

The science of ice, melting, and chilling as it pertains to drinks - marojejian
http://thesweethome.com/reviews/the-best-ice-cube-tray/#appendix

======
tptacek
The Dave Arnold post at:

[http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/07/24/tales-of-the-
cocktai...](http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/07/24/tales-of-the-cocktail-
science-of-shaking-ii/)

(linked from this review) is arguably much more interesting than the review
itself. So is everything else at Cooking Issue. Cooking Issues is amazing.

~~~
alanctgardner2
Am I missing something? It seems obvious that the same mass of ice will cause
the some amount of dilution and have the same heat capacity. All the stuff
about surface area versus volume is just worrying about how long it takes the
ice to dissolve, but it seems like they did all their experiments until the
drink reached thermal equilibrium... the ice melted, and the drink got
slightly watered down.

~~~
e12e
Yes, it seems obvious. But it's nice to see that the experiment doesn't
invalidate those assumptions. Personally I also find it interesting to see the
measurements (it's nice to know that about 12 seconds is "enough", that's
certainly longer than "just a little").

------
nooneelse
Ok, sure, it is great to consider the extra minutes added to the taste-window
which a bigger ice block vs several smaller ones gives... But, really, what
I've wondered about when I go to drink such tasty drinks is that the bigger
target seems ignored. The ice wouldn't have to melt so fast if it wasn't
having to counteract so much heat getting in unnecessarily. But drinks are
mostly put in contact with container walls which are directly connected to the
external wall in contact with the air, table/bar, and human hands. Heck, one
could go all out and pick some material(s) with a lower thermal conductivity
than glass. That might be worth some bother too, but I don't know that it is
needed.

Why is it I have a Thermos (made of stainless steel, so not optimized for
thermal conductivity at all) which can keep coffee mouth-burning hot all work
day, but when I go to some fancy scotch tasting establishment they hand me a
chunk of glass engineered more for looks than for the task at hand?

------
marquis
Was Ian Fleming completely wrong? "When you shake a martini, you aren’t
integrating the elements in a way to create a smooth texture – you are doing
the opposite. A shaken martini gets diluted too fast and gets too much air
mixed into it. The result is a slightly frothy and watered down drink."

I assumed he didn't want to get inebriated in order to have a non-fuzzy head
for all the goings-ons but the bartender would have noticed..

[http://www.drinkspirits.com/gin/james-bond-wrong-shake-
marti...](http://www.drinkspirits.com/gin/james-bond-wrong-shake-martinis/)

~~~
tptacek
No, he wasn't "wrong". Shaking a mixed drink does alter the texture; it does
incorporate air, and it does incorporate more tiny ice chips. And that quote
doesn't hold temperature constant. You can trade strength for coldness and
vice versa.

But, if you have a target temperature, and you're using ice to cool a drink
down to it, then the idea that you should stir instead of shake to reach that
temperature is misguided.

------
josefresco
Lot's of good stuff here, could use some editing to cut down the wordiness and
emphasize the conclusions. Obvious affiliate links were obvious.

~~~
mstromb
Affiliate links are explicitly how the site makes money:
[http://thesweethome.com/how-to-support-the-
sweethome/](http://thesweethome.com/how-to-support-the-sweethome/)

So I guess I'm not too harsh on them.

~~~
josefresco
I debated whether or not to point this out, but found that I couldn't _not_
say anything as it was effecting my perception of the quality and
trustworthiness of the article.

------
hedgehog
Humidity also has a big effect (lower is slower, it's plausible that drinks in
Vegas are less diluted than in Hawaii).

[http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/a...](http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/66/4/10.1063/PT.3.1958)

------
ballard
Granted the thermodynamics lesson is all well and good. The more interesting
point is in the making of ice cubes (or spheres). Apart from pitching some
product, it's the water. Sufficiently purified water (ie reverse osmosis)
produces glass-clear ice. Cloudy ice contains dissolved sediment typical of
tap and barely filter water.

------
paulorlando
"Whiskey on the rocks event horizon" is the best part of the post.

