Building blocks for the perfect cocktail

The cold and hard truth is this: the most important component in your cocktail creations might very well be the thing you pay the least attention to — ice.

Casual drinkers probably don’t give a second thought to the frozen chunks bobbing in their highballs, but mixologists throughout the country are learning that the most important building block of a perfect cocktail is perfect ice.

When the partners of Houston’s Anvil were planning what has become the city’s premiere destination for top-shelf hooch, they invested about $15,000 in a top-quality ice machine (Kold-DraftQ, considered the Cadillac of ice makers by the country’s elite bartenders).

“It’s colder and harder and allows you to mix better,” said Kevin Floyd, one of Anvil’s owners. “It’s out-and-out better ice.”

The rocky road to better ice has been a long time coming, despite the fact that in-the-know cocktailians have preached the good-ice gospel for years. Now, at least in serious bars, they’re chipping away at quality ice.

“It’s a trend in the geeky bars, without a doubt. But it says a lot about where the profession is going,” said master mixologist Dale DeGroff, considered by many the father of modern bartending. “There’s a trend for different types of ice for different beverages.”

Serious cocktail bars now employ varieties of ice to match the glass or the alcohol or to aid in the proper construction of the drink. There’s chipped ice, cracked ice, shaved ice, ice balls and ice sticks. The Velvet Hour, a bar in Chicago, offers eight types of ice. Japanese whisky giant Suntory is advocating the use of an “ice ball” — a solid sphere of ice, 2 inches in diameter — to enjoy its Yamazaki Single Malt.

And then, of course, there’s the classic cube. In the case of Kold-Draft, it is a clear, cloudless 1¼ inch cube that is harder than other commercial ice, melts slower and so pure it will not distort the taste of liquor. In short, it is a flawless cube.

DeGroff said it’s the only ice he uses. As a career bartender he’s had it with the cheapie ice disks, hollow barrels and tiny cookie-cutter cubes that melt quickly and seem to be designed to fill the glass in order to make the drink look fuller.

Cheap ice, he said, “was the friend of the [bar] owner and enemy of the guest.”

Today, however, as cocktails have evolved as bespoke creations, quality ice plays a key role in bartending. “Ice serves so many purposes in a cocktail. In many ways, it is the most important ingredient in a cocktail,” said cocktail consultant Jonathan Pogash of TheCocktailGuru.com. “With the resurgence of the classic cocktail you have a throwback to the 19th century when they’d chip off a block of ice from frozen ponds.”

Thankfully we don’t have to turn to frozen ponds for good ice anymore. A good bar with a Kold-Draft machine will suffice. Bartenders like Anvil’s Floyd love their flawless cubes so much, they start talking about things such as the “velocity” of the ice in the shaker when they’re making a drink. “I even like the sound of good ice in a shaker,” he said, “It makes a different sound.”

Ah, the sound of two cubes clinking. If you think ice is insignificant, then you haven’t been paying attention to your booze, experts say. Ice makes all the difference in the flavor of the drink, said Danielle Eddy, spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade association representing American spirits makers.

“A friend said, ‘Sex in a relationship means nothing unless it’s bad — then it’s everything.’ How does that relate to ice? If it’s good, it means nothing. But when it’s bad it can totally kill a drink,” Eddy said. “You would never know ice means anything until it sours the drink.”

Resolution for the new year: Better sex. If not that, then at least better ice.

source: chron.com

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When I initially conceived of the idea for Ice Caters®, I envisioned a line of products that solved all of the challenges of purchasing traditional ice sculptures. This was to be ice in a box, small designs, shippable to everyone planning a party or wanting to celebrate a special occasion. Ordered online, delivered to your door.

Over time, we learned some hard (i.e. expensive) lessons about what it really takes to reach the consumer directly, and also the level of awareness, education and hand-holding that’s required. Suffice it to say, as a small company this was not going to be the road to success. So we turned our attention to the commercial buyers in catering and at hotels–the same customers who I originally thought “they don’t need us, they already have ice carvers.” As we soon discovered that was not the case. Most hotels and banquet facilities no longer had a carver on staff, and the chef was certainly too stretched to carve a sculpture. So enter the independent local carver. Yet it surprised me to find out how many commercial buyers had horror stories to share about the quality, reliability and professionalism of the local carver. But since these customers also wanted bigger designs, we came up with an alternative solution. It was a new technology that was able to computer cut full block size designs. We entered into a supplier agreement with the maker of these products, and voila— our “Premium Display” line of packaged ice designs that could be easily delivered to a loading dock, stored in a hotel, country club or other commercial freezer, and then be placed in position by existing kitchen or banquet staff when needed. The Martini In Hand Luge is now among our most popular designs.

So here’s one big lesson I have learned over the past several years: not all carvers are created equal. Some are great—professional, talented and reliable while others…not so much. We’ve experienced the frustration of trying to do a favor for a customer with a last minute need for a single custom carving that we would jump through hoops to recruit a local carver to handle, only to have them drop the ball—or the ice—along the way. But we have found the best of the best. About two years ago, we outsourced all of our manufacturing to a leading company in the business of large scale carving of ice. From that evolved, our Brand ICE™ customized branding programs and we set out to recruit a network of regional carving companies that supported our brand and standards and could to handle the special design and service requirements of large scale custom projects. This year through our BIG Event Network™ we did the Super Bowl for Absolut, The Grammy Awards for Levy Restaurants, two big hollywood movies (one is a highly anticipated sequel to a blockbuster due out in May 2010) and developed unique designs to support on-premise brand promotion programs for 4 of the best known beverage brands in the world.

So with our passion, marketing skills, brand image, proprietary designs, techniques and packaging, we have been able to expand our presence in the market–amid a challenging economic tidal wave–creating demand for new products (i.e. The Ice Ball) and now we have reached a new and exciting chapter.

Ice Caters LLC is making some big changes for 2010. The formal announcements will be coming soon, but I wanted you to get a taste of it from me first. Ice Caters has entered an agreement to join forces with the biggest and most respected ice carving company in the United States. We are merging our management and manufacturing operations as we proceed with a private equity raise. This will allow us to complete the acquisition of new technology to further reduce the costs and increase the opportunities to market and sell a range of ice products with the potential to transform the conventional consumable ice markets (“The Ice Ball”), drive down the cost of ice displays, and be the single, simple, reliable source of quality ice products and services. Now THAT is Ice and Easy®!

Change is good. I once thought Ice Caters® products would simply be an alternative to the professional ice carver. Fast forward five years, and we are about to be the largest ice carving company in the United States, with the ability to offer full scale, custom event ice designs as well as expand marketing and distribution of our manufactured ice in a box products, led by the success of the simplest design of all–the 2.5″ Ice Caters Cocktail Ice Ball.

As for that vision of being a consumer brand, and bringing the excitment and magic of ice sculptures to the home? That’s now back in the plan, and we’re working on rolling out a line of Ice and Easy products–led by the Ice Ball–at major retailers beginning in 2010. So as the old slogan says, “look for it in your grocers’ frozen food section.”

There is much work to be done, but I am very excited about the potential of what has been set in motion, that I thought I would share:)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being part of the Ice Caters world. You’ve read and responded to my emails and videos. You’ve tried our products. And some of you have become loyal customers. Our goal is to discover how to make ALL of you loyal customers, so I was hoping I could impose upon you with a request

Before the end of December, I will be sending you a link to a confidential market research survey. Please keep an eye out for it, because I would really like to have your input. Change is good. But I want to make sure that what we offer is what the market leaders desire, and that includes you!

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Ice Caters is a company marketing innovation and creative solutions for the hospitality, food and beverage and spirits industries all based on pure, premium ice!

Ice Caters LLC is a privately held company based in Atlanta, Georgia with primary distribution hubs in Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas and Philadelphia. We offer unique “ice in a box” solutions, including the much heralded cocktail Ice Ball that is altering the mix of cocktails from coast to coast. Read More.

But we are also partnered with the largest packaged ice companies in the world to provide a unique one stop source for wholesale truckloads of consumable packaged ice, as well as block ice and even freshly blown SNOW (available through select regional partners).

So tell us what you think! Have comments? Ideas to share?