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Ice in the Wall Street Journal

I was interviewed for a story on ice that appeared in the Wall Street Journal this week.

Here's the story link if you have subscriber access.

The intro part that mentions me is below.

January 16, 2021
Double Layered Clear Ice Cube Trays In A Cooler
A few years back. a couple different ice adventurers figured out that you can use a silicone ice cube tray to make clear cubes in a directional freezing system (an insulated cooler in a freezer) simply by poking holes in the bottom of the tray, setting the tray on a small riser (to give a place for the cloudy water to get pushed down through), and filling the cooler only to the level of the top of the silicone tray.

When frozen, you can pry out the tray from the block and your cubes are shaped like cubes. Here's the first post where the process was shown.

More recently, Shawn Soole of Soole Hospitality and the Post Shift Podcast messaged me to suggest: If you can do it with one layer of trays, can you put another tray underneath it, also with holes and get two sets of cubes at once?

Great question!

I decided to try it and the answer is yes. However, as you'll see by scrolling through the pictures, the first tray is easy to ply off the frozen block. The second one: Not So Much. I was able to chip it out using an ice pick though. It took a while but not forever.

My conclusion about this is: Yes it works!

But is is practical? I think it would be if you had ice cube trays nearly the size of the whole cooler. Otherwise you're doing what I did, which is chipping off most of the cooler-sized block just to get two trays worth of cubes. It would be more efficient if I put in these two trays side by side so I only had to freeze a few inches of the block.

Someone please make an ice cube tray that's exactly cooler size, please!

I be you could do it with the Ghost Ice system, but you'd have to cut up a second tray (and those suckers ain't cheap) to place beneath the top tray, and leave it in the freezer twice as long. That might be efficient in some systems where you need to leave the tray in the freezer over the weekend, but probably for most people it would be simpler to just do one layer at a time.

So I'm going with: Theory proven. Reality? Not so efficient.

Steps:
1. poke holes in the bottom of 2 2" silicon cube trays
2. make a riser (I used a take-out container top)
3. set trays on top of riser, fill cooler to top of top tray. Freeze for about 3 days.
4. The "mystery pillar" was particularly tall in this case. I had to remove it before the block was fully frozen.
5. Remove block when finished. The first tray pulls off pretty easily. The second one might have to be chipped out of the block with ice picks.
6. The ice is pretty clear, just some streaking and one partially-cloudy cube comes out.
And remember to check out the full list of Ice Experiments on Alcademics for tons of awesome ice projects.
January 11, 2021
Fruit Bowl and Other Ice Projects Made in a Punch Cooler

Josh Colquitt [facebook page] contacted me on Facebook to share some clear ice work he's been doing. He has been filling a punch cooler (aka "beverage dispenser") with water and freezing with the top off inside a big top-loading freezer.

The cooler freezes from top to bottom via directional freezing, leaving him with a big round cylinder of ice to use. He then carves stuff out of it using power tools.

He gave me permission to share pictures of his work, including a huge punch/fruit bowl and other objects. I'd never seen anyone use that container before, great stuff.

All of the ice projects on Alcademics can be found on this page.

December 29, 2020
The Pre-eminent Cocktail Ice Scholar

In this story in The Guardian, I'm mentioned as "perhaps the pre-eminent cocktail ice scholar," in the section about ice snobs.

I'll take it.

The story isn't about me at all, but it's a long read (no really, it's a very long read) about the packaged ice industry through the lens of one major ice provider, taking into account the history of ice in food in drink overall.

Writer George Reynolds did a great job with it and I've got it bookmarked to read again this weekend and chase down all the historical threads I didn't already know about.

Give it a read, I hope you enjoy nerding out on this stuff as I do.

December 11, 2020
A Failed Attempt at a Quick-Remove Method for Ice Blocks

For over ten years now I've been making clear ice in an Igloo cooler in my freezer, a method I first developed in 2009.

You fill a hard-sided cooler with water, stick in the freezer with the top off, and the ice freezes perfectly clear from the top-down, leaving only the bottom part cloudy if you leave it in that long.

When you dump out the ice block, it can take just a few minutes to over 45 minutes for the block to slide out; this often depends on if you let it freeze all the way or not.

Lately one of the take-out restaurants I've been buying from has been using these thick plastic bags that are almost exactly the size of the ice block.

My experiment was: Can I fill up a plastic bag inside the cooler with water, so that after freezing I can just pull out the ice block quickly?

I gave it a shot, and the answer is No. Even though the bag is nearly the exact dimensions of the cooler size, it still wrinkles just a little bit. In any wrinkle water freezes and sticks in the solid ice block. It wasn't super easy to pull the bag of solid ice out of the cooler in the first place, but more importantly I had to melt the section of the block where the plastic bag was embedded before I could separate it from the block, making a wet mess.

In order for this to work, I would have to have a plastic bag with exactly square sides to fit into the cooler. The industrial Clinebell ice machines sell these bags for their systems, but those are 300 pound blocks rather than 20ish.

Alas! You can see on the bottom image below where the bag was pinched in with the ice block.

December 8, 2020
All the Cocktail and Drink Books from 2020 for Reading or Gifting

It's time for the annual Alcademics drink book round-up! Below are all the books that have come to my attention in 2020. I don't follow wine/beer closely so there are only a few in that section.

The links below are to Amazon and to Bookshop.org. If you buy stuff after clicking on a link, I may receive a referral fee, thanks! If there is just one link, that's to Amazon as I only started using Bookshop mid-way through the year – you can always click over to Bookshop and search there. Bookshop.org allows you to order from small bookstores directly, or buy from a general fund that supports independent bookstores.

Whiskey Books

Whiskey Master Class: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, and More by Lew Bryson

The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries: The Portable Expert to Over 200 Distilleries and the Spirits they Make (From Absinthe to Whisky, and Everything in Between) by Davin de Kergommeaux and Blair Phillips

Which Fork Do I Use with My Bourbon?: Setting the Table for Tastings, Food Pairings, Dinners, and Cocktail Parties by Peggy Noe Stevens and Susan Reigler

Whisky, it's not rocket science by Mickael Guidot

Canadian Spirits: The Essential Cross-Country Guide to Distilleries, Their Spirits, and Where to Imbibe Them by Stephen Beaumont and Christine Sismondo

Scotch: A Complete Introduction to Scotland’s Whiskies by Margarett Waterbury buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

The Curious Bartender’s Guide to Malt, Bourbon & Rye Whiskies by Tristan Stephenson [Amazon] [Bookshop]

The Sazerac by Tim McNally [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Beginner's Guide to Whiskey: Traditions, Types, and Tastes of the Ultimate Spirit by Sam Green  [Amazon][Bookshop]

The Terroir of Whiskey: A Distiller's Journey Into the Flavor of Place by Rob Arnold  [Amazon][Bookshop]

American Spirit: Wild Turkey Bourbon from Ripy to Russell by David Jennings  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Other Spirits: Gin, Rum

Gin: How to Drink it: 125 Gins, 4 Ways by Dave Broom [Amazon]

The Curious Bartender’s Guide to Rum by Tristan Stephenson [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Brand Books

Seedlip Cocktails: 100 Delicious Nonalcoholic Recipes from Seedlip & The World's Best Bars by Seedlip

Chartreuse, The Liqueur [CocktailKingdom]

A Long Stride: The Story of the World's No. 1 Scotch Whisky by Nicholas Morgan buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

Science Food and Drink Books

Science and Cooking: Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine by Michael Brenner, Pia Sörensen, David Weitz  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells by Harold McGee: [Amazon][Bookshop]

The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained in More Than 100 Essential Recipes by Nik Sharma [Amazon][Bookshop]

Beer, Wine, Vermouth, Sake, Fermentation

Beer: Taste the Evolution in 50 Styles by Natalya Watson

A Spirited Guide to Vermouth: An Aromatic Journey with Botanical Notes, Classic Cocktails and Elegant Recipes by Jack Adair Bevan

How to Make Hard Seltzer: Refreshing Recipes for Sparkling Libations by Chris Colby [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Wine, Unfiltered: Buying, Drinking, and Sharing Natural Wine by Katherine Clary [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Hugh Johnson s Pocket Wine Book by Hugh Johnson [Amazon]

The Wine Game by Zeren Wilson [Buy]

The Japanese Sake Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Great Sake (With Tasting Notes and Scores for Over 100 Top Brands) by Brian Ashcraft  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Journey of Sake: Stories and Wisdom from an Ancient Tradition [Amazon]

Fermentation as Metaphor by Sandor Ellix Katz [Amazon] [Bookshop]

History Books

Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us About Rabbinic Literature by Jordan D. Rosenblum

How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Vincent Obsopoeus [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Non-Alcoholic Drinks

How to Drink without Drinking: Celebratory alcohol-free drinks for any time of the day by Fiona Beckett [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Good Drinks: Alcohol-Free Recipes for When You're Not Drinking for Whatever Reason by Julia Bainbridge [Amazon] [Bookshop]

FIZZ: A Beginners Guide to Making Natural, Non-Alcoholic Fermented Drinks
by Elise van Iterson and Barbara Serulus

Zero: A New Approach to Non-Alcoholic Drinks  [Amazon] [The Aviary]

Bartending: Narrative and Professional

Unvarnished: A Gimlet-eyed Look at Life Behind the Bar by Eric Alperin and Deborah Stoll

Bartender as a Business: Building Agency from Craft by Jason Littrell  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Botanical Focus and Witchcraft

Garden to Glass: Grow Your Drinks from the Ground Up by Mike Wolf

Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine by Rosalee de la Forêt and Emily Han

WitchCraft Cocktails: 70 Seasonal Drinks Infused with Magic & Ritual by Julia Halina Hadas [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Potions, Elixirs & Brews: A modern witches' grimoire of drinkable spells by Anais Alexandre [buy on Bookshop ] [buy on Amazon]

Blackthorn's Botanical Brews: Herbal Potions, Magical Teas, and Spirited Libations by Amy Blackthorn [buy on Bookshop ] [buy on Amazon]

Cocktail Books

General/Classic/Historic Cocktail Books

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: Prohibition Centennial Edition: From the 1920 Pick-Me-Up to the Zombie and Beyond – 150+ Rediscovered Recipes … With a New Introduction and 66 New Recipes by Ted Haigh (Author)

Drink What You Want: The Subjective Guide to Making Objectively Delicious Cocktails by John deBary

Spirited: Cocktails from around the World by Adrienne Stillman [Amazon] [Bookshop]

The New Craft of the Cocktail: Everything You Need to Know to Think Like a Master Mixologist, with 500 Recipes by Dale DeGroff [Amazon] [Bookshop]

On the House: Over 100 Essential Tips and Recipes for the Home Bartender by Cider Mill Press buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

Classic Cocktails by Brian D. Hoefling  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Splash: Modern Classic Cocktails by Ivy Mix (Author), Whoo Kid  [Amazon]

CO Specs: Recipes & Histories of Classic Cocktails by Cas Oh  [Amazon]

Themed Cocktail Books

The Good Reverend's Guide to Infused Spirits: Alchemical Cocktails, Healing Elixirs, and Cleansing Solutions for the Home and Bar by Steven Grasse, Sonia Kurtz, Michael Alan

Camp Cocktails: Easy, Fun, and Delicious Drinks for the Great Outdoors by Emily Vikre

Drinking with Chickens: Free-Range Cocktails for the Happiest Hour by Kate E. Richards

Easy Tiki: A Modern Revival with 60 Recipes by Chloe Frechette

Disco Cube Cocktails: 100+ innovative recipes for artful ice and drinks by Leslie Kirchhoff

Essential 3-Ingredient Cocktails: 75 Classic And Contemporary Drinks To Make At Home by Amy Traynor

Pink Gin: More than 30 pink-hued cocktails

Optimistic Cocktails Vol 1

Drink What You Want: The Subjective Guide to Making Objectively Delicious Cocktails.

Behind the Bar: 50 Cocktail Recipes from the World's Most Iconic Hotels by Alia Akkam [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Fizz: 80 Joyful Cocktails and Mocktails for Every Occasion by Olly Smith [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Beautiful Booze: Stylish Cocktails to Make at Home by Natalie Migliarini and James Stevenson [Amazon] [Bookshop]

The Cocktail Dictionary: An A-Z of cocktail recipes, from Daiquiri and Negroni to Martini and Spritz by Henry Jeffreys [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Peaky Blinders Cocktail Book: 40 Cocktails Selected by The Shelby Company Ltd by Sandrine Houdre-Gregoire [Amazon] [Bookshop]

The Shaken and the Stirred: The Year's Work in Cocktail Culture (The Year's Work: Studies in Fan Culture and Cultural Theory) Edited by Stephen Schneider and Craig N. Owens [Amazon] [Bookshop]

T𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 by Grade A Fancy Magazine [buy]

Star Trek Cocktails: A Stellar Compendium by Glenn Dakin buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

Classy as Fuck Cocktails: 60+ Damn Good Recipes for All Occasions buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

Shake Strain Done: Craft Cocktails at Home by J. M. Hirsch buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

Tequila & Tacos: A Guide to Spirited Pairings by Katherine Cobbs buy on: [Amazon][Bookshop]

Queer Cocktails: 50 Cocktail Recipes Celebrating Gay Icons and Queer Culture by Lewis Laney [Bookshop]

Drinks on the Lanai: Cocktails, Mocktails And Cheesecake Inspired By The Golden Girls by Elouise Anders  [Amazon][Bookshop]

The Aviary: Summer Cocktails [The Aviary]

Give Me Liberty and Give Me a Drink!: 65 Cocktails to Protest America’s Most Outlandish Alcohol Laws by C. Jarrett Dieterle

Very Merry Cocktails: 50+ Festive Drinks for the Holiday Season by Jessica Strand  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Winter Drinks: Over 75 recipes to warm the spirits including hot drinks, fortifying toddies, party cocktails and mocktails [Amazon][Bookshop]

Bar L.M. by Lindsay Matteson [etsy]

How to Drink Like a Royal by Albert W. A. Schmid  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Have Yourself a Merry Little Cocktail: 80 Cheerful Tipples to Warm up Winter by Emma Stokes [Amazon][Bookshop]

Düngeonmeister: 75 Epic RPG Cocktail Recipes to Shake Up Your Campaign by Jef Aldrich, Jon Taylor  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Drink Books Tied to Places

Distilled in Vermont: A History & Guide with Cocktail Recipes by Chris Maggiolo [Amazon] [Bookshop]

The United States of Cocktails: Recipes, Tales, and Traditions from All 50 States (and the District of Columbia) by Brian Bartels [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Behind Bars: High Class Cocktails Inspired by Low Life Gangsters by Vincent Pollard [Amazon] [Bookshop]

Spirits of Latin America: A Celebration of Culture & Cocktails, with 100 Recipes from Leyenda & Beyond by Ivy Mix

Drinking French: The Iconic Cocktails, Apéritifs, and Café Traditions of France, with 160 Recipes by David Lebovitz

The Pikes Cocktail Book: Rock 'n' roll cocktails from one of the world's most iconic hotels by Dawn Hindle

Apotheke: Modern Medicinal Cocktails by Christopher Tierney, Erica Brod  [Amazon][Bookshop]

Drink-Culture Related Books

The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles

December 2, 2020
EU Regulations for Vermouth, Americanos, and Quinquinas

I've had to look up this information a few times so this blog post will make it easier for me to find this information in the future.

In the EU

Vermouth = fortified aromatized wine with artemisia (wormwood) species.

Americano = fortified aromatized wine with artemisia (wormwood) and gentian species.

Quinquina = fortified aromatized wine with quinine flavoring.

Bitter Vino = fortified aromatized wine with gentian species.

The Regulations are found here. The text of this section of aromatized wines is below.

SALES DENOMINATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF AROMATISED WINE PRODUCTS
A. SALES DENOMINATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF AROMATISED WINES
(1) Aromatised wine
Products complying with the definition set out in Article 3(2).
(2) Wine-based aperitif
Aromatised wine to which alcohol may have been added.
The use of the term ‘aperitif’ in this connection is without prejudice to its use to define products which do not fall
within the scope of this Regulation.
(3) Vermouth
Aromatised wine:
— to which alcohol has been added, and
— whose characteristic taste has been obtained by the use of appropriate substances of Artemisia species.
(4) Bitter aromatised wine
Aromatised wine with a characteristic bitter flavour to which alcohol has been added.
The sales denomination ‘bitter aromatised wine’ is followed by the name of the main bitter-flavouring substance.
The sales denomination ‘bitter aromatised wine’ may be supplemented or replaced by the following terms:
— ‘Quinquina wine’, whose main flavouring is natural quinine flavouring,
— ‘Bitter vino’, whose main flavouring is natural gentian flavouring and which has been coloured with authorised
yellow and/or red colour; the use of the word ‘bitter’ in this connection is without prejudice to its use to define
products which do not fall within the scope of this Regulation,
— ‘Americano’, where the flavouring is due to the presence of natural flavouring substances derived from wormwood
and gentian and which has been coloured with authorised yellow and/or red colours.

November 30, 2020
How Much Alcohol Do Bitters Contribute to a Non-Alcoholic Drink?
I was a speaker on a panel for Tales of the Cocktail 2020 in which I said that we should be careful about bitters in non-alcoholic cocktails. In my experience, if you ask someone who orders a non-alcoholic cocktail if "a dash of alcohol is okay" to put bitters in the drink, most people get uncomfortable with the conversation and then almost all of them say no. So I stopped offering.

When you ask someone if a touch of alcohol is okay, you're really asking them to agree to drinking alcohol even when they're just told you they'll have the non-alcoholic drink. For several different segments of people who are not drinking, this is like asking "will you violate your sobriety a little bit?" and I've come to see it as inappropriate.

After the talk I had a nice chat with Camille Vidal of La Maison Wellness, who has also been thinking about the impact of bitters. The real question was not so much about asking someone if they want to take alcohol in their drink, but what if the impact of bitters in a cocktail is so insignificant that we can skip the question and use them anyway?

We know that products legally allowed to be labelled as "non-alcoholic" can have up to .5 percent alcohol in them. We also know that some food products like bananas and orange juice and even bread can have tiny percentages of alcohol in them.

Out of the conversation we decided it would be interesting to do the math.

What is the alcoholic impact of alcoholic bitters in a non-alcoholic cocktail?

We'll use Angostura bitters to figure it out. Angostura bitters are 44.7% ABV

How much is a Dash?

According to Don Lee, 41 dashes equals one liquid ounce. (this is .7 ml per dash). Dave Arnold in Liquid Intelligence puts it at .8ml.

A dash is "little less than one milliliter" according to this post. According to this 1/8 tsp is a dash and that's .6ml.

I decided to say we're adding 2 dashes or 1.5 ml of alcoholic bitters to a non-alcoholic drink.

1 fluid ounce is approximately 30ml

To calculate the ABV of a drink, our math is:

Volume of each alcoholic component x ABV% Divided by Total Volume of Drink

For a one ounce cocktail with 2 dashes of bitters = 1.5ml X 45% / 30ml = .02 = 2 percent

For a two ounce cocktail with 2 dashes of bitters = 1.5ml X 45% / 60ml = .01125 = 1.12 percent

For a three ounce cocktail with 2 dashes of bitters = 1.5ml X 45% / 90ml = .00755 = .75 percent

For a four ounce cocktail with 2 dashes of bitters = 1.5ml X 45% / 120 ml = .005625 = .562 percent

For a five ounce cocktail with 2 dashes of bitters = 1.5ml X 45% / 150 ml = .0045 = .45 percent

First Conclusion: If you want to make a cocktail that's legally non-alcoholic with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters, the cocktail must be 5 ounces in volume and contain no other alcohol.

Now let's look if we used a non-alcoholic spirit in the five-ounce drink along with bitters.

A non-alcoholic spirit like Seedlip must be less than .5 percent ABV. We'll use a Non-Alcoholic Daiquri as an example:

If we didn't add bitters, we'd have:

60 ml N/A Spirit at .5% + 30 ml lime + 30 ml simple + 30 ml dilution + = .3 / 150 = .2 percent ABV cocktail.

And with bitters plus n/a spirit, we have:

60 ml N/A Spirit at .5% + 30 ml lime + 30 ml simple + 30 ml dilution + 1.5ml Angostura bitters at 45% = .3 + .675 / 150 = .65 percent.

A 5-ounce cocktail with 2 ounces of non-alcoholic spirit base and 2 dashes of bitters is barely over the .5 ABV limit, still under 1 percent ABV.

Second Conclusion: The bitters in a cocktail with n/a spirit contribute more alcohol to the overall drink than the "non-alcoholic spirit," as the bitters are so concentrated in alcohol.

Final Boss Conclusion: If you wanted to serve legally non-alcoholic (<.5%) cocktails with bitters, you can
1. Use non-alcoholic bitters, such as the ones from Dram Apothecary
2. Make sure the drink is at least 5 ounces (including dilution) in volume for cocktails with 2 dashes of bitters
3. If you want to make the drink with a non-alcoholic spirit base like Seedlip, dial down the bitters to one dash or leave them out to stay within the legal limit if your drink is 5 oz or less.
November 12, 2020
Kold Draft Ice Machine History from Dale DeGroff

I was emailing with Dale DeGroff about the new edition of his book The New Craft of the Cocktail: Everything You Need to Know to Think Like a Master Mixologist, with 500 Recipes and ice came up, as it does. It turns out he was using the big 1.25 inch (32 mm) Kold-Draft cubes at the Rainbow Room way back in the day.

I was not aware that the machine went back that far. I first became familiar with it at the new bars of the craft cocktail renaissance around 2006-2010. Here's me quoting myself in a story:

“I used to say at the time that the Venn diagram of America’s best cocktail bars and bars that owned Kold-Draft machines was a near-perfect circle,” recalls drinks journalist and ice enthusiast Camper English.

I forgot that I gave that quote in a story written by Drew Lazor for Punch. So I forgot that I'd already read some of the brand history. Lazor also wrote:

Manufactured since 1955 in Erie, Pa., Kold-Draft once dominated domestic placements “in bars, restaurants, hospitals, and fishing and sporting locations, because of the long life of the cubes,” according to DeGroff.

DeGroff was first introduced to Kold-Draft in 1984 by the late restaurateur Joe Baum, who installed two of the machines at Manhattan’s Rainbow Room, the post from which the pioneering DeGroff helped spark the modern cocktail revival. During this era, a definite ebb in American barcraft, Kold-Draft had largely faded from prominence, ceding ground to cheaper, quicker machines that spat out smaller, faster-melting cubes. As DeGroff’s detail-oriented approach to drink-making gained steam, ice became a major talking point again—and he stumped for Kold-Draft so passionately in the press that the company brought him on as a consultant.

Meanwhile, I followed up with Dale DeGroff, basically asking "Oh you had Kold Draft then? I didn't realize it was around that long." He replied to me:

The Kold-Draft company had a monopoly on ice machines for bars and restaurants, sporting lodges (fishing parties loved them for long outings to keep the fish fresh in their coolers), hospitals for bedside pitchers, anywhere that big cubes that lasted were needed. Joe [Baum] used those machines starting in 1953 at the Newarker Restaurant and used them throughout the RA properties, Four Seasons, Las Fonda Del Sol Forum of the 12 Caesars etc. etc…

The demise of that company came swiftly in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The Japanese swept into the market with machines that made all manner of small ice very quickly so bars could get away with one instead of two machines. That was the "…tini" era of sweet and fruity drinks and that sort of ice was actually helpful in cutting the cloying sweetness of many popular juicy style drinks.

The serious on-the-rock scotch and other strong spirits drinkers were not too thrilled, but they were a dwindling crowd.

I worked for Kold-Draft from early 1990s as a consultant through the early new millennium to drive bar restaurant business back in their direction. Julie [Reiner] and Audrey [Saunders] all went with them but then the problems started.

The company was floundering with three different owners and 4 different president / CEOs and they hadn't kept up with the improving technology so their machines needed constant repairs. The trick became to lease the machines with a service contract rather then buy.

Then early millennium (I think) there was a possible merger with Hoshizaki that fell through when Kold-Draft sold again, but not before Hoshizaki got the moving water large cube technology that made those cubes special. They improved the technology, but could only use that particular machine in Europe at first. I don't know where that is these days, maybe they finally were able to introduce their larger cube machines in the USA.

So good ice used to be a thing and it was killed by disco drinks!

My understanding of the status of Hoshizaki in the US is that their largest cube is a bit smaller than Kold-Draft; about 1 inch by 1.25" rather than 1/25" square. In Europe, they have adapters for the machines that can make larger cubes, ping pong ball-sized spheres, and shapes like hearts and stars. They have a briefcase they display at Bar Convent Berlin every year that instead of being filled with diamonds like in a heist movie, is filled with ice options.

The reason we don't see those shapes of ice in the US, from my understanding, is that they do not meet US energy compliance standards.

Anyway, that's enough ice talk for today, See you tomorrow probably.

November 2, 2020
Halloween Ice Fun 2020: Bats, Skeleton Hands, Finger Puppets
This isn't the first year I decided to freeze some goofy stuff in ice for Halloween. Remember that all the years of ice experiments can be found at the Index of Ice Experiments page.

Some previous years I've done:
This year I went back to ye olde drugstore and bought more stuff I thought would freeze well. I ended up with some skeleton hands, a vampire bat skeleton, and some little finger puppets.

Next up, a bat skeleton. This I just placed across the top of the cooler – it fit snugly into place.

And finally, I made ice with these skeleton hands frozen in it – a single hand in a plastic box inside the cooler, and two hands just resting in the block.
October 26, 2020