How to choose the right ice
For when you’ve made the perfect drink
Adapted from a story by M. Carrie Allan for The Washington Post.
If you’ve spent any time at all in good bars over the past decade, you’ve probably noticed we’re in a new Ice Age.
Nowhere is the evolution of ice clearer, literally, than in the large, perfect cubes and spheres that you’ll find in many craft cocktail bars today. A large cube melts more slowly than a small one; a cube without tiny air bubbles trapped inside is not only clearer and more aesthetically pleasing, but also less inclined to crack in a drink because of those minute imperfections, says cocktail writer Camper English of Alcademics.com.
For those who want a real ice-ucation, here are some of the basics for making your own ice at home — and ideas for creativity that goes beyond them.
Used in: Old Fashioned and highballs
Make it at home: Buy specialty rubber or silicon molds at Sur La Table and Cocktail Kingdom (which has a Collins ice mold specifically made for long drinks).
Used in: Tiki drink or a julep
Make it at home: Use a blender or a Lewis bag, a canvas sack wherein you stick bigger cubes and then whack them with a mallet until they’re the right size.
Used in: Martinis, Manhattans, Negronis or any cocktail whose sole components are booze-based.
Make it at home: Use molds that are available all over the Internet. The challenge is not the size factor, but the clarity. If you want to geek out on a quest for clear ice, Camper English’s blog, Alcademics, is the place for you. English worked out a “directional freezing” method to get clearer ice out of standard freezers.
Used in: a bowl of punch
Make it at home: Think 24 hours ahead: When you’re making a bowl of punch for a party, you can use bowls and Tupperware to freeze large blocks of ice to float in it. Include citrus wheels or other punch-appropriate fruits and garnishes in the container and then fill it with water, agitating it as you go to eliminate as much trapped air as possible from around the solids before freezing.
→ Try freezing juices or diluted liqueurs to create ice that will cause a drink to change as it melts. (i.e. using Campari ice in a drink that starts out Manhattany and gradually turns into a Boulevardier as the Campari ice incorporates itself into the drink.)
→ Freeze some high-liquid fruits and use them to substitute for water-based ice, or add color to the water you’re going to freeze. (Butterfly pea flower extract interacts with citrus juice to create cool color changes.)
→ You can use dry ice to create a fog-oozing punch (do so with extreme caution).
→ Make little works of art with clear ice. A lime peel cut in a long, unbroken circle and then frozen into a spherical ice mold? The resulting ice is what you might expect if Kandinsky served drinks.
