What Your Home Bar Is Missing Is Clear … Clear as Ice

Wanna cocktail like a pro? Make room in your freezer.

February 13, 2017 9:00 am

The problem with all those amazing cocktail recipes that helpful websites keep serving you?

They never look as good at home. Blame the ice. Your freezer and $1.99 ice cube tray isn’t cutting it. Thankfully, W&P Design — the creators of some of our favorite boozy accoutrement, like the Carry On Cocktail Kit and Mason Shaker — just released The Clear Ice Mold, a silicone container that purports to craft you the same huge, clear ice cubes you’d find at the finest cocktail dens.

To use, fill the rectangular mold with water and place overnight in the freezer. The insulated container causes the ice to freeze from the top down, “forcing any bubbles or impurities to the base of the mold,” according to W&P’s website. Then you simply snap the ice off — the top is your clear cube.

Admittedly, it’s a fair amount of work for one ice cube, and the mold takes up a decent amount of space. Plus, why clear ice? W&P says the crystal ice melts slower, contains fewer impurities and looks great.

We’ll agree (to a certain degree) on all three points: any cube that size will melt slower. We tasted water in both the top clear cube and bottom “impure” cube and noticed a pretty serious difference. And, if the cube looks like the press photo, you’ll have a damn nice-looking drink.

It’s that last point that’s a stickler. We tested the mold twice, once in our (iffy) office freezer and once at home in a fairly normal freezer. The results varied: the ice was certainly clearer than an average ice cube in both occasions, albeit with some air bubbles in the cube from the office freezer (see below, and yes, that is Mint Chip Whiskey and it’s kind of good!), and a few odd stalagmite-like lines erupting through our homemade cubes (which were much better than the office cubes).

Not quite cocktail den levels. But, at least at home, good enough to elicit a “Well, look at that!” (and one girlfriend’s less enthusiastic “It takes up that much room in my freezer?”). And you don’t really have a lot of other options if you want clear cubes, besides dedicated ice professionals (we love the work of Hundredweight) or even larger, more expensive containers.

Conclusion: For serious home drinkers only.

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