The Best Margarita Makers for Cocktails at Home
Don't waste away one more weekend without one of these top-rated margarita makers in your kitchen.
Have your limes at the ready! Summer is near, and whether you’re hosting your neighbors for a backyard barbecue or having an especially festive Taco Tuesday, margaritas are a must-have crowd-pleaser for your menu. But, the key to serving top-notch margaritas comes down to high-quality ingredients and a top-performing cocktail maker. Treat your crew and yourself to bar-worthy concoctions by investing in a machine that ensures you get it right every time.
There are, quite literally, endless margarita maker options online, so how do you find the best fit for you? We spent hours scouring online retailers and comparing prices, customer reviews, value, capacity and special features of various margarita makers. Using our research, we curated a list of eight top-performing, top-rated margarita makers and cocktail blenders guaranteed to bring the fun at your next get-together. Read on to get the 4-1-1 on what to look for when shopping for a margarita maker, and shop our favorites in the link below.
What to Look for in a Margarita Maker
CAPACITY: Are you shopping for a margarita maker that can serve a crowd or one suited for your immediate family? Margarita makers and cocktail blenders come in various capacities ranging from 16 ounces (think: portable beach-ready blender), 64 ounces (a standard pitcher) to 72 ounces (margaritas for the masses!).
BLEND SETTINGS: The best frozen margaritas are those blended to a smooth, velvety finish, and the best margarita makers come with a pre-programmed setting to make that happen with just a click of a button. When choosing your ideal cocktail blender, look for a machine with pre-set blend options that promise to deliver your ideal texture. Keywords to keep in mind during your search include ice crush, smoothie, shaved ice or ice cream.
SERVING: Whipping up a big batch of margaritas is one thing, but serving said margaritas without leaving your bar a sticky mess is another. The best margarita makers and cocktail blenders offer a splash-proof guard and feature a stress-free serving mechanism. For some, this means integrated spigots for pour-free serving, while it means a pitcher-style blender cage for others. Spigot-style machines are ideal for the avid hostess and a pitcher-style blender is our choice for anyone who wants to invest in a multi-purpose blender they can use for smoothies, soups or purees throughout the week.
Uplevel your frozen margarita game with the high-powered KitchenAid K400 Contour Blender. The innovative blender features a three-part blending system with a stainless-steel asymmetric blade that cuts through the ice at four unique angles, a ribbed 56-ounce jar that folds ingredients onto the blades for consistent blending and an adaptive Soft Smart motor that works through the ice and mixers slowly to sidestep sticky splatters. Better still, this blender has Intelli-Speed Motor Control that senses the blender contents and adjusts speed accordingly, delivering desired results in the shortest amount of time. Primed for happy hour, the KitchenAid K400 features five unique speed settings and three preset recipe programs: icy drinks, smoothie or ice crush. Treat yourself to the top-rated blender in your choice of eight colors: dried rose, milkshake, pistachio, hibiscus, matte black, white, silver or steel blue.
Go ahead and send out a search party for that lost shaker of salt — you’re going to want that on hand once you add this top-selling margarita maker to your arsenal. The Margaritaville Jimmy Buffet Signature Edition Frozen Concoction Maker earns its place on our list honestly with a stellar 4.7-star rating and over 480 glowing customer reviews. The top-selling blender promises restaurant-quality frozen cocktails with just the push of a button. Each machine comes with three preprogrammed drink cycles, an easy-pour pitcher for stress-free serving and — our favorite feature — an extra-large ice hopper that can hold up to three pitchers worth of ice at once. In other words? It eliminates the need to run back and forth to the kitchen while playing bartender.
Nothing kills your buzz quite like spilling a pitcher of margaritas all over your kitchen floor. Avoid that sad, sticky scene with the help of the customer-favorite margarita machine: the Nostalgia Frozen Drink Maker. The 4.7-star design eliminates the need to pour your icy drinks with its integrated easy-flow spout. Slide your favorite margarita glass beneath the spigot, flip the lever and voila! Spill-proof serving. The Nostalgia Frozen Drink maker includes a single-gallon, double-wall blending cage that maintains your icy libations frosty temp for hours, even on a steamy summer afternoon. The aqua-blue machine features a carrying handle that locks the lid in place, allowing you to move your homemade margs across your patio with ease.
If you fancy yourself the unofficial mixologist in your group, the Bartesian Professional Cocktail Machine is the best margarita maker for you. The comprehensive cocktail machine serves cocktail bar-worthy drinks in seconds with mixer capsule pods and your liquor of choice. The sleek and innovative machine boasts LED-backlit touchpoints, allows you to adjust the strength of each cocktail on the user display and features an automatic rinse setting that cuts down on cleaning and ensures there’s no cross-contamination between drinks. And, the best part? There’s no need to worry about keeping your tequila bottle out because the Bartesian machine features a solid die-cast metal handle that locks glass bottles in place.
Go ahead and pack some tequila and limes in your cooler for a beach day. All you need is the BlendJet 2 Portable Blender to whip up your go-to margaritas while lounging under the sun in the sand. The five-star blender has over 13,400 customer reviews due to its unmatched ability to blend through ingredients (including ice!) in just 20 seconds flat. The portable blender holds a charge for 15+ blends (i.e., more margaritas than anyone needs on a single afternoon) and is easily recharged on the fly using a USB-C. Cleaning is a breeze, too; Throw in some water and dish soap, then blend and rise until it's suds-free.
Why serve one margarita recipe when you can serve three instead? Wow the crowd with the Margaritaville Tahiti Margarita Machine. The 4.7-star machine guarantees delight, filling three 24-ounce pitchers with three unique concoctions. Each pitcher has a control button that allows you to pick from six different drink types for the ideal blend: margarita, colada, daiquiri, mudslide, mojito or smoothie. Better still, the control buttons have a switch labeled shave or blend only to thicken or thin out your drinks to suit your taste. A rotating ice chute feeds the pitchers and creates a lively focal point for your bar as the cubes whirl around the transparent reservoir.
Looking for a margarita maker that can work overtime as a next-level guacamole maker? Add the Ninja Powerhouse Prep Blender to your cart. This one-stop shop for party eats and drinks earns its place in our rankings with a 4.6-star rating and more than 21,000 customer reviews. Each Ninja Blender includes a 48-ounce Master Prep Pitcher for whipping up your famous frozen margaritas, plus a 16-ounce Master Prep Bowl for chopping up your guac’s fresh onion, tomato and jalapeno. And don’t worry about making a mess—the Ninja Powerhouse Prep Blender preemptively saves the day with its anti-spill and splash guard.
Treat your friends to the ultimate boozy treat with the Ninja BN701 Professional Plus Blender. The high-powered blender has 4.8 stars and over 13,000 reviews on Amazon alone, making it a no-brainer for our list. It’s backed with 1,400 watts of power to crush ice into snow with a touch of a button and Auto-IQ technology that combines pulsing and blending patterns to make quick work of each batch. The Ninja BN701 Professional Blender features a 72-ounce dishwasher-safe pitcher and three pre-set buttons for Margarita Monday and beyond. Choose from the ice crush, ice cream and smoothie setting to achieve the best consistency for your concoction.