Jello shots: an easy step-by-step

Wow, life is not easy at the moment. We should all be profoundly invested in the seemingly never-ending bad news cycle and finding ways to course correct humanity’s doom-spiral. But to do that, you need to take care of yourself first. As the old saying goes, don’t forget to smell the roses every once and while! And for me, smelling the roses means making jello shots.

Jello shots are really important for several reasons. First of all, they are really fun. Such effervescent colours really spice up a party. Second of all, they are a conduit for the consumption of alcohol. They can provide the fuel for fun, without the harsh bite of doing an actual shot of hard alcohol. Third of all, I am really good at making them. And that’s why I’ve written this article.

Making jello shots for the first time can be stressful. You try to mix the ingredients together in the right way and then you have to wait several hours to test if you put things in the right proportion. Additionally, when you’re making jello shots, you’re going to end up making a bunch of shots a batch. If you screw up the flavours, that’s a lot of crummy jello shots to get through.

Luckily you have me, Stephen Raitz, to teach you how to make jello shots.

Step 1: Get your tools!

You will need a kettle, a pyrex measuring cup, something to stir with, and jello shot cups. The first three are common household objects. However, the fourth can be trickier to come across. I recommend getting the salad dressing cups at Dollarama. Fourteen cups for $1.25 is decent. There are less expensive options out there, but I recommend the salad dressing cups because they are more user-friendly.

Salad dressing cups have a neat little lid you can put on the cup to stack several shots on top of one another. They hold about the right amount of jello for a jello shot. Most importantly, the actual depth of the container is not immense. Practically every person’s tongue will be able to reach the bottom of the container to lick up that sweet, sweet jello-shot goodness.

Step 2: Get your ingredients!

Now this is the fun part! Jello shots can come in immense variety. Generally, you want to find a jello flavour that will enhance or amplify the kind of alcohol you’re working with. Using straight hard liquor, like vodka, rum, or gin will usually produce a VERY strong jello shot. I recommend using a liqueur as the alcohol base instead, like something that is between 15 – 30 per cent alcohol. Or you can cut the hard alcohol with something a bit more pleasant, like a fruit juice.

Below are my four favourite combos:

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Additional tips regarding ingredients: if you don’t drink alcohol, you can just make jello without alcohol and have just as much fun. If you don’t eat gelatin, agar-agar is a great substitute for jello.

Step 3: Make the damn jello shots!

Here comes the even more fun part. Simply set the kettle to a boil, pour in the jello shot powder into your pyrex, add about 250 mL of hot water, and then stir until the powder is completely dissolved. Next step, add about 250 mL of your booze of choice. Stir again and then begin pouring it into the salad dressing cups. Fill them almost to the brim. This should make about eight to 12 jello shots.

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Note: You can swap the boiled water out for some other kind of boiled liquid to alter the flavour profile. For example, in my Jáger Bomb + Cherry flavour, I boil the contents of a can of Red Bull until the carbonation comes off and use that as a replacement for the 250 mL of hot water.

So that’s how it’s done. I wish you all the luck in the world approaching your next batch of jello shots.

Stephen can be found at [email protected], or on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.