Easy, homemade Boston Coolers made with just 2 ingredients! These vanilla bean and ginger ale milkshakes are refreshing and delicious on a hot summer day. Whip these up in minutes for a cold treat that everyone will love!
You might also love these recipes for grapefruit champagne granita, homemade ginger simple syrup, and rhubarb cordial.
Why are they called Boston Coolers?
A Boston Cooler is a classic Detroit drink that’s sort of like an ice cream float or a milkshake. It’s a delicious blend of creamy vanilla ice cream with sweet and spicy ginger ale. But not just any ginger ale, specifically you should use Vernor’s ginger ale, which is also from Detroit. And the name is derived from Detroit’s Boston Boulevard and its proximity to Dr. Vernor’s original soda fountain, where they served Vernor’s ginger ale.
At any rate, although I grew up in South Carolina and not in Michigan, Boston Coolers were a favorite drink of my parents, and I have fond memories of my parents blending them up in the summer for everyone to enjoy. And while I’m not typically a soda drinker, I do like the hint of spice in ginger ale so it doesn’t taste too sweet. I make my Boston Coolers heavy on the ice cream, so they’re more like a milkshake, which is how I love them.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Vanilla Ice Cream. Choose a good quality vanilla bean ice cream for the best flavor.
- Ginger Ale. For an authentic Boston Cooler, be sure to use Vernor’s ginger ale.
You can also add a splash of bourbon or whiskey, or a sprinkling of ground vanilla powder on top.
Instructions
- Chill your glasses in the freezer first, preferably for 20-30 minutes.
- Scoop the ice cream into your blender, then pour in 1 1/2 cans of the ginger ale.
- Blend for 30-60 seconds until smooth and creamy. Only add the rest of the ginger ale if the mixture is too thick to blend.
- Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately. Makes 4 adult-sized milkshakes, or 8 child-sized milkshakes.
Recipe Variations
- Make a Boston Cooler “float”. If you don’t have a blender, simply scoop the ice cream into your chilled glasses and pour the ginger ale over the ice cream.
- Add some booze. A boozy Boston Cooler with a splash of bourbon, whiskey, or even just plain vodka would be so good!
- Make it a little less rich. My milkshake variation uses a lot of ice cream, so if you want a drink that’s less rich and not as thick as a milkshake, simply blend less ice cream with more ginger ale.
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Boston Coolers
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Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 ½ qts (3 pints) good-quality vanilla bean ice cream
- 2 cans (24 oz) Vernor's ginger ale
Instructions
- Chill your glasses in the freezer first, preferably for 20-30 minutes.
- Scoop the ice cream into your blender, then pour in 1 1/2 cans of the ginger ale.
- Blend for 30-60 seconds until smooth and creamy. Only add the rest of the ginger ale if the mixture is too thick to blend.
- Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately. Makes 4 adult-sized milkshakes, or 8 child-sized milkshakes.
- Notes: For a "float" scoop vanilla ice cream into a glass and pour the ginger ale over the ice cream. For a drink that's not as thick as a milkshake, simply blend less ice cream with more ginger ale.
I can’t rate your recipe since I’ve not tried it yet.
But since you’re from SC, have you tried it with Blenheims? I just got some of it shipped to me and can’t wait to try.
Few of the trad recipes I’ve seen blend the ingredients. They just stir them gently. Seems to me that blending would all but remove the bubbles. As a kid in NYC, we always had it as a float. And with the “dry” ginger ales available in my childhood, it was OK, but not as great as with a full-flavored ginger ale, of which there are many on the market these days.
A friend visiting from Detroit once brought me a can of Vernor’s, but someone in my household consumed it before I could make a Boston Cooler. Whoever it was will pay the price, if not in this world then in the next.
Cheers,
-P.
I haven’t tried it with Blenheims. Stirring it would definitely give it more of a root beer float consistency, but I blended mine since that’s how my family always made them when I was a kid.
I grew up in Chicago and for us, Vernors was a special treat. We always had “Boston Coolers”, but never called them that. They were just ice cream floats. Sadly, Vernors is not as strong as it used to be. It was purchased by another company and has lost the strong flavor it had when I was a kid. I now live in the Detroit area, so I buy Vernors by the “truckload”, but the HFC changes the taste as well as the fact that it is no longer aged in oak barrels- that phrase is no longer on the package, means it’s not the same Vernors it used to be. I wish they would go back to the old recipe. I’ve been thinking about making it myself and have found a couple of recipes to do so.
Interesting! And I agree, the flavor of the HFC is off-putting. It always disappoints me when companies change the recipe of a great product.