How To Make Perfectly Clear Ice For Gorgeous Cocktails

The quality of the ice in your drink plays a larger role than you might initially think. Yes, the ice's main purpose is to keep your cocktail chilled, but beyond that, it's not only important that your ice stays fresh before use, but that it doesn't melt too rapidly once it's in your glass. Some dilution is recommended for many cocktails, even spirit-forward ones that are mixed in a separate glass, but you also don't want your drink to get watery as you're drinking it. It's for this reason that you want to have clear ice for your cocktails.

But how do you get that perfectly clear, cocktail bar-worthy ice in the comfort of your own home? The answer all comes down to both directional freezing and tempering. Ice, like anything else, freezes from its coldest point to its warmest. In a regular ice cube tray, this means it will freeze top-down. As ice freezes, impurities are moved out of it, but in a standard tray, this means that all the air bubbles and whatnot are trapped at the bottom, giving you cloudy ice. However, if you use directional freezing (aka leaving a reservoir of unfrozen water underneath your prospective ice) then all of these impurities will vacate your ice, leaving you with super-satisfying clear cubes.

Making perfectly clear ice is completely manageable if you can afford a bit of space in your freezer. Essentially, you need enough space to fit a small cooler, since this will become your tool for directional freezing. By filling this cooler with water and letting it freeze uncovered for about a day or more, you'll be left with a solid block of ice on top with a pool of regular water underneath that has inherited all the impurities rejected by your ice. Removing the ice from your cooler will leave you with essentially a big sheet of crystal-clear ice ready to be portioned out. And it's at this stage where tempering is important.

Clear ice not only looks refined and sleek, but it will also melt more slowly than your standard ice. And if you're making a classic old fashioned or another similar cocktail, using one big ice cube slows the melting even more. It's for this reason that it's recommended to cut your sheet into two-to-three inch cubes perfect for adding to a Negroni. In order to do this stress-free, though, you need to let the ice acclimate to your room prior to cutting it. This is tempering, and it means that letting your ice sit for 20 minutes or so will prevent any pesky cracks from forming while you try to shape it. In a way, directional freezing and tempering can seem tricky. But really, all you need is some space and some patience to get perfect ice.