Make Crystal Clear Ice Balls From Isolated Coffee Mug
I’m a little picky when it comes to ice in my cocktails. I like one big, perfectly clean piece of ice. If it’s a large area, so much the better. I managed to make ice balls from these molds at home, but they are always a little cloudy in the middle, even when I use boiling water .
I was about to give up – anyway, how useful is pure ice for my cocktail? – but a short conversation with Chef Hope Clark convinced me otherwise:
The aesthetics are huge, but it’s almost more about preservation – crystal ice is physically filtered, so you don’t change the flavor of the cocktail or alcohol as it melts, and because it’s denser, you keep the cocktail temperature (if stirred and poured) more efficiently. You chill the liquor faster and hold that temperature for longer.
To solve my clean ice problems, Clark pointed me to Camper English, a man who spent many hours experimenting with ice so you don’t need to. On English’s blog, Alcademics, he shows us how to make perfectly clean spheres at home using only an ice mold and an insulated cup. Camper explains the process and theory in more detail, but it’s pretty simple: fill an insulated glass or mug with water and place the water-filled mold on top with its opening pointing down into the water below. Place it all in the freezer and the bizarre crystal structure of the water will freeze the system from top to bottom, pushing gases and impurities out of the mold and into the cup below. Follow the link for step-by-step instructions.
Make perfectly clean ice balls using insulated mugs | Alkademika
Photo by Edsel Little .