Clear ice cubes

Does anyone know how to make good-looking clear ice cubes? Cocktail books always recommend using purified water, but that can be tricky to get hold of.

I realise it's a lot to do with your water supply (we live in a 'hard-water' area which means our ice-cubes shed horrible little flakes of minerals), but are there tips which suit all water types?

I hate to ruin a perfectly good cocktail with ice that starts to shed little dandruff-esque flakes!

Trader Woody

brita water purifiers are reasonably priced (even here in london).

this might give ya an idea:

http://123kitchenandhome.com/3qtmagpit42.html

Boil your water first, let cool a bit before filling your ice trays, then freeze. You should get nice crystal ice cubes.

:tiki:

My father-in-law was in the Ice Business in Modesto,CA. His ice making bins would bubble air through the 300 pounds of water to make them clear. It is the movement of the water that causes the clarity. You could mimic this by taking the vibrator out of the bedroom and duct taping it to the side of the refrigerator. That just might work.
Tikiboy

Thanks for the tips, chaps.

I had a water purifyer yonks ago & it's time to get another. The boiling trick seems to do the job well too, but I've yet to try stimulating the ice tray!!

We'll have lovely clear ice cubes before too long!

Trader Woody

I have accomplished the clear ice cube by just using hot water (without boiling it first). I suppose the hard water factor may contribute too, so depending on the water you still may have to boil it.
Just my 2.5 cents.

-T.J.

Yes, warm water works. As I understand it, one of the real reasons that water turns ti "white" ice in the feezer is that it freezes too fast. The slow the freezing, the more the air bubbles and inpurities are squeezed away. Freezing quicker means that everything is just locked up in the ice. Perhaps thats why hot water works, because it takes longer to freeze than room temp. water.

I was told that hot water put into ice cube trays freezes faster than cold, I'm pretty sure that is a bunch of bs. Though I've never staged a 'race'

Geez, i'm glad i saw this thread, i always thought the reason my ice cubes were cloudy was that my ice filter was not good enough.

thanks

Tbird.

Tikiwahine wrote

I was told that hot water put into ice cube trays freezes faster than cold, I'm pretty sure that is a bunch of bs

Nope, it's true, it's called the Mpemba Effect.

On 2004-05-14 17:55, DawnTiki wrote:
Nope, it's true, it's called the Mpemba Effect.

hehe, isn't that the name of one of the "ma na ma na" muppets?

cool, I'm gonna have to have a race one day. With my luck, I'll mix myself a drink and forget all about it :wink:

I actually remember seeing a science show when I was a kid, (Owl tv??) where they conducted that very experiment.. It was funny, because it didn't work the first 3 times they tried it in the fridge.. it only worked when they went outside (luckily it was a Canadian show and um.. winter haha) something to do with the circulation in the fridge affecting it.. or something.. but it DID work in the end.. outside.. in the winter.. in ... canada..

good luck with that.

As I understand it, hot water freezes faster because of the rate of evaporation.

Evaporation causes things to cool down quicker thats why you sweat, your body is hoping for a breeze to cause evaporation, and you get that nice cooling effect.

Since hot water is evaporating faster than room temperature water, or even cold water, it freezes faster.

Thats my understanding of it, your mileage may vary.
TG
http://exotic-tiki-gardens.com

Wow, I forgot about my cloudy ice problem. Now that I've moved to a region that gets its water from reservoirs rather than from underground, the cubes are crystal clear. Almost as good-looking as those plastic ones they use in ads. It's all in the mineral content....

Trader Woody

Here's a method you can do at home that looks like it actually works!

On 2013-04-14 01:44, Dolewhip wrote:
Here's a somewhat labor-intensive but interesting take on the art of making clear ice from Dave Stolte, author of the spiffy little cocktail compendium, "Home Bar Basics (and Not-So-Basics)," which I notice is currently sold out (it's really worth tracking down - hope it's back in print again soon).

http://www.homebarbasics.com/ice/

...

I use this method when I must have clear ice. (Most of the time I'm in a hurry) :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHcCHbgX_o&spfreload=5

Similar process to the old whirlpool ice maker I used to have, like this one:

http://www.truetex.com/icemachine.htm

It has an evaporator plate which the machine pumps water over, slowly freezing a sheet of ice on the plate. When ready to harvest, it would go into harvest mode (using a timer, temp sensor and a bypass valve to let hot refrigerant into the evaporator) to melt the sheet until it let loose and slid onto a wire cutter grid (resistance wire grid that electricity was passed through) to cut the sheet into cubes. Made beautiful clear cubes, but they were hard as hell, couldn't use them in the blender for blender drinks because they would just jam the blades. No one has convinced me yet that the impurities are what cause cloudyness....I figure the cubes in the fridge freeze on all sides, and water contracts as it freezes. Therefore the liquid water inside the cube frozen in the freezer is trapped on all sides and as it freezes and contracts, it cracks up. That's why regular cubes break up easier in the blender. I think the "impurities" story was made up by the ice machine industry to sell more machines....my opinion, others may differ.

howlinowl

P.S. By the way, the reason I got rid of the thing was it made much more ice than I'd use. The bin is basically a big igloo cooler, the ice slowly melts and is remplaced with fresh on top. I just learned to get over it and use the ice in the fridge and save all that water I'd been wasting (electricity too).

[ Edited by: howlinowl 2016-05-31 06:57 ]

Camper English has done extensive clear ice research and documented it all on his blog: alcademics.com. The directional freezing method has proven to be the most effective, but he has easier ways to get the long rectangles than making a big block and cutting it.