Post #747714 by AceExplorer on Thu, Jul 23, 2015 3:03 PM

But much (maybe not all) of this "nugget ice" is so soft you can easily squish it between your thumb and forefinger. It is made in a way that it is both light and soft, and it is surprisingly porous. I say this based on personal observations; I frequent restaurants where they use that kind of ice in their soda fountains. But I do not prefer it for cocktails at all because it does melt fast, and it waters drinks down much quicker. Ice is primarily a cooling agent before it is a dilution agent, although reasonable dilution does play an important role in cocktails.

I believe the "nugget ice absorbs flavor" is technically correct, and also agree that it is a statement made by marketing people. So I'm not arguing that point. It's just not a big deal in my coke, but the ice does have absorbency. We could test this claim: Fill a cup with nugget ice, pour in a dark drink, then dump the cup in the sink. Do the same with non-nugget ice. I think we may see that the nugget ice retains more of the drink than the non-nugget ice.

So, debating ice cubes, are we? I need a cocktail! :drink: