While watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon one day, my kids and I decided to make some paradise fruit drinks for kids. You know, the ones that Bugs Bunny drinks while on vacation; the crushed-ice drinks with little umbrellas in them. They look refreshing and relaxing for a hot summer day.
A crushed ice drink consists of ice cubes, juice, and fruit. You can make whatever combinations you want. We bought cranberry juice, orange juice, and grape juice. Then we bought whatever fruits looked soft enough to blend up: bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, canned pineapple, and canned peaches.
Next we decided which fruits would taste good in which juices. We lined them up on the counter. The first drink would have strawberries, a banana, and cranberry juice. The second one would have peaches, pineapple, and orange juice. The third would have blueberries, raspberries, and grape juice.
Take out your blender and blend up two cups of ice cubes. Place the fruit in next, and pour the juice in last. Get some little umbrellas and stab fruit into them to connect them to the glass. You will need a slit in the strawberry, for example, to slide it onto the rim of the glass before stabbing the umbrella toothpick into the fruit.
Our favorite two paradise fruit drinks for kids were the strawberry/banana/cranberry and the peach/pineapple/orange. Those two were superb. We will definitely make them again. The blueberry/raspberry/grape was fine, but it wasn’t as good as the other two. Maybe if we had thrown in a banana, it would have tasted more interesting…
