One essential element of a cocktail is the ice cubes. To most of us, little attention is given to how an ice cube appears, provided it serves its purpose. Ice cubes should be clear – not cloudy. Most people use filtered or boiled water to achieve this purpose, but the result is never as efficient. Below is how you can easily make crystal clear ice cubes at home.
What you need:
Now, there are products specifically for this purpose, though a bit over-priced in the market. But do not worry. Using these items give just similar results.
- Time
- Small cooler (with the lid taken off).
- Serrated knife.
- Mallet
How to:
The technique used is one known as directional freezing. The underlying principle here is that when water freezes, the impurities, which make the ice appear cloudy, form at the end of the freezing process. So, freezing from top to bottom (directional freeing) makes it easy for you to isolate the impurities before the process ends.
- First, fill the small cooler with water.
- Refrigerate for about 24 hours. Remember to leave the cooler open. The open top, together with the insulated sides of the cooler, ensures that freezing happens from top to bottom, making it easy to isolate impurities.
- The water content in your cooler should only freeze around half way. Remember, impurities form at the end of the freezing process.
- After freezing, empty the content of the cooler on a flat surface. On the bottom part, now at the top, get rid of the ice shell formed.
- Next, run the clear ice block over some warm water to smoothen out the ages.
- To make your squared ice cubes, use your serrated knife to cut a little slit on the surface.
- Take the mallet and gently hummer on the serrated knife while on the ice surface.
- Repeat this process to make even smaller blocks as desired. Longer blocks serve well in highball glasses, for example when serving in the Tom Collins Glass.
- Put the cubes in a bag and freeze further as desired.
Ice cubes should be more than just coolants for your cocktails. With a little extra time, you can easily step-up your presentation game with nice, crystal clear ice cubes, adding a touch of elegance to your drink. Enjoy trying this for your next cocktail adventure.
Cheers!
