Cherry Cola Granita Recipe

Featuring Coca-Cola and ripe summer cherries, this easy two-ingredient cherry cola granita recipe makes the best frozen dessert for the last, laziest days of summer.

What Inspired This Cherry Cola Granita Recipe?

This granita recipe draws inspiration from a Cherry Coke Icee. Half cola flavor, half cherry flavor, and 100% the all-time best summertime drink, I’m sure I’m not the only one with a strong nostalgic connection to this sugary brain-freeze.

This recipe evokes memories of the college summer I spent working as a dresser on a musical revue show at Hersheypark, a theme park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Many a late August evening, I’d end my shift with a stop at the employee cafeteria, where I’d treat myself to a Cherry Coke Slurpee for the long drive home, sipping it as the scent of chocolate wafted through the air. Here, I’ve recreated that long-ago summer commute in the form of a crunchy frozen dessert.

Made with just two ingredients (you guessed it—cherries and cola!) this recipe requires no oven, and it’s easy to make ahead of time. Plus, this cherry cola granita recipe contains no meat, dairy, nuts, or gluten, so it’s perfect for accommodating a variety of dietary preferences.

What is Granita?

Made from sugar and fruit, a granita is a simple summer dessert. With roots in Italy, this semi-frozen treat is kind of like Italian ice, or a snowcone, but not exactly the same. There are all kinds of granitas, like strawberry granita, peach granita, and even coffee granita.

To make homemade granita, you simply blitz sugar syrup (replaced in this recipe by a cola reduction) and fresh fruit in a food processor, pour the mixture into a shallow container, and freeze, periodically opening the container to break the ice crystals apart with a fork. A few hours (and a whole lot of scraping) later, and you’ve made a fancy frozen treat.

Ingredients for Making Cherry Cola Granita

You’ll only need two ingredients to make cherry cola granita: a bottle of Coca-Cola, and sweet, fresh cherries:

How to Make Granita

Although they’re easy to make, granitas aren’t exactly quick. The entire process will take 4-6 hours from start to finish, with the exact timeline depending on your container, the temperature in your freezer, and whether the freezer is empty or full.

You’ll start by pouring the purée into an empty baking dish or storage container, then popping it in the freezer:

Freeze for around 90 minutes, then stir the granita, breaking apart the partially frozen pieces around the edges:

Then, keep stirring the mixture every 30-45 minutes. Eventually it will start to resemble a thick slush:

Don’t stop there! Keep going until, several hours later, the mixture resembles finely crushed ice:

Granitas freeze best in a shallow, flat container. (If you use a tiny container or a round bowl, the purée has less room to spread out and will take longer to freeze.) My go-to container measures about 5 1/2 x 9 inches, but any plastic food storage container similar to this one will work:

Make-Ahead and Storage Suggestions

As mentioned above, this granita will take roughly 4-6 hours to freeze. (If you want to serve this for dessert in the evening, make sure it’s in the freezer by mid-morning.) And because this recipe requires periodic stirring, it’s a project best reserved for a day when you can stick close to home.

You can make cherry cola granita a day or two in advance and keep frozen until ready to enjoy. To serve, allow the granita to sit at room temperature for a few minutes, break the pieces apart with a fork, then scoop into dishes and garnish as desired.

Other summertime recipes you might enjoy:

Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cupcakes
Rhubarb and Strawberry Lemonade
Vanilla Peach Granita

And if you do make these, or any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me @bastecutfold or use the hashtag #bastecutfold on Instagram. I always love to see what you’re making!

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