Get crystal clear on what shape, and size, best befits your favourite drink.
The workhorse of the ice world: you’ll use them for stirring, shaking and building highball cocktails. You’ll also use them to make crushed ice – just add mallet. When making ice cubes, use only the water you’d want to drink: purified, filtered, distilled, however you like your water. Silicone trays are better than plastic for keeping unwanted odours out of your ice and, generally, keep everything else in your freezer nicely sealed and away from your trays.
Best for: Highball cocktails
Fine and fluffy, crushed ice melts quickly to create a slushy cocktail. It’s perfect for strong, summery bevs that need a lot of dilution, like Tiki drinks or Mint Juleps. The pebbly quality means it’s also a great choice for heavily garnished drinks like a Mojito. Smaller pieces mean they can get in the mix with all that mint, you know? To make it, you can use your blender, or that “Crushed Ice” option on your fridge, if you have it, but most often the pros use a hammer or mallet. Get a bit of exercise while you’re at it.
Best for: Tiki drinks, Mint Juleps and Mojitos
The stuff you pick up from the service station, sometimes called cracked ice, melts faster than cubes and therefore adds more water to cocktails. Not great for slow drinkers, but very convenient if you have a lot of drinks to make and finite freezer space. Bagged ice is also easier on your blender blades, so if you’re making frozen drinks, use these.
Best for: Frozen drinks like Daiquiris and Margaritas
The trademark of an Old Fashioned in a talk-of-the-town speakeasy, big cubes or spheres say fancy. Bigger ice pieces melt slower, so they are great for strong spirit-only drinks that you want “on the rocks” for sipping slowly. Too-small ice cubes and the last sip of your Negroni might taste like mouthwash. Thanks to the many moulds on the market, you don’t have to buy from the artisan ice-makers to have these big boys at home. But achieving the same clarity (no bubbles, no haze) is a challenge with a home freezer. Camper English, a San Francisco-based spirits and cocktails journalist (and ice nerd), says the answer to clearer ice at home is “directional freezing”, a method by which you insulate the water on all but one side so that it freezes down. Think: filling a take-home gelato container with water and sticking it in the freezer with the lid off. The idea is only the last 25% of the ice block will be cloudy, and you can cut that bit off (YouTube is your friend here). You’ll also use big ice like this for punch.
Best for: Negronis, Old Fashioneds, punches, or straight spirits on the rocks.
The most theatrical of all the ice, this is for dramatic drinks. Dry ice can create a fog-oozing punch or spooky-looking highball, but it is to be handled with caution. The temperature of dry ice is -78.5°C, so you need to use protective gloves and tongs while handling it. It’s perfectly safe to have in your drink: it won’t affect the taste and will definitely keep it cold – just don't let the solid form touch your lips. Generally, it will be entirely melted before you reach the end of the drink anyway. But still, handle with care. Dry ice is tricky to DIY, but you can easily pick it up from a local supplier.
Best for: Your imagination.
