Forget on the rocks.
Your next bourbon is in the rocks.
A new company called Beyond Zero has created a machine that freezes liquor into ice cubes — which they claim is “cooler” (literally and figuratively) than regular ice and creates a “smoother” taste while maintaining the same level of alcohol.
While your ordinary freezer can’t ice up your drinks, alcohol does freeze. BZ actually started as a liquid-nitrogen ice-cream machine, but pivoted once the founder tested it with Patron and made a few adjustments.
Now, some issues: There is no shipping date. The final price has yet to be determined (a deposit is required and the company estimates the final product will go for $5000 — it’s currently in a few bars that have purchased it for upwards of $8000). And it takes several minutes to eke out a few cubes of frozen booze.
To be honest, bars are probably the best place for a machine like this. You add ice to drinks to either dilute taste (if it’s cheap booze) or to allow the water to slowly open up the spirit (if it’s complex, like a good whiskey). A casual drinker isn’t going to spend several thousand dollars to get a stronger, smoother buzz, and a professional imbiber is probably happy tasting the spirit neat.
But hey, as someone who got excited last week by coffee ice cubes, we’re certainly going to give whiskey ice a chance.
(H/t Uncrate)
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