Here is the number that fixes most jello shots: one envelope of gelatin per cup of liquid, and no more than half of that liquid can be alcohol. Go past it and you get a cold soup in a plastic cup at ten at night, which is how most people’s first batch ends. I am the kind of cook who reads a cookbook straight through just to learn something, and I read every one of these before I touched a word of them, because the good jello shot recipes on this list all respect that ratio and the pretty ones bend it in a specific, deliberate way. So there are a French 75, apple pie with Fireball, an Arnold Palmer, a pumpkin spice latte and a whole watermelon rind full of the stuff, plus six of our own. Party drinks that sit in the fridge doing nothing until your guests arrive are the best kind.
1. Pink Lemonade Jello Shots
Pink lemonade is the flavor that convinces people who say they do not like jello shots. It reads as lemonade first and booze second, which is the whole trick, and the color needs no food dye because the mix brings it. Serve these outdoors in the heat where the tartness does the most work. A sound one to start on if you have never set a shot before.
Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.
2. Tequila Sunrise Jell-O Shots
This one is ours, and the mold is a hollowed-out navel orange half sitting in a muffin tin so it cannot tip. A grenadine and maraschino cherry juice layer goes in first and chills about thirty minutes, then a tequila and orange juice layer goes on top. You cut each half into wedges at the end, so the sunrise runs through every slice. Three oranges, two packs of plain gelatin.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
3. Cherry Dr. Pepper Jello Squares
No water at all in this one. Two and a half cups of cherry Dr Pepper gets heated until it just starts to bubble, then four three-ounce boxes of cherry Jell-O dissolve straight into it. It sets in an 8×8 pan and cuts into 36 squares. Spray the pan and wipe out the excess first, or you will fight them out with a spatula. Any soda and any flavor works the same way.
Get the full tutorial at Inside BruCrew Life.
4. Peach Fizz Jello Shots
Peach vodka and lemon-lime soda, or champagne if you want it to drink like a bellini. One envelope of gelatin, a quarter cup cold water, half a cup hot, a quarter cup sugar, then a cup of the vodka and half a cup of the fizz. Makes ten two-ounce cups in one to two hours. A thin slice of fresh peach on top is the finish, and it costs nothing.
Get the full tutorial at Bread Booze Bacon.
5. Candy-Sweet Jello Shots
The standard shot is three ounces of jello mix, a cup of water and a cup of vodka. This one cuts the vodka to half a cup and puts half a cup of triple sec in its place, then pipes triple sec whipped cream over the top. The rims get run with citrus and dipped in sprinkles. It is the rare shot somebody actually sips instead of throwing back.
Get the full tutorial at Baking Mischief.
6. Arnold Palmer Vodka Jello Shots
Two layers, and the layering is the reason to bother. The base gets split in half, lemonade stirred into one bowl and iced tea into the other. Two tablespoons of the lemonade layer per cup, thirty minutes in the fridge until the top is tacky, then two tablespoons of tea on top and two hours more. Twenty cups per batch. Sweet tea vodka in the tea half darkens it further.
Get the full tutorial at Bread Booze Bacon.
7. French 75 Jello Shots
A French 75 is gin, lemon and champagne, which makes it the most grown-up drink on this list and a genuinely odd thing to find set into a cube. Worth it for a New Year’s table or a wedding shower where plastic cups of neon would look wrong. Expect a paler, more restrained shot than anything else here. This is the one to put out for people who claim they do not do shots.
Get the full tutorial at Bakers Royale.
8. Watermelon Jello Shots
Ours, and the container is the watermelon. You hollow out a medium melon, make four boxes of red cherry jello with two packets of gelatin and four cups of vodka, pour it into the rind and chill until firm, then slice it like fruit. Use a really large melon and you double everything. Watermelon Jell-O gives a paler pink, which is why cherry is the one specified here.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
9. Waffle Jello Shots
The mold is a Wilton ice cream sandwich pan, which is where the dimples come from. The classic version is a cup of strained fresh orange juice, two teaspoons of lemon juice and a quarter cup of Grade B maple syrup, set with gelatin. There is a blueberry version too. It was posted for International Waffle Day on March 25th, which is a real thing and not the August one.
Get the full tutorial at Jelly Shot Test Kitchen.
10. Champagne Strawberry Jello Shots
Three envelopes of unflavored gelatin, two cups cold water, a cup of sugar, then a cup and a half each of cold champagne and cold ginger ale, with sliced strawberries folded in once the mix has thickened but is still partly liquid. Makes seven to ten molds. Two real tips from the source: the smaller the mold the firmer the set, and metal molds set firmer than glass.
Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Day.
11. Crown Caramel Apple Jello Shots
Six ingredients, ours, and no chilling in layers. Green apple Jell-O dissolves in a cup of hot water, cools a little, then green apple whiskey and sour apple pucker go in to taste. Divide into small plastic cups, chill until set, pour caramel sauce over the top and stand a Trolli apple ring in each one. The caramel goes on after setting, never before, or it sinks.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
12. American Flag Jello Shots
Also ours, and it is a display rather than a recipe. Blueberry jello, strawberry jello and a white made from condensed milk with a packet of plain gelatin, poured into small plastic shot glasses and arranged into a flag on a tray. You want at least two sets of five for the blue field. Dollar store shot glasses are the cheapest way to get enough of them.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
13. Piña Colada Jello Shots
A quarter cup pineapple juice, two tablespoons of cream of coconut and half a cup of silver or coconut rum, set with one envelope of gelatin. The cherry is the part worth copying: chill thirty to forty minutes until the jello has just begun to thicken, then press one in so it sits half submerged instead of floating on top. Rinse and dry the cherries or they bleed. Twelve cups.
Get the full tutorial at Bread Booze Bacon.
14. Root Beer Float Jello
This one takes twelve and a half hours, almost all of it waiting, and it is worth reading even if you never make it. Two envelopes of gelatin, half a cup of sugar and two cups of real root beer set in a 9×13, then get cut into cubes. Three more envelopes go into melted vanilla ice cream, poured over those cubes and left overnight. Twenty four pieces.
Get the full tutorial at Pint Sized Baker.
15. Pumpkin Spice Latte Jello Shots
Prepared caramel coffee rather than water is what makes this taste like the drink. A cup of it goes in a saucepan with a tablespoon of gelatin, three tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk and two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, brought to a low boil, then a cup of whipped cream vodka off the heat. Four hours to set. Vanilla coffee or vanilla vodka works if caramel is not on the shelf.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking With Janica.
16. Candy Corn Jello Shots
Three layers, ours, and the patience is non-negotiable: ninety minutes in the fridge per layer before the next one goes on. Yellow lemon gelatin with vodka and ice first, then orange, then a cream layer of unflavored gelatin, sweetened condensed milk and light rum. Clear glasses are the point, because the stripes are the whole project. Leave the alcohol out entirely and it is a kids’ Halloween dessert.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
17. Cherry Cola Jello Shots
Two layers with thirty fresh pitted cherries standing between them, and the cherries are the handle, so nobody scoops jello out of a cup with a finger. Cola and gelatin go in first and chill two hours, then the cherries get arranged on top and a black cherry layer poured over. Let the second layer come to room temperature or it melts the first. A cookie cutter makes the rounds.
Get the full tutorial at Erica's Sweet Tooth.
18. Apple Pie Jello Shots
Fireball and Crown Royal Apple, and the source is honest about it: she and her husband found it too cinnamon-heavy and every other person at the party loved it. Her own fix is to drop the Fireball to half a cup and raise the Crown Royal Apple to one cup. If you are using glass shot glasses, line the bottom with a little crust. That is a genuinely good idea.
Get the full tutorial at Ann's Entitled Life.
19. Santa Hat Jello Shots
Ours, and about as simple as this gets. A cup and a quarter of water boiled, a three-ounce packet of strawberry Jell-O stirred in, three quarters of a cup of vodka, poured into plastic shot glasses and set for an hour. Then Cool Whip, a hulled strawberry point up, and one small dot of cream at the tip for the bobble. Skip the vodka and it is a Christmas dessert.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
20. Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Jell-O Shots
Pineapple upside-down cake is already a layered, inverted thing, so turning it into a shot is less of a stretch than it sounds. Expect a maraschino cherry doing the work at one end and pineapple carrying the flavor. This is a good one for a retro party or a sixtieth birthday, where the cake itself is the joke everybody gets. Chill it properly or the two layers bleed into one another.
Get the full tutorial at TipHero.
21. Fishbowl Jello Shots
Berry blue jello, half a cup of cold vodka and half a cup of cold blue curacao in a cup of boiling water, with gummy fish dropped in. Sixteen to eighteen shots. The one piece of real information on the page: the colder your liquor is going into the hot jello, the better the whole thing sets. Non-alcoholic blue curacao exists if you want the color without the second spirit.
Get the full tutorial at Cookbook Community.
22. Amaretto Sour Jello Shots
No water at all. One envelope of gelatin blooms in a quarter cup of sweet and sour mix, then half a cup more is heated to a simmer and poured over, followed by half a cup of amaretto and two tablespoons of simple syrup. Nine two-ounce ramekins with lids, one maraschino cherry each. Two hours. Lids mean these travel, which is why they go to other people’s parties.
Get the full tutorial at Lipgloss and Crayons.
23. Grasshopper Jello Shots
Milk-based, which almost nothing else here is. Three quarters of a cup of creme de cacao blooms the gelatin, a cup of milk gets brought to a low boil and poured in, then three quarters of a cup of green mint liqueur and a few drops of green food coloring. Twelve two-ounce souffle cups, two hours, and do not fill to the brim. Christmas or St Patrick’s Day.
Get the full tutorial at Ann's Entitled Life.
24. 4th of July Jello Shooters
Red, white and blue in one cup means three separate chills, and that is the only hard part. Everything else is the same gelatin you have already made twice. Build them the day before, not the morning of, because a rushed middle layer bleeds into the one under it and you end up with purple. Clear cups, because the stripes are the entire reason anybody makes these.
Get the full tutorial at Bakers Royale.
25. Watermelon Lime Jello Shots
Hollowed lime halves for the mold, so each one comes out looking like a tiny watermelon slice, and a cup of vodka swapped in for the cup of cold water the box calls for. That swap makes them strong for their size. The seeds are the pointed ends of mini chocolate chips pushed in, which sounds wrong with fruit jello and works as a chaser. Leave a few plain.
Get the full tutorial at Erica's Sweet Tooth.
26. Bacon Bourbon Apple Jello Shots
Ten hours, and most of it is the bourbon. Two strips of crispy bacon sit in five ounces of bourbon for three hours on the counter, then two hours in the fridge so the fat solidifies and can be strained out. Then apple juice, brown sugar and gelatin, six hours to set, and candied bacon made with brown sugar and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne on top.
Get the full tutorial at Bread Booze Bacon.
27. Orange Dreamsicle Jello Shots
One cup of boiling water, one packet of orange Jell-O, one cup of ice cold vodka. That is the entire list, and it is a single layer with whipped cream piped on at the end rather than the two tone thing the name suggests. Two hours in the fridge, sixteen to eighteen shots per batch. Orange and cream is the flavor everybody recognizes before you tell them what it is, which is why this tray always empties first.
Get the full tutorial at Cookbook Community.
