I wrote a story for Distiller Magazine about the various ways to implement a big ice program. It was written with distilleries (that have sampling bars) in mind – they often have a lot of floor space, but even those with distillery bars don't often have a ton of freezer space.
I tried to be cognizant of the specific needs of distilleries, the possibility for take-out ice sales, and the notion that maybe if it's easy you could just buy it.
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.
Wow, another story about The Ice Book, this time from Huffington Post.
I love how they made the pictures pop with the framing.
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.)
"San Francisco's Camper English invented a home method for making clear ice that's now celebrated around the world"
is the dek to this story in the San Jose Mercury News with the headline "‘The Ice Book’ traces a cocktail writer’s obsession with designing perfect, diamond-clear ice".
The story is only available to subscribers unfortunately, but here is one of the photos by Karl Mondon. It's so dorky I love it.
Update: The story got syndicated so it appeared in lots of publications and you can read one of them here.
In Alice Lascelles' latest cocktail column for the Financial Times, she covers the summertime trend of using flowers in cocktails and includes a photo from The Ice Book.
Read the story here: It’s cocktail hour – so put a flower in it
Drinks International has released their 2023 Bar World 100 list, a list of the 100 most influential people in the bar world internationally.
I am happy to say that I have once again made the list. The list has been released for the last four years and I have been on it three times, missing 2022. This year I reentered the list at number 46, though I don't think the order of rankings are very important.
The voters hail from 60 different cities and include "the media, brand representatives, event organizers, educators and consultants making up the majority of the panel, but of course we have a good share of bartenders too."
Each voter was asked to name who they considered to be the top 10 most influential bar world figures. More specifically:
» Those who have innovated and pushed the industry forward, setting the standard globally and inspiring others around them.
» Those who have addressed injustices in the bar industry, using their influence to effect positive change.
I thank the voters for selecting me for this accolade. You can view the entire list as a digital magazine at this link.
I was interviewed for this terrific story in Vanity Fair that brings together the modern manifestations of clear ice with its history as a luxury item that quickly transforms into an everyday necessity over and over again. I think the writer did a great job with it.
I am very happy to announce that Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails is a Top 4 Finalist for the Tales 2023 Spirited Awards in the category of Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits!
All the Top 4 nominees are great, as were many in the Top 10 that didn't get through to finals. It's a tough year to win a drink book award, as there were so many good ones newly out. I'm psyched to have made it this far.
Check out the rest of the list here and please pick up Doctors and Distillers if you haven't yet! I'm really proud of it.
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