It’s the easy TikTok trend we can all get behind. Here’s how to do it.

Well, they’ve gone ahead and done it. TikTokers have given us the ultimate gift for summer: frozen fruit. We know what you’re thinking, “Frozen fruit, for summer? Groundbreaking.” BUT, and stay with us, what if it was grated and on top of a cocktail?

The hot new trend all over socials right now is grated frozen fruit, either used as a healthy shaved ice or as a garnish on desserty things like ice cream, custard or tiramisu. Naturally, we want to try it too – but on cocktails. It might not be a totally new idea, but it’s a fun and simple at-home hack nonetheless. And, if you think ahead, you could freeze in-season fruit for later so you have a little bounty to pull out whenever you feel like it. Grated frozen mango in winter? Yes, please.

We’ve rounded up a few of our favourite fruity ideas and what to pair them with below.

Frozen fruit makes an excellent cocktail garnish

What fruits can I freeze and grate?

Short answer? Any fruit you like. The longer answer is that some fruits need a little more prep than others. What you use comes down to personal preference. If you love apples but hate pears, well, don’t use pears. Simple. However, some fruits need a little zhuzhing – a mouthful of kiwi fluff is yuck, so skinning some fruits is highly recommended, especially if you're working with mangoes or anything with a hard or bitter peel.

If you want to try grating citrus, peel the fruit first (save the skins for twists or infusions), then remove any leftover pith – that white, bitter stuff under the skin. Grating pith over a cocktail is a super quick way to ruin it.

After fruit shards that are sweet and bright? Choose ripe fruits. Looking for savoury or young flavours? Experiment with fruit that's just under-ripe or slightly green.

If there was one fruit we’d suggest trialling before going ham, it’s banana. Frozen banana is a great ingredient in blitzed Daiquiris or smoothies. However, bananas are full of starch (about 80%). This might not be a problem for heavier or creamier cocktails, but if you’ve got a delicate drink and you grate a bunch of starch over it, it will turn cloudy – and leave you with that weird fluffy mouth-feeling after drinking it.

Some of our favourite fruits to freeze and grate over cocktails are those with a higher water content. Start with the below suggestions and then experiment with whatever takes your fancy – or have a scroll through TikTok for inspiration.

Peaches
Grapefruit
Pineapple
Watermelon
Kiwifruit
Strawberries
Mandarins

What about vegetables?

Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable? You can argue with your mates at the pub about that one, but there’s no denying that grating frozen juicy tomatoes over a cocktail is a fab way to inject a bit of umami and add some cool colour. Skinning them is a good idea, but trial with and without to see what suits your drink best.

Other vegetables with a high water content and interesting flavours could work here too. Experiment with things like celery, chillies, or even carrot and cucumber.

Taking your grated frozen fruit to the next level

If you want to up the ante, try infusing your fruit with alcohol first. You could let your watermelon soak in prosecco for a few hours before freezing to give it a bubbly grape taste, or throw orange slices in Campari for a bitter herb infusion. Put your chef’s hat on and experiment!

A word on graters

Grating fruit granita-style is seriously sexy. However, if you don’t have a fine enough grater, you could end up adding a lot of frozen pulp to your drink. It looks great when it’s frozen, but as it melts it can become a bit of a mess. That’s fine if you’re grating over a chunky drink like a Bloody Mary or Michelada. But if it's a clear drink like a Martini, we want it smooth, not chunky. Use a microplane or zester that’s as fine as possible to get the best results.

Freezing, juicing and syrups

Yes, frozen fruit is a great way to inject flavour. But, as mentioned, once it melts it can become a bit fleshy or pulpy. If you're someone who buys pulpless orange juice and can’t stomach bits floating around in your cocktails, you’ve got options. If you have safe access to liquid nitrogen, which is almost -200 degrees Celsius, you could immerse your fruit in it and flash-freeze it. When you grate it, the texture will be like a fine powder. This also works on herbs and leaves. A very handy product, but also super dangerous, so make sure you’re being safe and have the skills to back it up if you’re going anywhere near liquid nitrogen.

Alternatively, you could juice your fruit, freeze it into cubes or blocks, and then grate. This way, the flavour melts seamlessly into your drink. The same goes for syrups: make your syrup, freeze it, and then grate over your drink.

Which fruits go on top of which drinks?

The easiest cocktails to add a little fruit flavour to are mixed drinks and Highballs. Why? Because the flavours are usually simple and fairly diluted, so adding a little sparkle of fruit doesn’t require any complicated pairing like you would with a cocktail that has multiple complex flavours.

If you have some frozen peach segments (skin off, obviously), we reckon you should grate them over something like a Whisky Highball – we like it with Japanese or Irish whiskey. It’s soft and gentle to complement the delicate, diluted flavours of the whisky. If you're feeling fancy, soak your peaches in prosecco, freeze, and then grate for a little Bellini twist on a Highball.

For Tequila or Mezcal Sodas, orange and watermelon are your best mates. Orange is famously great with both of these Mexican spirits, while watermelon adds a soft fruit sweetness to the drink without overwhelming it. You could infuse your watermelon in a liqueur, wine or spirit for extra complexity, or keep it natural. Up to you. Meanwhile, Marys and Micheladas can take a bit of flavour, so we recommend tomato, celery, cucumber, lemon or lime – or a mix of a few on your cocktail.

Gin and Tonics are another fantastic cocktail for fruit-grating. Take a cue from the Spanish art of the Gin Tonica and pair your fruit with the botanicals in the gin. For London dry gins, opt for frozen lemon or lime. For more flavourful gins, check what citrus or fruit is being used and match it. For example, try frozen grapefruit with Tanqueray No. Ten. For new-world gins with more savoury or vegetal notes, go for grated frozen tomato to add umami and enhance those profiles in the gin. For Aussie gins that use native ingredients, you could experiment with native fruits, but remember to use them sparingly (read more about sourcing them ethically here).

If one of our lighter Espresso Martini variants has caught your eye, pair the coffee's prominent fruit flavour with the corresponding frozen grated fruit. If you’re tasting berry notes in the cold brew or pour-over, try lightly grating some frozen raspberries or blueberries over the top of the drink.

Big blended cocktails like flavoured Margaritas or Daiquiris love grated frozen citrus to round out and balance the sweet flavours. For traditional Margs that use Cointreau, grate a little bit of frozen orange over the top to make those orange notes really sing.

For big, creamy numbers like Charlie Lehmann’s sexy Yuzu Gin Ramos, grate either a little frozen orange (to complement the orange blossom) or lemon (to match the lemon juice in the cocktail). Yes, we know – cream and citrus? But trust us, it works.

Our final advice? Experiment. Play around with flavours and how they interact. Try infusing or soaking your fruits and veggies in liqueurs, spirits or wine to see how it changes the flavour of the granita and the cocktail. Practice makes perfect, but truly, it’s hard to go wrong here.

For more drink inspo, check out our collection of cocktail recipes, which you can filter by key ingredient or tap in a keyword to find what you want.