The Party Hack Reacts: Ice.Made.Clear.™

A few months ago I was reading a book that has inspired a good amount of content for this blog — Liquid Intelligence. One of the sections talked about the importance of ice (I think this too, see my blog post “Ice, Ice Baby.”) and that clear ice makes for a better cocktail. Looks cooler. Melts slower. Tastes better. After reading the science of it, I set out to try myself with a small, foam Igloo cooler and some distilled water. It didn’t quite work out, but I was onto something! How do I know? Because of a new product that someone else did serious research on and did the hard work, funded through a Kickstarter. Ice.Made.Clear™.

First, a little bit of the science. How you do this is basically through directional freezing. Think of it like a frozen lake. Freezes from the top down, enough for us to walk on at times but also the unfrozen portion of the lake at the bottom allows fish to live through the winter. The ground around the lake acts like insulation, and everything does not freeze quickly and at one time. When water freezes, gases and impurities get trapped. That’s why your freezer ice is cloudy. It is evenly freezing and quickly. Trapping particles that make for weak and sometimes gross tasting ice. 

So the folks at I.M.C. essentially built an insulated lake, and the ice tray at the top holds the water that freezes first and pushes any impurities down away from the tray, leaving super clear ice for you to enjoy. They call it a pressure equalization system. I was skeptical at first. I have tried a million things to get clear ice. Using filtered water. Boiling the water. Twice. Getting clear ice for part of the block and then chopping the cloudy part off with a bread knife and a rubber mallet. Yes. I did that. There was no easy or surefire way on my own. 

So I purchased I.M.C. and tried it for myself. And wouldn’t you know, the product does what it says. And the way they have figured it out, you can even use good ol’ tap water. If you regularly make old fashioneds or any other fancy cocktails, consider getting one of these. It also comes with a couple of different ice cube mold sizes. The ice is so clear you can read a book through it!

I think I can now take ice off my list of items in the entertaining world that I need to figure out ideal solutions for. Between great bagged ice I have found, Chick-Fil-A nugget ice and now the I.M.C. ice — I’m good. And so are my cocktails. 

Now off to go organize the five kinds of ice in my freezer.