“It’s just one of those simple pleasures.”
Todd Stevenson loves ice. The longtime drinks vet found most of his success in the beer world, piloting Lagunitas from a small craft brewery into the largest producer of IPAs, which doesn’t have a lot to do with ice. But a random stop at a cocktail bar in Japan early in his career stuck with him.
“I was working at Diageo in the early 2000s,” Stevenson says. “I’ll never forget going to a bar in Shibuya, and this bartender pulls out of a chunk of ice, about the size of a softball, but square. And just with an ice pick, he turns it into a perfect sphere. I was mesmerized.”
We’ve Hit Peak Cocktail Ice
Those clear cubes are certainly cool. But do they actually make your drink better?After being transferred back to the United States, Stevenson noticed domestic cocktail presentation was lacking, even as the cocktail scene itself was undergoing a renaissance. “I’d see all these amazing products poured over crummy ice,” he says. “I thought, ‘This could be a good business.’” So after his beer work concluded a few years back, he and fellow Lagunitas exec Leon Sharyon co-founded Abstract Ice, an engineering company based in California that’s reshaping (pun intended) how bars and even home bartenders use ice in their drinks.
Abstract Ice uses proprietary technology to produce crystal-clear ice in a variety of shapes: roses, diamonds, spheres, cubes, skulls, soccer balls (just in time for the World Cup) and custom etchings (including the American flag, just in time for July 4th). The drinks industry is already taking notice. The ice is being used by top cocktail spots, including The French Laundry and Trick Dog, and at events like the Grammys. Cocktail guru Charles Joly also joined as the company’s resident mixologist.
But this isn’t just about aesthetically pleasing ice or winning industry kudos. Abstract is also price-accessible and made in what Stevenson says is a more hygienic and safer way than other custom ice companies, which do exist but almost exclusively cater to restaurants and bars. “We sell to bars and restaurants, but we also can be found in grocery stores,” he says.
More importantly, anyone can order the ice online for about $1 to $2 per cube (it comes in packs of six, eight or 12). I’ve been testing a few ice shapes from Abstract over the past few weeks, and the shipping posed no issues — the ice arrived in perfect shape. The key, however, is to put the ice in your freezer for a bit (at least 30 minutes) because it’s arriving in an insulated container with dry ice, which is very, very cold. It doesn’t sound intuitive, but you want your ice to warm up, ever so slightly.
Even after you take the spheres out of your freezer, don’t go pouring whiskey on them immediately, as I mistakenly did. “You need to temper it by taking it out of the freezer for about three minutes,” Stevenson says. “It’ll prevent cracking.” If you follow those instructions, you should be left with beautiful, clear ice that also melts more slowly than your everyday cubes.
For custom ice work, contact Abstract directly. “We’ve done all kinds of things for people’s weddings, and we can etch almost anything into the ice surface,” Stevenson says. “In the end, it’s just about making ice really beautiful and creating an elevated drinks experience.”
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