Summer 2016 | Sea Island Life Magazine Spring/Summer 2016 | Page 11

The Right Ice for the Job

BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO BY ADAM LERNER

This renewed interest in ice has resulted in
an explosion of specialty shapes in the mixology market, the most common of which
are perfect spheres and oversized, 2-inch
king cubes. Because a larger cube has less
surface area than several smaller ones
used together, it melts more slowly. This
makes larger cubes desirable for drinks that
would quickly become diluted with smaller
ice pieces, such as those typically served in
rocks glasses.
“A larger cube or sphere is perfect for
brown spirits like good whiskey,” explains
Nic Wallace, head bartender at Sea Island’s
River Bar. For stirring or shaking drinks like
martinis, smaller, but still substantial, 1 1/4inch cubes are perfect. These are also the
most common choice for cocktails in highball glasses, such as gin and tonic, but some
bars use specialty crafted cylindrical spears.
Crushed ice is the choice for many tropical
or tiki drinks. “These typically have a lot of
booze and flavored syrups, so you want it to
dilute a bit,” Pogash says. Top-notch bars typically use pebbled ice—tiny, perfectly round
spheres from specialty machines—however,
similarly crushed ice can be had at home
by putting cubes in a blender. One contemporary option Wallace does not endorse are
cubes made of stone, “Once they lose their
cool, they are done, while ice keeps diluting
and chilling the spirit,” Wallace advises.

The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog emphasizes
the crucial role ice plays in cocktails.

Ice is shaped to best suit particular libations.

Sea Island uses crystal-clear ice for its cocktails.

Clearly Better Ice
“Crystal-clear ice looks great in the glass.”
Wallace notes, explaining that achieving
perfect clarity is a bigger challenge than
forming the right shape. Clear cubes are also
more dense, meaning they melt slower, and
taste better, since cloudiness is the result of
frozen impurities and trapped oxygen.
“You can buy the silicone molds for different shapes; they work, but, even if you start
with filtered water, they get cloudy,” Wallace
comments. “At Sea Island, we have all the
best machines, the Hoshizaki and Kold
Draft, which make perfect crystal-clear ice.”
However, because it is an important part
of the labor-intensive craft cocktail process,
the River Bar makes its ice from scratch.
“It’s been a pet project of mine for the past
year or so,” Wallace says.
“I wanted a [method] that guests could use
at home,” the bartender expresses. “I have
guests who see me chopping blocks of ice
behind the bar, ask about it, then go home
and try it.”
In order to achieve clear, quality ice,
Wallace uses a technique called directional
freezing. Water normally freezes from the
exterior inward, leaving remnants of air and
impurities trapped in the center of the cube.
The directional method uses insulation to
force the water to freeze from top to bottom,
depositing all of the unwanted elements
beneath the block. To do this, he takes a
standard cooler, fills it with water and puts

The Ice Chest by Wintersmiths

it in the freezer without its cover. The water
freezes from the exposed top down, leaving
heavier impurities to sink to the bottom.
Wallace figured out the time it takes for
almost all of the water to freeze, allowing him to then separate the crystal-clear
block from the remaining liquid with
the impurities.
“For a home freezer, try a six-pack sized
cooler. … Use tap water, it’s better to start
with hot, which has less air. It takes two
or three days, and if you time it right, you
pull [the ice block out] just before it fully
freezes,” he explains. “Leave the block out
for an hour to temper, or soften ... and then
you can easily carve it into smaller blocks
or shapes.”
He also recommends Wintersmiths, a
company that sells directional freezing
molds to easily craft clear perfect spheres as
well as king cubes.
To the nation’s leading mixologists, the
right foundation begins with clear, clean ice
on which a drink’s flavors can be optimally
enjoyed. No matter what enthusiasts are sipping from their glasses, the recipe for any
summer libation should start with the satisfying clinks of crystal-clear ice. m

SPRING/SUMMER 2016 | SEA ISL AND LIFE 11