Anyone have a margaritaville machine??

I saw this margaritaville maker in a catalog I have, it says it makes "shaved" ice, and I'm thinking this would be awesome to make tiki drinks with. But I'm wondering if it really shaves the ice nicely or if the blender portion does the ice shaving. Does anyone have one of these things or know how it works?? I found it on Amazon, same price as the catalog.

LavaLounger-looking for lazy ways to make drinks

link

[ Edited by: Tikiwahine - to shorten overly long link - 2006-04-28 16:11 ]

From the description it sounds like this machine makes slurpee type drinks, not your traditional shave ice style that you pour liquid over top of after it's come out of the machine.

Would be great for belinis, or other slush type beverages.

$300! What?

I would say get a $29.99 blender, put in ice and margarita mix and booze, and then blend for a good long time. It'll come out as slushy or "grainy" as you want.

Thanks for your ideas. I see the machine at Amazon it isn't even available yet, so I suspect that the price may come down later.

I find that the texture of shaved ice is different than that of blended ice, no matter how long I blend it. I have an ice shaver.....it's a little deal, cost me like $20 at a Kitchen store and it does a great job, but takes for-freakin'-ever to shave a glass of "snow" which becomes a problem with thirsty guests hanging on the bar. So I was hoping there'd be something a bit quicker yet attractive to park on the backbar. The margarita machine is a festive green and I was hoping it'd make the "snow" I'm looking for.

I hestitate to buy online becuase if I hate it, then I lose money sending it back in shipping costs. I was hoping to find one locally so I could take it home and try it, then if I hate it, I can take it back....however with the price of gas, the return shipping costs would probably be about the same....ha.

Let's see, for $300 I could buy five ice shavers and 4 blenders. I think I'll mix a drink and think about it for awhile.

LavaLounger

In 1985 a friend of mine worked for Street Rodder magazine, and took me on a route he had of project cars in the works. A Shop in Huntington Beach was working on a old Chooped Pontiac for one of the Members of ZZ Top that had one of those in the back...It was marvoulous (although the car wouldn't run well if it was on because of the power draw)

I think you should thus accesorize your fine-ride with this machine, and sort of make yourself the king of local parades and events...just a thought.

I have been wanting one of these machines for a long time, so finally took the plunge and bought one today. Recently I accidentally tossed the clear plastic cap for the top of my blender out with my dishwater. I had the habit of having the garbage disposal on when I dumped my water out....needless to say, I heard some massive crunching. I turned it off and pulled the mangled cap out. Unfortunately no replacement for the cheap little cap....so what a great excuse to buy the Margaritaville machine. There is a video of the machine at the Frontgate website.

If you are a member of BevMo, they knock the price down, so that really helps.

I'll be back later with a review of the blender. :drink:

I like to use this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whY2uIWKnwU

This one looks like a loss less work & you can use ice cubes.

Snow Cone Machine

Tikisgrl

:lol: I had to get the adult model to match the un-tiki fountain I bought....you know....checks and balances. I think I will record that youtube music though and whenever I whip up a liquory concoction I can have that blaring in the background. :drink:

• :music: :music: It's yum yum fun
  That's cool and clean
  And it's name is the Snoopy Snow Cone Machine.
  You put ice cubes in
  And get a snow cone out
  Yum yum fun is what it's all about!* :music: :music:

Better yet, you could invite King Kukulele over to one of your parties, and he could sing that song every time you make a drink.

While we're on the topic, does anyone have any blending tips? I'm usually used to liquid drinks, but lately I've taken to try blended ones at home. I'm using ice cubes out of my freezer and whenever I blend, I can never get it slushy. They either come out as little ice chunks (crunchy) or so fine that they melt instantly.

Am I doing something wrong? Are there any tricks to it?

Oh Ice Bird...a kid's best friend in an air conditionless house.

DJ HawaiianShirt, here's a tip from my days working in a smoothie-shack back in the 80's: let your ice sit at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes to soften. You'll get a creamier drink that way without the chips. :)

m-b

I'm getting to be a regular at Bed, Bath & Beyond where I saw the Margaritaville Machine on display. I could see a possible use for it, but not right now, especially, given the price tag.

I hardly ever use my professional Oster blender anymore, but rather a Magic Bullet and a Hamilton Beach Icy Treats ice shaver.

I used to shave ice with the Magic Bullet, but learned after four months that the blade assembly couldn't hold up to my abuse. I originally got it at B,B&B without a coupon, but when I returned it recently for an exchange, they let me use a 20% off any single item coupon. So I got $12+ back.

While I was there, I picked up the Icy Treats ice shaver, which usually costs $25. But using a 20% off coupon combined with my credit on the return I left with a brand new Magic Bullet and an Icy Treats for about $8.50.

The Icy Treats machine is almost all plastic, so it's not heavy duty at all. It has a little stirring wand you can put inside to make "icy treats" but I just use it to shave ice. It has two settings, Slushie and Snow Cone. The Slushie is finer and what I use for Mai Tais. Even though it's not heavy duty, I'm hoping it will withstand shaving ice continuously for an hour or more at a time.

It takes ice cubes (smaller cubes work better than big ones). It has two chutes in its central cylinder that line the cubes up and run them across a steel blade. Then the shaved ice falls into the collection area below. You can use the container that comes with it or your own bowl. It doesn't hold that much ice, so you have to continually feed cubes into it and dump the shaved ice. But you can turn it on and walk away for a few minutes while it does its thing and for the few bucks its cost, it has been worth it so far.

On 2007-07-08 14:50, VampiressRN wrote:
I have been wanting one of these machines for a long time, so finally took the plunge and bought one today. Recently I accidentally tossed the clear plastic cap for the top of my blender out with my dishwater. I had the habit of having the garbage disposal on when I dumped my water out....needless to say, I heard some massive crunching. I turned it off and pulled the mangled cap out. Unfortunately no replacement for the cheap little cap....so what a great excuse to buy the Margaritaville machine. There is a video of the machine at the Frontgate website.

If you are a member of BevMo, they knock the price down, so that really helps.

I'll be back later with a review of the blender. :drink:

:> :> :> :> :> :> :> :>
I was looking at the same on yesterday from the Frontgate Catalog ...Looking forward to hearing good things from your review ..then I'll pull the lever !!!

Hey TikiLaLe...I don't think you have BevMo in Florida, but I wonder if you joined that you might get the discount plus have it delivered. If I would have opted to pick it up at the store, I would have saved the shipping cost too.

It is available for full price at Amazon.com.

If you order from the manufacturer they have a $40 rebate.

Williams Sonoma has a $50 gift certificate for future use.

I'll be excited to get mine and provide a review here. :)

I have one of these, and while first I was leary of a "1 function" machine, I do love it.

It shaves the ice cubes before adding them to the blender, so the "slush" is smoother than most blenders with crappy blades will do. It will automatically do the ice and then blend for 1, 2 or 3 drinks. There is also a reservoir in the back that collects any ice melt from the machine, keeps it from adding water to the blender, and then you can just dump the water out when you're thru. You can manually just shave ice or just blend also, so you can tinker with the amount of shaved ice added to each batch, but the overall blender capacity is 32 oz.***

***NOTE: the new red version of the machine, contrary to what Frontgate says, has the same pitcher capacity, only the ice capacity has been enlarged. (I got this info directly from Margaritaville Cargo.) It also adds a smoothie setting which I think is superfluous if you already have the old machine. I make smoothies in it sometimes, but the pina coladas are incredible. I use a blend of 8 oz Coco Lopez, 8 oz Dole pineapple juice, and about 4-6 oz rum (4-ish if it's Myers dark, 6-ish if it's Appleton XV. Can't decide which is better yet, still experimenting), using the 3-glass setting.

Went over huge at a recent dock party! But since they will have you making them all night long, I recommend pre-mixing the liquids and putting them in a pitcher for efficiency's sake.

On 2007-07-09 19:59, VampiressRN wrote:
Hey TikiLaLe...I don't think you have BevMo in Florida, but I wonder if you joined that you might get the discount plus have it delivered. If I would have opted to pick it up at the store, I would have saved the shipping cost too.

It is available for full price at Amazon.com.

If you order from the manufacturer they have a $40 rebate.

Williams Sonoma has a $50 gift certificate for future use.

I'll be excited to get mine and provide a review here. :)

:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>
Thanks V.for tip on the Williams-Sonoma... had a 100 gift card that been sitting in junk drawer since x-mas !!!!
Hat tip to V.

I received the http://www.amazon.com/Nostalgia-Electrics-Frozen-Drink-Machine/dp/B000L9R43G/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5844261-3972010?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1184125814&sr=1-1 for XMas last year and my wife likes it. It works well for what it is and it doesn't cost too much.

Good luck.

Tikitatt...that looks like a kewl little machine. :)

SusanR5....welcome to Tiki Central. Good to hear a review from an actual owner..thanks so much. I was also interested in the new and improved version at Frontgate, but didn't like that crazy color and it didn't come with a live butler....soooooo went with the basic. :lol:

I got a huge box today...with my new toy in it. Too much ghost-poop in the box...so will unload it later. I hate to get that stuff on the carpet...it is a pain to clean up. Not sure when I will be firing up that baby, but I will be back with my comments. :)

I got the Margaritaville blender last Christmas as a gift and I have to say we have been using it quite extensively since . It is a well designed implement of destruction , we previously used a regular blender and later The Magic Bullet which at the time seemed great but, pale in comparison to the Margaritaville blender. As said before it may take a bit of tweaking to get the ice/liquid mix just right but, once you get that down its great .
For a pretty good Rumrunner I do the following :
1 oz. Light Rum
1 oz. Myers' Dark Rum
2 oz. Blackberry Brandy
2 oz. Banana Liqueur
1 oz. Grenadine
2 oz. Roses Sweetened Lime Juice
Set the Margaritaville Machine to 2 drinks and run it twice . Seems to be the perfect blend to me ...
So good its tough to find a better one in the FLA Keys ( supposed birthplace of the Rumrunner ), and believe me we tried !

• Rick -

WELCOME TO TC RIKITIKI!!! I am excited to see another happy user here with a great story to tell and a personal recipe. I may get to use mine this weekend....but at least gonna get it outa da box on in the kitchen tonight...then read the directions. We are going to have to start posting pictures of our destructo gear in action!!!

VampiressRN , you have shown great restraint having the machine for 4 days now and not trying it out ! I on the other hand was not that strong , breaking it in the same day we got it . Maybe it was my weakness for new machinery or maybe I was just thirsty , probably a bit of both , plus it was Christmas ...
Enjoy your FCM (frozen concoction maker) .

On 2007-07-09 05:02, DJ HawaiianShirt wrote:
While we're on the topic, does anyone have any blending tips? I'm usually used to liquid drinks, but lately I've taken to try blended ones at home. I'm using ice cubes out of my freezer and whenever I blend, I can never get it slushy. They either come out as little ice chunks (crunchy) or so fine that they melt instantly.

Am I doing something wrong? Are there any tricks to it?

Most likely it's two things:

A) You are probably using the full ice cubes from your freezer. Believe it or not if you used crushed ice in the first place you will get much better results. These ice cubes are too big and don't get crushed properly while the rest gets liquefied.

B) Get a powerful blender. You need a blender that is made for blending ice. A cheap blender is not going to work. In fact when I got my first blender for drinks I had to buy a professional Waring one, but now there are much better more powerful blenders on the consumer market.

I have tried many different ice crusher and most of them are horrible.

Loud and not powerful and slow. However I got this one recently and I love it:
http://www.amazon.com/Waring-Brushed-Stainless-Professional-Crusher/dp/B000AMZMVU

Also I want to remind people I am talking about crushed ice above NOT shaved ice. But you need crushed ice to make good shaved ice in a blender. If not you get big lumpy cubes.

Yes, as I said in my post, I am using ice cubes from my freezer. So if I want to make a slush, then I need to blend crushed ice? Where do I get crushed ice? (my blender is heavy duty, btw) Is it true that you get better results when your leave your ice cubes out of the freezer for 15 minutes?

Here's my main question for a blending newbie: If I want to make a blended drink (any drink whose recipe calls for several ingredients to be blended with a scoop of ice instead of shaken or stirred), how do I do it with a blender?

On 2007-07-13 11:44, DJ HawaiianShirt wrote:
Yes, as I said in my post, I am using ice cubes from my freezer. So if I want to make a slush, then I need to blend crushed ice? Where do I get crushed ice? (my blender is heavy duty, btw) Is it true that you get better results when your leave your ice cubes out of the freezer for 15 minutes?

Here's my main question for a blending newbie: If I want to make a blended drink (any drink whose recipe calls for several ingredients to be blended with a scoop of ice instead of shaken or stirred), how do I do it with a blender?

You need to crush your ice. If you don't want to get an ice crusher, the easiest way to do these with things on hand is to put your cube ice in a big plastic bag and then I wrap it in a dish towel and then hit it with something. I wrap it in a towel so that the bag doesn't break.

You need to break up these big cubes or they just turn round and spin around in the blender. Also what can help too is a good liquid to ice ration. If you have too much liquid it will also give you problems.

I blend mine on low until it looks like the ice has been pulverized and then go to high. (My Warring only has three settings off/low/high)

You will actually be able to tell when you want to go to high. The ice will have changed.
First it will look very heterogeneous and then all of a sudden it will become homogeneous. Thats when I crank it to high. ALso the sound will change.

My blender usually can handle this without pre-crushing the ice. I will get maybe one ice lump. But if you pre-crack your ice you should get better results.

Cheers!

A vitamix or blendtec total blender will get an extremely smooth texture to the ice as well, and can be used for numerous other things too, much like any smoothie you would get at Jamba Juice or someplace like that.

Chris

That is by far the best Rum Runner recipe I've come across and is an excellent recipe for this machine. Anyone else have other recipes (apart from what come with the machine) for this machine?

On 2007-07-11 10:47, Rikitiki wrote:
I got the Margaritaville blender last Christmas as a gift and I have to say we have been using it quite extensively since . It is a well designed implement of destruction , we previously used a regular blender and later The Magic Bullet which at the time seemed great but, pale in comparison to the Margaritaville blender. As said before it may take a bit of tweaking to get the ice/liquid mix just right but, once you get that down its great .
For a pretty good Rumrunner I do the following :
1 oz. Light Rum
1 oz. Myers' Dark Rum
2 oz. Blackberry Brandy
2 oz. Banana Liqueur
1 oz. Grenadine
2 oz. Roses Sweetened Lime Juice
Set the Margaritaville Machine to 2 drinks and run it twice . Seems to be the perfect blend to me ...
So good its tough to find a better one in the FLA Keys ( supposed birthplace of the Rumrunner ), and believe me we tried !

• Rick -

I purchased one of the first Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Makers. Although leary at first for $300, it has been a great addition. The only issue is it is so popular, all my friends loved it and it's always the hit of the party. I got the travel bag which is a great add-on and took it to parties, boat trips, camping, etc. Now all my friends have one and I received the new DM2000 with larger ice capacity, etc. as a gift and gave away my first one, DM1000. I highly recommend the quality and design of Margaritaville. I love it.
I know people who purchased the cheaper versions, Margarator, etc. but they ended up returning them and stepping up to Margaritaville.
If you enjoy entertaining or just having great frozen drinks, shaved ice for snow cones or great smoothies or frozen fruit juice, etc., you should treat yourself to an FCM from M'ville adn start wastin' away. BTW, pre-mixing for parties is a great suggestion. I also purchased extra pitchers from MargaritavilleCargo.com for a few bucks - well worth it to mix with extra pitchers when the party is on.

I bought one when they first came out and have used the heck out of it. It has stood the test of time and held up to all the use. If somehow it broke tomorrow, I would buy another immediately. It really does live up the the hype.

iTiki

Bumping an ancient thread rather than starting a new one. Seems the latest and greatest Margaritaville frozen drink maker discussed here was the DM2000. I just stumbled upon the DM3000 which I assume is pretty similar mechanically but with three blending jars. Anyone own one of these and have an opinion? I'm usually not one for frozen cocktails but could see this being handy at parties for frozen Painkillers, Saturns, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Margaritaville-Tahiti-Frozen-Concoction-DM3000/dp/B001AY0YGU

Mike, I waited a bit to see if anyone else would respond. The only thing I've heard first hand is from a former co-worker who had the single blending jar version and constantly raved about it. His enjoyment was that it was quick and easy to crush ice and blend drinks, the machine worked well, and stuff like that. I never bought one for myself because the machine has a large footprint. I now have a much smaller ice crusher which I think isn't as fast and high volume as the Margaritaville machine, but it fits perfectly in a little niche space, so I'm happy. From what this co-worker told me, it really cranks through crushing ice quickly and he raved about how quickly he could make consistently good drinks with it.

Then there's this V8 powered cement mixer hybrid margarita maker :lol:

(reposting your question so as not to interrupt it after the page break :wink: )

On 2017-03-18 15:33, mikehooker wrote:
Bumping an ancient thread rather than starting a new one. Seems the latest and greatest Margaritaville frozen drink maker discussed here was the DM2000. I just stumbled upon the DM3000 which I assume is pretty similar mechanically but with three blending jars. Anyone own one of these and have an opinion? I'm usually not one for frozen cocktails but could see this being handy at parties for frozen Painkillers, Saturns, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Margaritaville-Tahiti-Frozen-Concoction-DM3000/dp/B001AY0YGU

PS, I didn't know Frozen Painkillers were a thing? Nice drink for a hot summer day!

On 2017-03-18 15:33, mikehooker wrote:
Bumping an ancient thread rather than starting a new one. Seems the latest and greatest Margaritaville frozen drink maker discussed here was the DM2000. I just stumbled upon the DM3000 which I assume is pretty similar mechanically but with three blending jars. Anyone own one of these and have an opinion? I'm usually not one for frozen cocktails but could see this being handy at parties for frozen Painkillers, Saturns, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Margaritaville-Tahiti-Frozen-Concoction-DM3000/dp/B001AY0YGU

Mechanically they are all the same. For parties people like crowding around it as it does its job. My advice is getting one off eBay or Craigslist, but you are not forbidden to pay retail if so inclined.

I was originally asking about it cuz I saw one come up at a local auction starting at $50. Thought I might be able to snag it for around $100 but it ended up going for just under retail so I didn't get it.

And yes, frozen painkillers are a thing. Or atleast should be. A bar here in Austin a few summers ago did Painkillers in their frozen margarita machine and they were refreshing as hell. Thought this thing might allow me a similar result in bigger batches than I normally do at home.

On 2017-08-19 10:46, mikehooker wrote:
I was originally asking about it cuz I saw one come up at a local auction starting at $50. Thought I might be able to snag it for around $100 but it ended up going for just under retail so I didn't get it.

$50 is my target on eBay/Craigslist for base model. I'm a very patient cheapskate. :wink:

I recently got the Key West Model (retails for $299) for $80 on Craigslist. Works great.

An unexpected plus is that the machine shaves the ice and then dumps it into the blender pitcher before blending. I have used this feature to make the shaved ice go straight into cups to make snow cones for my kids.