This Jell-O Shot Substitute Is Just As Delicious And Vegan-Friendly

Combining a nostalgic childhood dessert with a very adult practice, Jell-O shots are always a treat. Between the bright colors, saccharine flavors, and the awkwardness of trying to fish alcoholic gelatin out of a tiny plastic cup, they are a guaranteed camaraderie-building experience at any party. As such, it is a good practice to make sure that when you are putting together Jell-O shots, you take all potential consumers into account. Nothing ruins the vibe quite like excluding someone from sharing a drink with the group because they don't eat animal products. Fortunately, replacing the animal-derived gelatin in your jello shots is actually really simple — all you need is agar agar.

Those boxes of store-bought Jell-O-style powders typically use gelatin to achieve the familiar springy, jiggly texture. As it turns out, however, agar agar works just as well and is derived instead from algae. It is a flavorless, odorless, and translucent gelling agent that can be slipped into any recipe, though the preparation and storage requirements are not exactly the same as those of gelatin. If you know how to use it, however, it makes a perfectly excellent Jell-O shot.

Essentially, agar agar just runs a little hotter than gelatin. While gelatin can be dissolved in warm water, agar agar needs to be boiled in order to set properly. The benefit of this higher melting temperature, however, is that while gelatin products need to be refrigerated to set and keep their texture, products made with agar agar will set just fine at room temperature. As for the actual measurements, you can substitute agar agar powder at a one-to-one ratio with the gelatin called for in a recipe.

The unfortunate part of using agar agar is that it means making these alcoholic treats is more work than simply deciding how much booze to add to the box of Jell-O mix. If simplicity of preparation is a key part of the Jell-O shot experience for you, you can always pick up a variety pack of Jel Vegan Dessert Mixes, and the process is as simple as ever. But for those with a willingness to explore or a desire to express some culinary creativity, swapping out the boxed mix opens the door to all sorts of creative artisanal Jell-O shot flavors.

When you switch from a packaged mix to agar agar, a whole world of fruit juices and other interesting ingredients becomes available to you. At its simplest, all you need to do is boil a bit of juice with some extra sugar and agar agar, then mix in the booze and let it set. The Jell-O shots will come out fruity and delicious, with the benefit of actually containing real food, rather than just colorful dyes and artificial flavors.

When you control all of the ingredients in the Jell-O shots, there's also nothing keeping you from taking things to the next level and, say, reconstituting a favorite cocktail in Jell-O shot form. Try a whiskey sour Jell-O shot with lemon juice and bourbon, or maybe a Blue Hawaii, with pineapple juice, lemon juice, blue curacao, and rum. Too much acidity might require more agar agar in the mix, but playing with making jello shots from all your favorite drinks will surely be a task you don't mind repeating.