
Inside the Obsessive World of Artisanal Cocktail Ice - dnetesn
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/cocktail-ice/?mbid=social_twitter
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noelwelsh
A lot of the comments here questioning the methods are making a classic nerd
mistake. The people buying this stuff don't _really_ give a crap if their
drinks are less diluted or whatever, though they might express that they do if
questioned. What they are actually doing is displaying social status by
indulging in expensive methods of preparing alcohol. The validity of these
methods is irrelevant. The price tag and the mystique are what matters.

~~~
chris_wot
I'm going to get down voted for this, but in this case I don't care. Those who
want their ice non-cloudy because of their perceived social status are
arseholes. They use finite resources for something that doesn't actually
matter to them.

~~~
pavel_lishin
But their perceived social status does matter to them.

~~~
chris_wot
My point exactly.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Then I think I didn't understand your comment.

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PhasmaFelis
There's kids going hungry out there, and people are paying $6000 for a machine
that makes prettier ice.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to put on a black bandanna and
start flipping cars, until I remember that I'm typing this on a $2000 gaming
rig, and slouch back into my chair in shame.

~~~
tritium
Sometimes I find myself wrestling with the other side of the coin.

Lots of us sit around contemplating whether we're slowly programming ourselves
into obsolescence. Or maybe not contemplating the "ifs" of it, so much as the
"hows" and "whens" of our inevitable replacement by robots.

And so part of me aches at the blistering, scathing inequalities and wealth
disparities implicit in absurdities such as luxury ice, but then I start to
wonder what will happen to me when I write that one last shell script that
seals my fate as a superfluous meat bag in an otherwise harmonious ballet of
circuits and servomotors.

What else will there be worth doing in a post-scarcity economy, besides
frequenting upscale hospitality establishments? What if a future of abundance,
and robotic hyper-intelligence, turns us all into part-time chefs, bus boys
and waitresses?

But yeah, we really do have to get on that whole starvation thing first...
maybe it'll be us left out in the cold, if we're not careful about our own
obsolescence.

~~~
meric
Build capital now, and buy shares in a post-scarcity company before they get
expensive.

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mattmaroon
"Martinis, too, demand minimal dilution, so bartenders will stir gin and
vermouth with dense cubes for several minutes to get them to the right
temperature."

That's nonsense. Chilling and dilution are proportional. It'd be much smarter
to just stir less with normal cubes.

"Lazar noted that some bartenders will stir drinks for several minutes to
achieve maximum chilling, which also gives the spirits a viscous, “ropey”
quality."

Also silly. At that point you've reached equilibrium, so you might as well
have saved yourself 5 minutes and shaken it. Also I don't know how over-
diluting can make something viscous or ropey, I'd think it'd make it thin.

~~~
fizx
> saved yourself 5 minutes and shaken it

Don't shake martinis or manhattans. It gets tiny ice chips in the drink. Bond
was an idiot.

~~~
Otik
I always thought "stirred not shaken" would have fit Bond rather better, not
just because it leads to a better drink, but because it could be taken as a
statement about his attitude.

~~~
crdb
Yes. That. Bond was a bit of a "rebel" and he would signal it by being
contrarian. Ordering vodka instead of gin would also signal "I'm an alcoholic,
I'm not ashamed of it, I don't care for taste" (as vodka is a tasteless
spirit).

The funny thing is that, due to Bond's popularity, asking for your martini
stirred is now the contrarian thing to do. Unless enough people read up on it,
discover that one should ask for it stirred, and then decide to signal their
rejection of arriviste iconoclasm by asking for it shaken. I haven't been in a
cocktail bar for a while so I don't know where in the cycle we are at the
moment.

The French Bond, S.A.S. (by De Villiers) did not bother with these mind games
and at least in the early books just orders vodka on ice, the alcoholic's
drink of choice (tasteless, and with less congeners, leading to an easier
hangover). De Villiers' willingness to do product placement sees him go
through Cointreau, Gaston de Lagrange cognac, the ubiquitous Moet 1964, and
one of the more popular brands of American bourbon (ends around the 20th book
if I recall well).

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beloch
Pure alchohol freezes at -114 C and 80 proof spirits at around -27 C. Instead
of using techniques designed to reduce temperature without diluting the
cocktail, why not just keep your mixers close to freezing and your alcohol
cold enough to achieve the desired final temperature? Alternatively, keep
everything at whatever temperature your freezer can handle and pour in a
measured amount of liquid nitrogen (which is cheaper to obtain than high-end
ice apparently!). Some dilution is probably desirable in many drinks, so then
add ice in the desired final particle size.

This would take some of the art out of shaking and stirring drinks, but it
would also make results less labor intensive and more reproducible.

Bah. I drink scotch with a few drops of water. I'm pretty clueless when it
comes to cocktails, so I'm probably missing something.

~~~
fulafel
Liquid nitrogen would probably react similarly as to plain water, the target
clientele might prefer a more muted effect.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axgf3XhOGqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axgf3XhOGqw)

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kaolinite
If anyone is interested in doing this at home, without the $6000 giant ice
cube maker, here's a kit for $60-80:
[http://www.studioneat.com/products/neaticekit](http://www.studioneat.com/products/neaticekit)

I haven't used it myself but I've heard a lot of cocktail enthusiasts rating
it very highly. Seems crazy to me but then I do ridiculous things for coffee,
so I can't really judge :-)

~~~
ibejoeb
I work in cocktail bars and run cocktail events. When I don't have access to a
clinebell, I make my own using a similar setup, but it only costs about $5.

Buy a largish tupperware container, say 2-5 gallons, and wrap the sides and
top--not the bottom--in insulating foam. Fill with purified water and place in
a conventional freezer for at least 12 hours for smaller containers, 24+ for
larger ones.

The idea is that the bottom will chill faster while the air bubbles rise to
concentrate the cloudiness at the top. You'll wind up with a nice block that's
mostly clear, save for an inch or so at the top.

Tips:

* Remove all food products and put baking soda in the freezer. You don't want your ice to taste like fish sticks.

* When you cut the ice, leave it out at room temperature for ~10 minutes before cutting. Score lines in the block use a mallet and knife edge to separate pieces.

~~~
mattmaroon
You can also just use a beer cooler with the top open.

It makes it easier if you learn the timing such that it freezes to just about
the depth you want to cut the blocks at (about 2") and the rest of the water
is still liquid. Then the ice comes out already at melting point and cuts more
easily.

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patio11
If you've never seen the "Japanese bartender parlor trick":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1zrDxVFcX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1zrDxVFcX4)

~~~
beloch
Apply numbing cold to digits and then hack around them with a sharp knife for
around 4 minutes per ice-ball. I wonder how often you cut your fingers when
making these things.

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tsotha
As a relative pointed out, you can put "artisanal" in front of _anything_ and
charge more for it.

~~~
meric
Except for gold mines. Artisanal gold mines don't sell for as much as a
typical gold mine.

~~~
maxerickson
I bet that they do if you do the comparison per unit of gold available.

(just because the larger the operation, the more value the process plant will
tend to bring compared to the ground)

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jcoffland
I find that making ice from hot water produces clearer cubes. The theory
behind this is that since cold water absorbs more gas it produces lower
quality ice. Hot water may have more solids disolved in it but less gas and
there is little opportunity for the water to absorb gas during the freezing
process. Try it some time if you doubt this assertion.

~~~
mng2
It made no difference for me. Try it yourself with a control.

The "freeze a big block and cut off the ugly part" definitely works though.

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jkot
> _As with diamonds, cocktail ice is judged by its clarity, density, size and
> cut, all of which add to the quality and aesthetics of the experience. As
> water freezes, air bubbles are trapped and eventually disperse inside_

Same bullshit as with diamonds. Just boil water before freezing to remove
gases and make ice transparent.

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Pxtl
[http://xkcd.com/915/](http://xkcd.com/915/)

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personjerry
While interesting, I wonder why this is front page with only 3 votes in 2
hours?

~~~
dang
I think it's just that Sundays are slower.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Don't forget that it's a holiday in the 'States. I'd wager many readers are
probably out barbecuing, or camping, or stuck at an airport right now.

