ICEE Instant Slushy Maker

My kids go crazy for slushy, icy drinks like Slurpees and Icees. Every time they accompany me to Target they beg, beg beg for an Icee Drink. So when I was invited to review the EZ-2-Make! ICEE Instant Slushy Maker, I gladly said yes, knowing my kids would be so excited to try it out. The thought of homemade ICEE drinks had them begging me day and night to open it! Here are my thoughts about the ICEE Instant Slushy Maker after we actually tried it:

The Basics
The ICEE Instant Slushy Maker from EZ-2-Make! lets kids make their own ICEE drinks at home. The $9.99 kit contains a plastic shaker with inner aluminum canister, measuring and stirring spoons and 3 slushy mixes in various flavors. To make the ICEE, kids just fill the shaker with ice and salt, fill the aluminum canister with the ICEE mix and water, place the canister inside the shaker, and shake for 3-4 minutes.

The Bongga
The kids had so much fun making the ICEE drinks! Here's a video of them shaking it up:



At the end of it, they were amazed that the liquid they had mixed in the canister had turned into the ICEE that they know and loved. Alfie and I used this as an opportunity to teach them about heat transfer, and after all 3 slushy mixes were gone we used the ICEE Slushy Maker to make our own ice cream (the ice cream took a lot longer than 4 minutes to solidify, so after shaking it for about 8 minutes we just left it in the freezer to freeze up).

The Blah
Unfortunately, all that fun doesn't last very long: the slushy maker only comes with 3 slushy mixes, and each mix makes just a teensy serving, less than 1/4 cup! So once your child is done with it, you have to buy a replacement pack. Each replacement pack of 3 mixes costs $5.99, and since a kid-sized ICEE (about triple the amount that 1 mix makes) costs less than $2 at Target, you're way better off buying your kid a ready-made ICEE. I get that you're paying for the fun of making ICEE at home, but if you're like me, you might never get around to doing buying that replacement pack, so you'll be forced to store the bulky plastic shaker -- or throw it away. Not every parent gets that you can use the ICEE Slushy Maker to make other frozen treats. If only the slushie maker had recipes for other kinds of frozen treats included instead of "forcing" parents to buy their replacement slushie mixes!


The Bottom Line
The ICEE Instant Slushy Maker is kind of like the ICEE drink it makes -- a lot of fun, but the fun doesn't last very long! Make sure you extend the life of this toy by buying replacement packs or using it to make frozen drinks with your own recipes.

I received a sample in order to review this product, but no monetary compensation. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.