It is a scorcher. Hot as Hades. Blistering, baby.
So, I thought I would talk about ice.
Yaaaasssss! Freezing - cold - ice.
Ice is actually much more important to your imbibing pleasure than you may know. Shaking that drink? True that it is meant to get your beverage frosty cold. But it is also to help combine ingredients and add cold water into the drink for a perfectly balanced cocktail.
Then of course there is the type of ice that'll accompany said cocktail in your glass. Type of ice, you ask? Indeed! Restaurants and bars shell out a pretty penny to make sure they have crystal clear ice in 2-inch cubes, spheres, and highball spears. Then there are the pebbled ice drinks - often of the Tiki variety. Case in point, a Van Cortland, featuring bourbon, rum, apricot and a poppyseed orgeat, served with a mountain of pebbled ice at Brooklyn's Grand Army Bar.
Ice is deemed so vital to a proper cocktail experience that a local restauranteur told me that he refused to kick off his cafe's mixology program until he had a serious ice maker with all the bells and whistles. I'm looking forward to those icy bells and those glacial whistles.
Am I buying one of those nifty ice makers for my home? No. I am but a mere home mixologist. My freezer's ice maker will have to do. And with today's temperatures, I'm just happy that the freezer is working.
Comments