Soft Serve Margaritas: A Year-Round, High-Margin Menu Item
A soft serve margarita is exactly what it sounds like: a frozen margarita swirled into a cup like soft serve, instead of poured from a blender or slush machine. It's a creamy, eye-catching drink that guests photograph, share, and order again. Soft-serve margaritas keep showing up on menus and social feeds, and guests are already searching for where to get soft serve margaritas, so the demand is there before you advertise.
For operators, the appeal is simple. If you already run a Taylor soft serve machine, you may have most of what you need. The drink takes little prep, and you can price it like a premium cocktail. Our soft serve margaritas page covers the basics. This post focuses on the numbers and on how to keep the drink selling all year.
Making Soft Serve Margaritas with Dole Soft Serve Mix
Dole soft serve is a powder you mix with water. It's dairy free, fat free, lactose free, and vegan, which makes it a clean soft serve margarita mix. So, do soft serve margaritas have dairy? Not when you build them on Dole.
Here's the basic formula:
1 bag Dole soft serve mix, in any fruit flavor
6 qts water
30 oz tequila, or another spirit of your choice
Vodka, rum, bourbon, and other spirits all work, depending on the flavor. For flavor-by-flavor pairings, see our full list of soft serve cocktail recipes.
A few tips for consistent results:
Target 20 to 30 Brix.
Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so don't over-pour.
Start with 1 to 1.5 oz of alcohol per 8 oz serving.
For a more traditional margarita taste, add limeade and triple sec:
1 bag Dole lime soft serve mix
1/2 qt (16 oz) triple sec
30 oz tequila
3 qts limeade
3 1/4 qts water
The limeade and triple sec replace part of the water, so they add sweetness and tartness. This batch also uses more spirits than the basic formula, so check your Brix and test a small batch before you open.
You don't need a special machine. Taylor and Icetro by Taylor soft serve margarita machines handle the job, and you can browse them on our Taylor soft serve and Icetro soft serve pages. A frozen cocktail machine is a great fit for slushy-style drinks, while a soft serve ice cream machine gives you the thick swirl guests expect from a soft serve margarita.
What Could You Earn? A Sample Breakdown
Here's an example of how the numbers can work. These are sample figures for illustration only, so swap in your own costs and menu prices. They use the classic margarita batch above, which makes about 30 servings of 8 oz.
Per batch (30 servings) | Sample cost |
Dole soft serve mix (1 bag) | $23.00 |
Tequila (30 oz at $0.60 per oz) | $18.00 |
Triple sec (16 oz at $0.35 per oz) | $5.60 |
Limeade (3 qts at $0.06 per oz) | $5.76 |
Total cost per batch | $52.36 |
Cost per serving | $1.75 |
Sample menu price | $10.00 |
Profit per serving | $8.25 |
Profit margin | 83% |
Now scale it up. Here's what that looks like at different daily sales:
Margaritas sold per day | Daily sales | Daily cost | Daily profit | Profit over 30 days |
20 | $200 | $34.91 | $165.09 | $4,953 |
40 | $400 | $69.81 | $330.19 | $9,906 |
60 | $600 | $104.72 | $495.28 | $14,858 |
These numbers leave out cups, lids, and garnish, along with labor, overhead, waste, and equipment costs, so treat them as a starting point. To run your own numbers, use our ROI calculator. For more on equipment costs, read our guide to the soft serve machine payback period, and for menu pricing, see how to price soft serve for maximum profit. Serving alcohol also requires the right license, so check your local rules before you add it to the menu.
A Menu Item That Works All Year
One reason soft serve margaritas hold up is that you can change the flavor with the calendar. Dole comes in a range of fruit flavors, so switching is as simple as swapping the bag. Rotating the flavors of soft serve each month gives regulars a reason to come back and gives you something new to post. It also keeps your soft serve margs from getting stale. Here's a sample year:
Month | Dole flavors | Idea |
January | Lemon and raspberry | Raspberry Lemonade Twist, a bright winter pick-me-up |
February | Strawberry and pomegranate | Sweetheart Twist for Valentine's Day |
March | Pineapple and lime | Spring Break Twist |
April | Peach and raspberry | Peach Melba Twist |
May | Mango and lime | Cinco de Mayo Twist |
June | Watermelon and lime | Watermelon Lime Twist for the first hot days |
July | Cherry and raspberry | Double-red Fourth of July swirl |
August | Mango and pineapple | Tropical Sunset Twist |
September | Orange and cherry | Tequila Sunrise Twist for football season |
October | Orange and pomegranate | Halloween Twist in orange and deep red |
November | Peach and orange | Harvest Twist in warm fall colors |
December | Cherry and lime | Cherry Limeade Twist in holiday red and green |
You can also adapt the classic margarita batch by swapping the lime mix for strawberry, mango, or watermelon. Test any new combination in our test kitchen first. If your machine has two hoppers, you can pour a twist of two flavors in one cup, like the cherry and lime in December. This kind of flavored soft serve also works without alcohol, because the same machine can serve regular Dole soft serve to guests who skip the tequila.
Ready to Add Soft Serve Margaritas to Your Menu?
As your Taylor distributor in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, we can help you pick the right soft serve freezer, dial in your recipe, and plan your flavor calendar. You can try recipes in our test kitchen before you commit, and our team can walk you through the numbers for your business. Contact us to get started.
