frozen drinks as well. Slushies for the kids can be made in the same way, but smoothies and frozen daiquiris might need a little blend-only time before adding the ice. It’s only a few extra seconds and an extra button press. You can even run an entire pitcher of ice on shave-only and make snow-cones!
Everyone Loves the Margaritavilles. Really.
The DM0500 Bahamas has earned 4.5 out of 5 stars practically everywhere on the Internet, and customers keep saying the same thing: “I thought it was stupid to pay so much for a blender, but this machine is worth it!”
- “I hate drinks that get watered down, and this unit did not do this. We have made many varieties of drinks and they all turned out just perfect.”
- “I was hesitant to buy at first and I wondered, ‘Can this really be that much better than the department store blenders that cost a quarter of the price?’ Now it’s clear, the answer is YEESSSSS!!!!”
- “Although the product is made for personal use, it appears to be made well enough to make multiple drinks at a time.”
- “The blender itself is very nice it has some great artistic accents like behind the pitcher on the machine is a metal engraving of a palm tree and a sea plane.”
- “I have found NO FLAWS with this beautifully designed and crafted machine. Easy to assemble, easy to use, easy to clean.”
As long as someone is willing to man the machine for the night, you can use this at larger parties, but to get the most enjoyment out of it, I recommend home use and maybe small parties. You’d rather be drinking them then making them, so do just that.
Where Can I Get It?
The Margaritaville DM0500 Bahamas retails for a little over $200 at tiny online retailers that claim it is perpetually out of stock. Other than that, the most reputable retailer with the best price is Amazon, and since they stock and ship it themselves, you can get FREE SHIPPING.
CLICK HERE to save up the Margaritaville DM0500 36 Oz Frozen Concoction Maker at Amazon
Mike Nikko is a blogger with over 15 years of experience. I will bring you the best product reviews and other useful life experiences, tips to increase height, tips to improve health… If you have any questions, feel free to ask Mike Nikko!