Author: Camper English

In this experiment, I started with ice spheres made in a thermos. These come out pretty great in general, but not perfect.

So I decided to compare smoothing them to see if I could make them perfectly round and with a smooth surface using these Cocktail Kingdom ice ball presses.

The large first one, as you can see, is too big for the ice sphere, and although the surface becomes smooth, it’s still kind of egg shaped. (You can also see the initial ice sphere was a little cloudy- I think the fan was blowing on it in my freezer; I should know better.)

The smaller second ice ball press, on the other hand, comes out a bunch smaller, but it’s a perfect ping pong ball sized sphere. 

If only I had one in between the two sizes! 65mm I think would be about right. 

Just for fun I bought an ice shaver (raspador de hielo) off of Amazon. I didn’t particularly need one, I just wanted to try it. 

It is used to make flavored shaved ices around the world. (Or Mint Juleps in my world.) To use it you slide it across a slab of ice and a blade on the bottom shaves it and collects it inside. 

There’s absolutely no reason to use clear ice for this but that’s all I have at home 🙂 

I used it to make a flat surface on slab of clear ice. When you make slabs of ice in the cooler, the bottom side in particular is a bit wavy after you dump out its contents. So using the shaver I made it all even, and then so that it has a smooth surface I smoothed it with a thaw plate. (You can just use the bottom of a pot, back of an ice designer plate, or other flat metal.)