I was interviewed for this story in the South China Morning Post, about ice yet again! Check it out here.
Category: The Ice Book
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The Ice Book Gets a Four-Page Spread in Men’s Journal
I wrote up a relatively short article for Men’s Journal’s Fall 2025 issue but hadn’t seen the final copy until just now: turns out they gave it a four-page spread in the print magazine.
As always the photographs from Allison Webber are stunning. Here’s a preview.
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A Good Bar Needs Good Ice
I gave some quotes about ice for a story on the website Shortlist. They also interviewed other people who are correct in saying that better ice makes a better drink, and that attention to quality of ice signifies attention to quality of cocktails.
I have the final quote in the story, in response to the reporter’s question about the cost of fancy ice increasing the cost of cocktails:“Is it an extra cost? Yes. But really, it’s hard as a consumer to assess the individual costs of each ingredient in a cocktail. A bar could lower the price by serving it in a paper cup, too, but then it wouldn’t feel special. And that’s what this creativity with ice is about, too”.
As always, you can learn more about The Ice Book here. -
Camper English on the Curious Bartender Podcast
I was a guest on Tristan Stephenson’s The Curious Bartender Podcast last week, talking for nearly two hours about.. a lot of stuff.
You can find the podcast on your favorite service from The Curious Bartender website, or to go directly to the YouTube video of it click here.
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Put a Ring In It: Ring Inside a Clear Ice Cube
I was browsing in the dollar store for stuff to freeze into ice cubes, as I do, and found a bag of party favor rings. They’re made for kids and so can only fit about halfway up my pinky finger, but it’s proof of concept.
To freeze the rings into ice, I used my IceOlogy clear cube tray, which has an open top. I simply put a piece of bamboo skewer across the top of the opening, hanging the ring in the top part of the water.
They came out great. One of the rings was a little deeper into the ice than the other (making it really hard to wear), but that can easily be controlled.
Here are some pics.
For more information about clear ice and my book The Ice Book, check out this page.
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Why the Shape and Size of Ice in Your Drink Matters
My latest story for Food & Wine is "Why the Shape and Size of Ice in Your Drink Matters."
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Talking About Ice on the America’s Test Kitchen’s Proof Podcast
I did an interview with America’s Test Kitchen a long time ago, and it just went up. The first half of the episode is on the history of ice. I come in at around 27 minutes in.
The episode is called Why Are Americans So Obsessed with Ice?
Start your own ice obsession by buying books mentioned in the episode:
The Ice Book, by me! [amazon] [bookshop] More info here.
Ice by Amy Brady [amazon] [bookshop]
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The Ice Book Wins Best Cocktail or Bartending Book at the Spirited Awards!
The Ice Book is the winner of the Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book at the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards!
This is the highest award within the global bar community. I am delighted!
The Ice Book’s photographer Allison Webber was there to accept the award for us both.
photo: @jbrasted
photo: Jackson CannonThe official Spirited Awards press release is here.
Buy The Ice Book from Amazon, Bookshop, or from your local neighborhood indie bookseller.
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Aspirational Water – A Story in The Guardian that Cites The Ice Book
The reporter for this story in The Guardian and I talked a long time about clear ice, iceberg water, and bottled water.
Not much made it into the final story from me (so it goes) but I did get mentioned in the lead paragraphs!
Towards the end of 2009, Camper English achieved a major breakthrough in his kitchen in San Francisco. After months of experimentation, English, a drinks industry consultant, created the perfect piece of clear ice: a cube with minimal fissures and microbubbles, as transparent as air.
His method for making clear ice – freezing water in an insulated container, which forces tiny bubbles towards the edge and leaves the rest of the block clear – is now widely copied in bars. English has also written The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts, and has found his algorithmic niche as Instagram’s top “ice cube reporter”. He regularly shares pictures of bevelled spheres, ridged gems and crystalline pebbles on his account @alcademics, all tagged with #IceBling.
The story has some good points – the most important one being that bottled water does not compete with tap water.
But anyway, if you want to geek out about water with me, I have an upcoming water class in April 2024 you can join!
