Post #356702 by GatorRob on Wed, Jan 23, 2008 6:12 AM

On 2008-01-22 23:59, Koolau wrote:
Now for my learned theory - as someone posted earlier, I think the ice is the most important factor - commercial ice is softer and blends very differently from hard home ice. How can we make our home ice more like commercial ice?

That's a good question, but I don't think you want to make your home ice softer. The better high-end bars use ice machines like a Kold-Draft to make very hard, clear, perfect square cubes. Hard cubes will melt more slowly, resulting in a colder, less diluted drink. Dale Degroff and Audrey Saunders (of The Pegu Club) both swear by this.

Unless you're willing to fork out the big bucks for a commercial ice maker, the best thing you can probably do to make good ice is to freeze distilled water in good ice trays that have 1 to 1 1/2 inch squares. Imbibe magazine has featured some of these trays in past issues. Then put the cubes in freezer bags to keep them from absorbing funky freezer smells and use them fairly soon. I picked up the freezer bag tip from Alton Brown. The cubes won't be perfectly clear, but they should be clearer because they will be free from impurities.