Whether it’s the mountain of crushed ice on a Mint Julep or a single oversized rock in an Old Fashioned, the right ice can set the right mood, and take a drink from good to great.
“Ice serves several functions in a cocktail,” says Camper English, a pioneer of clear ice and the author of The Ice Book. “It chills and dilutes them and it can also look so good that it functions as a garnish.”
While the appeal of a cold drink is obvious, dilution has less apparent advantages. No one wants a watered-down cocktail, but the melted water that comes off ice is integral to the creation of a balanced drink.
“Dilution is a benefit, because most drinks are too strong to drink straight,” says a veteran NYC bartender. “Dilution also changes the intensity of something.” It might, for example, draw out the tannins in oak-aged spirits like whiskey or open up the fruity notes in a high-ester rum.
A single large cube of ice has a lower surface area to volume ratio than, say, crushed ice, so it will melt less quickly. For the most part, according to English, the type of ice you should use comes down to how you want to consume the drink over time.
Take a high-proof whiskey. “If I’m drinking it in 10 minutes and I want it to go through a higher dilution journey, I might prefer smaller ice cubes,” says the veteran bartender. “But if I want it to last for 15–20 minutes, I’ll want it over a larger ice cube.”
At the end of the day, the type of ice you use will depend on personal preference and what you have on hand. “You don’t have to limit yourself to one-size-fits-all,” says English. “It’s great to have options.”
Here’s a clear-cut guide for using ice at your bar.
The Best Ice for Stirring and Shaking Cocktails
In a bar setting, the ice that is used to shake and stir drinks often is pulled from insulated metal ice bins, resulting in ice that is slightly wet since it is constantly melting. In contrast, the ice from your home freezer is going to be cold and dry.
Most home bartenders already have a huge advantage over a bartender at a bar. This means that at home, you should shake or stir the drink for a slightly longer period of time. But it also offers an important benefit.
For the purposes of shaking or stirring a drink, using standard 1x1-inch ice that you can make in a silicone or plastic mold, or using crescent-shaped refrigerator ice, will work just fine. Any larger size of ice is simply going to take longer to chill and dilute the cocktail.
The difference between shaking and stirring with ice comes down, once again, to dilution. Shaking naturally breaks up the ice, creating extra surface area and dilution in a shorter amount of time. To create that boost in dilution when stirring, you can crack ice into smaller pieces using the end of a bar spoon or any standard spoon. But avoid pebble ice or anything smaller, which has too much surface dilution and will massively over-dilute the drink.
Short of overfilling your shaker, you can’t use too much ice, but it’s a question of rationing. Be aware that if the ice is not in contact with the liquid it is just being wasted.
Clear vs. Cloudy Ice
There’s a reason the ice in your freezer doesn’t look like the crystal-clear cubes in a high-end cocktail lounge. A standard ice tray isn’t insulated, so cool air hits all sides at the same time, and the center of the ice cubes become cloudy and cracked.
Directional freezing is a method that pushes any trapped air and impurities toward the bottom of an insulated container, rather than the center, creating clear ice. Bars often rely on expensive machines or purchase their ice from dedicated clear-ice makers. At home, making clear ice can be an involved process, but there are also molds that do the job for you, essentially relying on the same principles. “Any product that makes clear ice at home without any moving parts is based on directional freezing,” says English.
So, do you have to use clear ice to make a great cocktail? In short, no. Although it undeniably has visual appeal and technically will melt at a lower rate than cloudy ice, it’s not going to drastically affect the quality of your finished cocktail. It’s more a matter of how much time and freezer space you’re willing to devote to ice-making.
The Different Types of Cocktail Ice
Standard 1x1-inch cubes
“These are your all-purpose cubes, if you had to choose one size of ice to use for the rest of your life,” says English. Perfect for shaking or straining most drinks, 1-inch cubes provide even and measured dilution.
Drinks that call for 1x1-inch cubes often include sour-style cocktails on the rocks and highballs with carbonation. But standard ice can also be great for neat pours or spirit-forward drinks if you’re going to consume your cocktail quickly—say, within 10 minutes—or if you simply want a little more dilution.
“There are a lot of high-proof American whiskeys on the market now that I prefer to drink with more dilution than a large cube is going to provide, so I use smaller cubes to get a little more water in the mix,” says English.
Many bars have Kold-Draft Ice machines, which churn out perfectly shaped ice but are pricey. At home, you can purchase a set of silicone molds. For slightly less dilution and more visual flair, 1¼-inch ice cubes are a fantastic option, says English, who recommends Cocktail Kingdoms.
Large 2x2-inch cube
This is your introductory statement ice, but it also serves a functional purpose. One large cube melts less quickly than several one-inch cubes, and is ideal when you want to maintain the drink’s temperature over a long period of time without over-diluting it—think spirit-forward stirred drinks or neat pours. Two-inch cubes are also too large to fit into a Collins or highball glass, which is why you’ll most often see them in drinks that are served in rocks glasses, like Negronis and Old Fashioneds.
At home, you can purchase 2x2-inch silicone molds. Although these cubes will take longer to chill and dilute your drink, they’re sometimes used in the shaker to create frothy Daiquiris and other shaken drinks. However, Lee shares an alternative if you don’t want to waste ice that could go in the cocktail glass: Add a whole lime to the shaker. “You’ll create that movement in the shaker that will give you the same effect as a big ice cube,” he says.
Crushed or pebble ice
This type of ice is used for cocktails that will benefit from more dilution, like tropical drinks and swizzles that contain a high amount of alcohol and other ingredients. “Many tropical drinks were designed to come out of the shaker at a very high flavor concentration because they’re designed to have a lot of dilution in the glass,” says English.
There are a few methods to make this type of ice at home. You can buy small trays designed for crushed ice, or you can purchase a Lewis bag and ice mallet, then crush the ice manually. If you don’t have a Lewis bag, you can use any type of cloth bag and pound it with a rolling pin. However, Lee notes that the Lewis bag won’t create the uniform ice that’s desired in many tropical-style drinks, and you might end up with over-crushed ice (more akin to shaved ice) that will go to waste.
“It will take a little trial and error to get the right size,” he says, and adds that the best bet for those who make tropical drinks often is to purchase a crushed-ice machine. It’s also best to avoid crushed or pebble ice when shaking or stirring a cocktail, as the increased surface area of the ice will over-dilute a drink.
Collins spears
These rectangular spears are essentially large cubes that can fit into a Collins glass. They typically measure around 1x5 inches in size.
Though they undeniably look cool in the glass, Collins spears aren’t necessarily just a visual flex, says Lee. First off, the surface area rule still applies, and they melt less slowly than standard 1x1-inch cubes. Colder drinks also retain more CO2, and stay bubbly for longer. However, ice has nucleation sites that release more of this trapped carbonation, which can cause the drink to fizz out more quickly. Collins spears keep the drink’s temperature low while interacting less with these nucleation sites than small cubes, ensuring the bubbles stay active.
But remember that you’re probably not nursing a Gin & Tonic for an hour. English and Lee both say the difference is not going to be perceptible to most drinkers. “Even at the bar, I think this style of ice is more about aesthetics than it is a requirement for the proper dilution of the drink,” says English.
Although Collins spears ice molds are available, English notes that this show-off ice “looks bad when it’s cloudy.” To make clear spears, you can hack a Collins spear tray by poking holes in the bottom of the tray and setting it on a riser at the bottom of an insulated cooler. After the water under the tray has frozen, you can break the clumped ice away from the clear spears.
Ice spheres
“A sphere has the lowest surface area to volume ratio of any shape, and therefore it will dilute a drink a little bit slower,” says English. That said, both English and Lee acknowledge that the actual effect on the dilution of your cocktail is going to be negligible.
“Practically speaking, a big cube is gonna be pretty darn close,” says English. “A sphere is just very visually satisfying, I think we all agree on that.”
Use an ice sphere as you would a large rock, i.e. when you want less dilution in a cocktail or will be sipping on a drink over a large period. Hand-carved ice spheres have become a trademark of Japanese bartending, but for the home bartender, there are countless spherical molds available for purchase. Most of these molds employ directional freezing, so you can enjoy your Old Fashioned over a crystal-clear Death Star.
Shaved ice
This powder-like ice is even finer in texture than crushed ice. “Shaved ice is shaved off a solid piece of ice, whereas crushed ice is a solid piece of ice that’s cracked into a smaller piece,” says English.
For some, shaved ice is an essential component of a proper Mint Julep, says English. It’s also the base of iconic shaved ice desserts like Japanese kakigori and Hawaiian shave ice, which some bartenders have translated into boozy snow cones.
To make shaved ice without a shaved-ice machine, you can use a Lewis bag and mallet, and crush the ice until it resembles snow. You can also simply take a fork and shave ice off a block of ice, says English.
Refrigerator ice
The cloudy ice that comes from your refrigerator dispenser is usually perfectly fine for shaking or stirring, with an important exception.
“The worst ice is the cube shape that has a giant divot,” says Lee. If that’s all you have on hand, he suggests putting it in a towel or Lewis bag and shaking to remove some of the surface dilution.
Crescent-shaped ice is less of a problem, and can generally be used the same way as standard 1x1-inch ice. Since it’s already slightly smaller than standard ice, you probably don’t need to worry about cracking this ice before stirring it, says Lee. When shaking with crescent ice, keep in mind that it is going to dilute slightly faster. Also worth noting, this ice crushes more easily than clear ice.
Chewy or nugget ice
Popularized by fast-food chains like Sonic (and, recently, Starbucks), chewy ice is shaved ice that is pressed and compacted into a different shape, giving the ice its characteristic layers that have garnered plenty of superfans.
“It’s a little absorbent and dilutes quickly, even more so than crushed ice,” says English. “But people seem to enjoy chewing on it.”
In cocktail-making, chewy ice probably is going to dilute almost any drink too quickly, but it can be a satisfying option for sugary sodas. For now, there aren’t any molds for making chewy ice on the market, so dedicated fans need to purchase a machine if they want to have it at the ready—or hit up the Sonic drive-through.
