I posted the image above a while back in a note with the comment that buying these will not make your cocktails better. I stand by that statement, but there were some people talking about the aesthetics for clear ice. Clear ice does have several advantages, it’ll melt slower, meaning less dilution (and less cooling), won’t release air into the drink (preventing the minor oxidation), and does look stunning (especially when you use a mold around something). But you shouldn’t be going out and buying clear ice when it’s not hard to make at home.
What makes ice clear? It’s clear when it’s able to freeze slowly, pushing out impurities and air as it freezes. There’s a reason that natural bodies of water create clear ice. It freezes from the top down, slowly, allowing the crystals to form, pushing out anything that isn’t water. There are several ways to do this at home, and I’ll walk through those processes.
Specialty Molds
Specialty molds are the simplest way to do this at home, but they do take up a larger amount of space in the freezer, and take some time to freeze. The one I use takes about a day to get a single sphere.
After assembling the sphere, you fill it slowly with water (pre-boiled will assist in getting the clearest ice), tap the bottom to knock out air bubbles, and place it in the freezer.
This works by allowing the ice to start forming from the top, with enough gap space in the cup in the bottom for the cloudy ice to form. After letting it freeze, you take it out of the freezer, peel out the silicone mold, and pop out the sphere.
After you get this out, you can pull the cup out, and use that cloudy ice for something you want to chill quickly that you don’t need to worry about oxidation (it’ll release air as it melts, it’s a small risk, but it’s there). I use it for iced tea and the like.
There are also molds that aren’t insulated and will produce large cubes or spheres. Those won’t be clear, as they’ll freeze from all sides, trapping the air and impurities inside. However, they’re much quicker to use, and a lot less fidgety. Honestly, large cubes from a simple silicone mold similar to this are what I use for my day to day large cube needs. If you want to get really fancy, you can step up to the next method.
Cooler Method
For this method, you’ll need quite a bit of space in the freezer, because we’re going to be putting a cooler in the freezer. Soft shell coolers have less risk for breakage here, but more risk for leaking (test them in a large plastic container first). Start by washing the inside of the cooler (yes, the ice should be pure even if it’s dirty, but we have standards, don’t we?). Next, you’re going to put water into it. You don’t want to fill it up entirely, as ice expands. You can use a ziplock bag inside if you want to be certain about leakage and contamination (minus the micropastics).
If possible, leave the top open, so that you have cold air getting to the top, freezing the water from the top down. If you can’t, you may wind up with a large ice cube (like I got there). Even with the large cubes, you can still cut it down to get clear ice off of it. There’s some tools that will make shaping and breaking the ice easier, such as an ice pick. But you can make do with a serrated knife for scoring, a butter knife to work as a chisel, and a hammer to shatter it. I do not promise safety for the butter knife in this situation.
One way to avoid getting the cloudy ice in the middle is to pull out a big chunk of the clear ice before the water is fully frozen. You’ll pull out perfectly clear ice (that will be very wet), that you can shape and get back into a freezer.
If you’ve got a Lewis bag, you can use that to help break up the ice. The burlap will help pull the moisture off the ice, keeping it dryer. If you’re going to be putting it back in the freezer, this is helpful to prevent the pieces from freezing together later into a cube too large to fit into any glass smaller than a Scorpion Bowl.
In general, I don’t bother using clear ice in shakers or mixing pitchers, I will use large cubes for it as well as my regular ‘trash’ ice. So what say you all, are you clamoring for clear ice? Do you make it at home? What’s your preference for crafting it?
Look at the hand model here.
• Kramer: “Smooth, creamy, delicate, yet masculine.”
• George: “You can look, but you can’t touch.”
Costanza’s are better.
I have a basic “big cube” mold, it makes six cubes at a tine and they will not be perfectly clear. Making totally clear ice is definitely interesting but I am with you. It is too time consuming to do on a regular basis.
I have a basic “big cube” mold, it makes six cubes – so do I. I also have one that makes 6 spherical cubes. The most unspherical spheres ever but who cares.
Cubes aren’t spherical.
you obviously never studied advanced mathematics.
“Assume a spherical cube…”
thank you slumbrew
Multi faceted hyper-dimensional cubes may appear spherical to the naked eye.
I want an ice tesseract.
OT – Fun times as OMB pokes more at Europe.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-us-tells-france-germany-075321830.html
On the plus side!
The US federal workforce has plunged to about 2.7 million employees under the Trump administration — the lowest level in 60 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Still too big.
Hegseth needs to cut another 30-40% general officers and start hacking away at the Sr enlisted ranks too.
Frozen Ice cubes are the best kind.
You could use that big chunk of ice and float it in Punch Romaine, like an iceberg.
Lettuce not make such jokes.
I’d go with these…
https://www.amazon.com/Titanic-Iceberg-Chocolate-Crayon-Making/dp/B07SSYN19N/
Why not vacuum bag it to get the air out?
My understanding is the impurities (i.e. minerals) will still cause the ice to not freeze clearly if you don’t freeze it properly.
Not really. I am happy with the ice machine in my kitchen freezer. But I don’t entertain, except myself.
ice machine? I buy my ice from he gas station like God intended.
Go home Pie, yer drunk.
they have it there in bags! at least in Europe.
Gas station ice goes outside the drinks, not in the glass.
but it says pure on the bag
I have done that for parties. But for myself, hell no.
OT: from the dead thread
Nephilium on October 1, 2026 at 9:28 am
PieInTheSky:
I dated several women who would argue against that premise quite strongly.
well if you dated them those were straight women
On topic:
clear ice is for wimps. What happened to “bartender whisky on the rocks and put it in a dirty glass”
Yeah I dated a couple of those too.
Never again.
What’s your preference for crafting it? – keep a japanese man around with a big knife to make perfect ice cubes is the answer to that
Named Yoshi?
i do not remember a name from the youtube video but lets go with that.
US Sitcom
https://frasier.fandom.com/wiki/Yoshi
I saw Frasier but did not remember the name Yoshi. It was a while back.
I picked up one of these about a month or so ago: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CG86XL5P?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
Works reasonably well with filtered water. Not quite “crystal clear” but pretty close, especially once it’s in the drink and the surface frost gets melted off. Main issues are that it takes up a lot of space and takes several days to freeze completely, and I sometimes get tiny air bubbles in the cubes.
er, one of these I mean: https://www.amazon.com/Clear-Ice-Cube-Tray-Whiskey/dp/B0CG86XL5P/?th=1
The US federal workforce has plunged to about 2.7 million employees under the Trump administration — the lowest level in 60 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Just imagine the economic boom in store for us when Trump’s Democrat replacement goes on a massive hiring spree.
Deblasio added several hundred thousand pubsec workers over his glorious reign and look how great that turned out.
Jeez, that’s a lot but still nowhere near the total of generals, admirals and other officers that Hegseth still needs to retire from the military.
The UPS and Fedex ads write themselves.
One of my card playing buddies has a set of spherical ice ball makers that are wonderful for my bourbon and branch.
Ice ball barely fits in the glass, then dribble the bourbon over the ice. Makes a pleasing effect as the bourbon bubbles around the ice and drains below the sphere.
I usually add some water on top of it, because I still have to drive home, but it aerates and waters the bourbon almost perfectly for drinking as is.
Rampant
Under the bill, employers that rely “primarily” on AI output to make termination or disciplinary decisions must now have a human reviewer corroborate those decisions using additional information, such as managerial evaluations, peer reviews, and personnel files. Additionally, affected employees must be provided with written notice that AI was “primarily used” in their termination or disciplinary decision, a description of the employee data used by the system, and a human point of contact who can further explain the decision.
“No worker should ever be fired or disciplined by a machine, AI or not. Artificial intelligence systems have the potential to boost productivity, but they’ve also made errors and misjudgments and exhibited bias,” California State Senator Jerry McNerney, the bill’s author, told CNBC. “AI must remain a tool controlled by humans, not the other way around.”
Hundreds of thousands of examples. Out on the street based on nothing more than a decision made by a machine.
“No worker should ever be fired or disciplined by a machine, AI or not.
So no speed cameras or drones used to do property assessments surreptitiously.
Does using distilled water help the process?
do you need clear ice for mead on the rocks? especially if you drink it from a horn?
I do not own a drinking horn.
I drink still meads out of the high-end wine glasses that I own.
And I drink sparkling meads out of a Belgian beer glass.
I do you heavy duty mugs and chalices when I am out camping, but I have never put ice into my mead or mead-spritzers (hot weather camping).
I do not own a drinking horn. – and I though you were cooler
I thought my history of posts here proved that I wasn’t cool. Just off-kilter like so many that hang out here.
I own a drinking horn, but I’d never drink out of it.
Google says – distilled water still freezes from the outside in, concentrating any remaining impurities or air bubbles in the centre, again resulting in cloudy ice.
I was assuming that you still use the tools and processes described above. They produce some amount of “2nd quality” ice to be used for other purposes.
I was just wondering if water that has far fewer impurities to start with would change look of either or both of the 1st and 2nd quality ice.
Seems to me it would increase the chance of success, but isn’t required.
My issue would be that you want the minerals in the water for taste. Distilled water isn’t fun to drink so I’d be curious if its lack of character impacts the cocktail.
This. Kentucky bourbon is best bourbon because Kentucky water has lots of lime in it.
Kentucky bourbon is best bourbon – is it though?
I thought one put the lime in the coconut, not the bourbon.
freeze slowly, pushing out impurities
I thought the point was to get frozen h2o — to remove the minerals — so that it doesn’t impact the flavor of what you are drinking.
The lime is in the water to start when they make the bourbon, more minerals isn’t necessarily a good thing.
The natural limestone water filtration pushes out the other nasty things like iron from the water and replaces it with calcium mostly.
And yes. Kentucky bourbon is best.
Basic *Bleep* Water.
The proper way to acquire ice for your drink is to send a team of orphans on a sailing ship to the arctic to chisel off a piece of glacier ice.
I tried that once, but the ship was too slow, so they came back with lukewarm water.
our new fridge/freezer combo makes spherical ice. Big ones at the rate of 3 or 6 per day and small one much faster.
When we were looking for a new electric stovetop we saw some of the new fridges that have that feature.
When my current one dies, I will be looking to get one of those.
You people are too fancy for me.
My 20-yr-old Kenmore died. So I bought a new one. I made sure it made ice — my wife uses it all the time.
It was fancy in that it had a dispenser in the door.
After it was installed, I was reading the manual (imagine that). It turns out the fridge has two ice makers.
The one in the door is fast and make small spheres. I will dispense the spheres or crush them on demand.
The ice maker in the freezer is slow and makes the big spheres. I was shocked when it said it would only make 3 or 6 or some other small number per day.
“Today, California’s workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces.”
Take that, you kkkorporate billionaires!
OT – That two tone Ford paint job – $12.5k.
Sign me up!
https://www.thedrive.com/news/ford-wants-to-charge-you-12545-for-a-paint-job
It looks cool, but not that cool.
I haven’t bothered with clear ice, but my wife bought me a spherical mold that makes 6 for my old-fashioneds.
I get 3 drinks for each ball before it starts getting deformed so 2 balls per night so it lasts pretty good.
Much better than when I used to use the fridge ice for the stirring and drinking.
For crushed ice, I just let the fridge do it.
Finally
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a measure to ban anyone from marrying anyone under the age of 18, making California the 18th state to do so in a decade-long nationwide push to outlaw the practice. Advocates and survivors of forced marriages cheered its passage, saying they were “deeply grateful” the governor signed it.
“This is a long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors. Today, California kids are safer than ever before,” Newsom said Wednesday in a written statement.
For teh chilldrinz!
If you aren’t old enough to buy a handgun you aren’t old enough to get married. Or vote…
Or smoke or drink or joins the military.
You can kill your child if you’re under 18, but you can’t have a shotgun wedding.
Or the shotgun.
That two tone Ford paint job – $12.5k.
What a bargain.
Fucking insane.
https://apnews.com/article/renee-good-lawsuit-6fbc82cd33b6f9f67514b47f138e23c6
Renee Good’s family sues US government and immigration officials over her killing in Minneapolis
play stupid games; win stupid prizes
The twat got what she earned.
Shooting was justified. Case Dismissed with Prejudice. Plaintiffs are Fined $15,000,000. Plaintiff’s council is barred from the practice of law for no less than fifty years