How to Freeze a Spiralized Lime Inside a Clear Ice Ball Sphere

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You can freeze pretty much anything inside a clear ice sphere using Directional Freezing, the technique I pioneered here on Alcademics.

As I've written previously, to make clear ice spheres you can use directional freezing with an ice ball mold on top of a thermos-style insulated container.

Specifically, I use a Thermos Funtainer and this 2.5" ice ball mold as they work perfectly together.

Fill both the ice ball mold and the container with water (I use filtered water; no need to distilled or anything). Place the ice ball upside-down atop the thermos. It takes 20 or so hours to freeze in my freezer.

Once you understand the basics, you can simply add objects inside the ice ball mold with the water to freeze. Make sure to shake them to get any air bubbles out and fill them to the top.

To make this lime spiral, I used this little tool called the Chef'n Lemon-Aid Citrus Spiralizer. I was trying it out and couldn't think of what to do with the spiralized lime once I'd made it. So I popped it into my ice ball mold, froze it overnight, and BEHOLD!

So, that came out pretty awesome.

Comments

28 responses to “How to Freeze a Spiralized Lime Inside a Clear Ice Ball Sphere”

March 30, 2017

JenTiki

Ooohhh, this give me an idea for something using Butterfly Pea Flower Extract with the frozen citrus. It will be magical!

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March 30, 2017

Camper English

I like where this idea is going.

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March 31, 2017

Paul

Amazing work man.
I Wonder how many experiments you don’t show us

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May 31, 2017

JenTiki

This post inspired me to give this a try, so I bought the spiralizer and gave it a whirl. I then put the spiralized lime ice ball in a mai tai and posted it on reddit. For those who asked, I linked them to this post and now others are trying it too. Spreading the ice love far and wide!
https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/6e8ija/my_planetary_mai_tai/?ref=share&ref_source=link

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May 31, 2017

Camper English

Thank you for the post Jen – that sent a bunch of traffic my way but I didn’t see your post on Reddit it was coming from. Nice Mai Tai!

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June 15, 2020

Dee

I don’t understand how you insert the lime in the ice ball if you’ve already frozen the iceball with water for 20 hours???

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June 15, 2020

Camper English

Sorry, I used unclear language. I meant once you understand how to make clear ice balls, then you can insert things inside them to freeze with the water. (Not once you freeze it then you add things.) Will correct.

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July 17, 2020

Bruce Harlick

I did this with a pitty cherry and it sank down towards the bottom as the sphere froze. Still fully enclosed in the ice, but I was wondering if you’ve found some magic way to get the object more towards the center.
I love all of the ice articles; I’ve been messing around with your techniques for a few years but now that I have a dedicated ice freezer, I’m trying to do more.

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July 17, 2020

Camper English

Hi – I have not found a magic way but here’s an idea – the first person to suggest this system with a Funtainer drilled a hole in the bottom (which becomes the top) of the ice ball mold. If you did that and hung the cherry by the stem (so un-pitted, with the stem sticking out the top), then you’d have only the stem touching the side when it froze and not the fruit.
You could instead drill that same hole and use fishing line strung through the cherry- I did something like this once and found that once frozen I could pull the fishing line out… not sure it would work but now that you’ve got a dedicated ice freezer you’ve got room to experiment 🙂

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July 19, 2020

Bruce Harlick

True enough! Thanks for the suggestion; I will give it a try and see how that goes and report back.
Appreciate all of your posts on ice and just about everything else. 🙂

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December 30, 2020

Benjamin Tran

So how’d it go?

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January 27, 2021

Christian

OK, at least I know I’m not alone. I thought my obsession with clear ice over the the course of 2020 was an indication of impending insanity. I feel better now. I love an Old Fashioned and clear ice just completes the drink. This has turned into a hobby and my friends that made fun of me, now want me to supply them with clear ice. The problem I face now is when I freeze an orange twist, or a cherry in the clear ice, it is turning cloudy. What measures can I take to keep the ice clear? I’m assuming that the objects freeze at a different time, or have air in them that get trapped after the water freezes. Any suggestions?

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January 27, 2021

Christian

Also, to answer a post above on freezing a cherry in the center…I use a silicone tray with small holes in the bottom. I then use coffee stirrers poked into the center hole and place a cherry, or whatever, on the end of the stirrer…fill the tray and freeze using the directional method. The straw pulls out easily. However, as I stated, the fruit ends up clouding the ice. I may try freezing the objects first, or rinsing them really well.

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January 27, 2021

Camper English

@Christian – Yep the most important thing is to not block the hole in the bottom of the tray. Another thing to do is to “shake” the object you’re putting into the tray to make sure no bubbles are secretly clinging to the undersides. And as you stated, making sure to wash off any liquid such as cherry syrup. And in the case of citrus; they work a lot better with just the peels so the juice doesn’t squish out and make the ice cloudy.

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