If you are into fancy looking cocktails this product makes sense. Making clear ice cubes at home is not easy.
A bartender I worked with made his in a little igloo cooler, of course then you one big block that you have to cut into functionally-sized cubes. But he would also do cool shit like suspend pine needles into it the block so each cube had a little sprig coming out of it after they were frozen and cut.
Isn’t it as simple as just boiling the water and then freezing it?
No. You need to freeze in in an insulated container with only one side exposed so it all freezes in 1 direction. Impurities get pushed to the opposite side and you are left with clear ice.
There are so many dumb as shit comments in this thread about agitating and boiling and purifying water and you’ve got the actual answer, thank you.
You’ve really got your knickers in a twist over this. Is this something deeply personal to you?
Calling people “dumb as shit” cause they have different methods than yours is wildly arrogant, and doing is so incessantly touches on mental illness.
I had a few bourbons last night and over-commented to be sure. Mea culpa. I spent quite a lot of time learning to make clear ice and I had to navigate all of this BS to get to the easy solution.
As a critique of your comment, I didn’t resort to ad hominem I was talking about the comments themselves.
At the same time, there’s a little bit of pot and kettle action going on here which is not lost on me.
Have a great day.
“pot and kettle”
I left literally one comment on this entire thread, if that’s the same as me having my knickers in a twist and calling people dumb as shit for having methods that differ from my own, then I guess I’m a pot.
Did I call it an ad hominem? Not all insults are ad hominems. “You’re wrong because you’re dumb as shit” is an ad hominem. “You’re dumb as shit because you’re wrong” isn’t.
You didn’t premise your conclusions upon the insults, so I wouldn’t call them ad hominems. It’s still an overreaction though, not to mention unnecessarily rude.
Go reread. I never called anyone “dumb as shit”, just the comments. Rude? Sure I’ll own that though.
I’m pretty sure you left more comments than one on what I wrote. Your commentary sure has the feel of “pretty worked up” but I won’t pretend to be a psychologist and tell you it’s a sign of mental illness: that’s a thing that’s reserved for real assholes on the Internet.
Edit: Yeah I left 4 comments in one chain and you got me twice. Seems like you have the same kind of itch to comment when the mood strikes. If you’ve got an excuse I’m sure I’ll hear about it.
This is the answer. Directional freezing creates clear ice.
why is it hard to make?
To get clear ice you have to freeze it slowly, basically just at the freezing mark (32°C/0°F) which is a warmer temperature than most people have their freezer set to. It’s not difficult in an objective sense, it just requires rubbing a couple of brain cells together and a tiny morsel of effort which is apparently more than a lot of people can muster.
alr ty, i was too lazy to search the question and i was not bothered to use AI for this.
Packaging makes sense, too. We’ve been buying bagged ice forever. In this case, your ice has stricter quality control.
I have no need for this, but there’s clearly a market for it. I can’t disparage anyone for finding a market.
It emphatically is easy… But a clear ice mold for the less than 5 dollars and make unlimited cubes.
Putting aside for now, the fact that making crystal clear ice requires specially filtered water that is very carefully and slowly frozen with fancy equipment.
The real question is why does anyone think this is what they need in life. They only people I have seen that insist on such things are whisk(e)y snobs that drink their whisk(e)y on the rocks. They claim that cloudy ice has impurities in it that affects the flavor of the drink.
While technically they are maybe correct, my reply is-- “Shut up and drink your whisk(e)y neat like God and the Irish meant it to be consumed. The water is already in it.”
Noe that the water can just be tap, and the equipment isn’t super fancy. If the water looks clear, you can make clear ice from it.
It’s called directional freezing, you stick water in freezer insulated on all sides so that it freezes from the top down instead of outside in.
If you have larger ice, you’ll see the white stuff is in the middle, the last area to freeze. Directional freezing causes that to be at an end instead of in the center, and you either pull out the ice before the end freezes, ideally, or cut off the end.
I have an ice mold that doess this and it provides break off points to break the clear ice off the unclear ice.
It does take a while though and the bulky insulation takes a lot of room in the freezer.
You need proper water to start. The high iron and calcium laden water that comes out of my well won’t ever make clear ice without some serious filtration. And the proper freezing it is a slow process that takes extra time and effort.
Personally, I can’t be bothered. My cloudy ice cools my iced tea just fine without any extra effort.
I love this comment. On one hand I don’t hate the idea that this exists and it’s an obscure aesthetic thing. If someone wants to make super fancy cocktails then fine, whatever. On the other hand,
“Shut up and drink your whisk(e)y neat like God and the Irish meant it to be consumed. The water is already in it.”
Love it
I was being a bit tongue in cheek there. After all, it’s your whisk(e)y and not mine. So have it as you want it. But just don’t be a snob about it. It’s just the Water of Life.
I don’t know, I’ve also heard that a few drops of water “opens up” the whiskey. My dad was an alcoholic who loved whiskey. He would order it with a few drops of water. Ice would do the same thing.
I was recently in a pub which had water bottles from the different regions of Scotland, so you could add drops of the same water it was made from.
Also, a pipette to exactly measure the amount of water added. It was excellent.
That would be completely wasted on me, but very cool.
Yes, a few drops, and I mean drops, of water can change the flavors of the whisk(e)y. It really doesn’t matter to me. Depending on the water you might use can matter also. “Branch water” is historically the water used by bourbon drinkers. Branch water refers to using the same water that was used to make the bourbon to add to your glass. I have no idea if it matters or not. But that’s folktale.
Adding ice can do the same thing along with dulling flavors due to the chilling of the bourbon, except melting ice is not under control. It goes from perfect to just a bad glass of water as it melts over time.
Not such fancy equipment. I used to make it in a lunchbox cooler with our very hard tap water; that eventually cracked but I have been rocking one of these for a decade now.
https://www.clearlyfrozen.com/
All you need is directional freezing. My ice comes out crystal clear in big ol’ blocks like that.
To be fair - I would charge $5 a tray too. It takes a day & a half and space in my freezer. But it is an easy, cheap, and fun hobby
You don’t need specialized equipment. It’s easy enough to be done at home.
You just need tap water, a plastic insulated lunchbox and a timer.
Now do it at a commercial scale.
Why? I only want 4 cubes.
Because doing things a scale every day makes it way harder than your 4 cubes. I while I would never buy their ice cubes, I can see why they charge the ridiculous price they do.
definitely just for astethic reasons
The real question is why does anyone think this is what they need in life.
Sometimes you want to entertain and square ice cubes are a nice touch
I got square ice cubes if I want them. They might not be as pretty as these clear cubes, but they do the same thing, cool and dilute whatever you are drinking.
The argument can be made, (and I wouldn’t fight you too hard on it), that I’m an uncouth barbarian, and I will never understand. But I just don’t think it’s something people really need, and they can easily live without.
Right‽
That’s interesting. I popped into this thread to help figure out why some of my ice was extra clear.
I think this batch froze slowly. Thanks
Why would I buy frozen ice cubes? I have no time to microwave, I’d rather buy fresh ones
You need to try the grass fed free range ice cubes.
I have fresh ice cubes every day, so I literally had a tap of the stuff installed in my kitchen.
I get mine freeze dried, it’s so convenient.
So you basically just have to add water and it’s done? Nice!
Why don’t they just put these things into the ocean and solve global warming?
Removed by mod
I remember when buying bottled water seemed ridiculous.
It still does to me
When it’s 2 for $1 or something it’s fine if you’re out. This crap where they filter it pure then add back in the same shit shit took out and charge you $25 is insane.
Until you need like 1000L at once or 10kg of ice.
Go find place in your freezer to cool down 10L of clear ice.
Spoiler: This won’t be only 10L of space you will need.But they don’t stock 10l of them. 10l of ice has always been available in like the freezer in the front of a store. For parties and shit.
Idk what you are trying to tell me in response to my parent comment.
My point was that bulk amounts of ice or water in bulk has it’s needs even if you could run the tap for 1000L into a water dispenser. Having it quick and accessible vs having it cheap(er) and labor/resource intensive (after all, 1000L of water doesn’t freeze for free)
Ultra pure slow melting… ok… it melts just like regular water
Extra micro plastics infused for the smooth slower melt
Though if you’re using a plastic ice cube tray to make ice cubes, there’s a good chance you’re bringing your own microplastics.
Source: got a metal ice cube tray and noticed that weird “old ice” flavour and subtle sheen on the drink surface as it melted is no longer there.
The old ice flavor is bacterial biofilm on the plastic tray, metal is easier to clean
Any nutritional value to that biofilm?
Removed by mod
It comes in two pieces, a bottom tray, and a grid that is hinged and has a handle. Then, to break the ice, you just torque the handle, which shifts the grid angle, forcing each cube to move and come free. Works best if you move the ice to a different container at this point but you don’t have to.
If you do a search for “metal ice tray”, it should come up in the images (to avoid linking an amazon image).
I like it better than the plastic trays for this. Both can be a pain in the ass but in different ways. Plastic trays can snap when you bend them (haven’t had one snap in half but I have had one snap some of the structural supports) and often the ice just settles back in its place after you loosen it and you need to “bounce” it a bit until the ice turns in the cavity so you can grab it. With the metal tray, it doesn’t just free the ice easily when you break it (though still easier than the bouncing game) and if you lift the grid part out, you’ll probably need to use a different container or just leave the grid off until you make new ice.
Probably a true claim, because surface area
What the fuck… My co worker put a video of this… On snap like 11 hours ago from Aldi’s. Like, this could be a screen grab of it.
They’re 4 square cubes of clear ice and Aldi wants like $5 for them.
These work so much better than the unfrozen ice cubes they sold last week.
He shops at Aldi
He buys $5 ice.
Who is this person? Is he the same guy spending thousands on a free game?
Here in Europe you’d see expensive SUVs, like Porsches and Range Rovers, parked outside the Aldi all the time. Lot’s of rich people are penny pinchers especially old money who inherited their money. They would probably buy these ice cubes if they have to impress their friends with their Japanese whiskey that they only drink when guests are at their home.
Ha. It says “keep frozen.”
Lol I saw these at my Aldi too. It’s pretty dumb at first but I have seen ice cubes for sale at liquor stores for making mixed drinks.
Regular tap water usually doesn’t make perfectly clear ice and most trays are a lot smaller than 1.8" cubes. I wonder if the tray is reusable? If you were planning on a cocktail night and knew what you were looking for, this might not be as dumb of a buy as you think, especially if it was a one-time need.
It just looks especially silly at Aldi, a grocery store that prides itself on affordable products and doesn’t sell liquor lol
Tap water can make clear ice. It’s a matter of how it’s chilled.
Yeah, you want it to freeze on one end first to push out the bubbles. And even then it just pushes the bubbles to one end so you’d have to chip/cut away at them if you want perfectly clear ice.
I have molds for that style ice cube and I can’t be arsed to use them, let alone care about the bubbles.
or you can keep water moving and cool from one side only, then remove water from above when you’re done, no need to chip away bubbly ice
I think before babying my ice cube tray for a day I’d just buy 4 for $5 when I want clear ice.
Sometime ago I went to a friend’s house and they had that exact product, but it was a pre-melted version. Saves a lot of time. We used it to make all kinds of drinks.
I buy mine dehydrated to save on shipping, just add water.
Also if you buy it in bulk (no packaging) shipping is free.
Wait until the find out about refrigerators
People here acting like they’ve never bought something stupid and useless.
Square ice cubes made with clarified water are a real pain to make at home unless you have all the tools
If you like to entertain, it’s much easier to just buy the cubes and store them in the fridge.
I thought these were reusable freeze packs made to look like ice cubes. It’s actual ice…
Imagine all the AI prompts you could buy for $5!
