Ice Balls Made Easy

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While everyone in their right mind would love one of those fancy giant ice ball makers that go for $1300 and up, they're not the most practical solution for the home mixologist.

[Note: since this post went up we've come up with lots of great solutions for clear ice balls and other ice technology. Check out the Ice Experiments Index Page.]

So I used my superbrain and did all sorts of math with equations and integrals and all, and came up with a way to make these at home:

(glasses by CB2, by the way)

To see my highly scientific secret method, continue reading after the jump…

I used water balloons ("water bombs" according the manufacturer) that cost five bucks for 400. Slightly cheaper than a fancy machine, and seriously, who doesn't like balloons?

Note: Ice balloons are for drink cooling and refreshment purposes only. Do not throw frozen water balloons. This may lead to serious injury.

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

Comments

44 responses to “Ice Balls Made Easy”

January 29, 2009

kenny t

My Hero! I’d like a tutorial when you are in town.

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January 29, 2009

Reese

Brilliant idea! Did you have any issues with off flavors? Some times I’ve noticed balloons have some kind of powder on them (latex or starch perhaps).

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January 29, 2009

Camper English

These ones didn’t seem to have the powder inside, but I rinsed them a bit before filling anyway. At least in my first round of experimentation no off flavors were noticeable, but i didn’t lick the ice directly either. Since I have 196 balloons left, I will have time to experiment further.

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January 29, 2009

Marleigh

Is it wrong that I laughed uproariously at the title of this post? It just screams “Camper” to me. Genius idea, though!

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January 29, 2009

Camper English

You only laughed because:
1. You are a filthy pervert.
2. You know me too well.

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January 29, 2009

Steve Raye

N”ice” Balls, dude!

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January 29, 2009

Jamie

I laughed out loud at work when I read this! Camper, I want your job. I wondered about a weird taste myself…and think it’s worth some more investigating.
And umm, the disclaimer is brilliant. 🙂

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January 30, 2009

Sam Harrigan

Genius!

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January 30, 2009

Mr Manhattan

I think you just put half the bartenders in Japan out of business. Of course, in Japan you can probably get specially designed balloons just for making ice balls.

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January 31, 2009

Blair Frodelius

For ice balls made difficult, check out this video:
https://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/ice%2Bball/video/xx7h2_making-the-ball-of-ice_tech
Blair

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February 1, 2009

Tiare

Totally genious Camper! and i laughed too..i will try this!

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February 1, 2009

Anita / Married with dinner

Dramatically less-creative but also more spherical:
https://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Spherical%20Ice%20Tray_10451_10001_27651

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February 1, 2010

Michael Shoer

For pure clear ice balls, no need to make them or buy any equipment. Order them online at http://www.iceandeasy.com
These are made food safe and each ball is perfect and priced as low as $1.25 ea.

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March 3, 2010

Robert Simonson

Wow. I’ve been using water balloons for ice for over a year. I thought I was a secret genius and kept the idea to myself. Silly me. Great minds think alike.

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March 3, 2010

Camper English

I also knew I was a secret genius, but am worse than you at keeping secrets.

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March 27, 2010

Domenico

Well, Camper I must say that years ago, when nobody was speaking about Japanese mixology, I already saw ice balls made with party ballons in Naples(beginnings of the 90’s). The secret to have ice balls as round as possible, is to hang them in the fridge and not just lay them in a plate
Domenico ( Camper ,long time no see since Mexico)

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September 19, 2014

Michael Corbett

What about combining this with the igloo methodology to get Clear Ice Balls?

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September 22, 2014

Camper English

Yes Now we’ve done that. Here it is:
https://www.alcademics.com/2014/09/make-perfectly-clear-ice-balls-using-insulated-mugs.html
I forgot to link the Ice Index Page from this page
https://www.alcademics.com/index-of-ice-experiments-on-alcademics.html
so I’ll go back and do that now.

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October 29, 2014

Berkana

There are ice molds now that produce perfectly clear ice spheres in conventional freezers from unfiltered water. I found these guys on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wintersmiths/the-ice-chest-four-clear-slow-melting-ice-spheres/
They achieve this by insulating the mold on all sides but the top, to force the freezing to be mono-directional. All the air bubbles and minerals get pushed down into the reservoir in the vessel under the molds

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October 29, 2014

Camper English

Yes indeed. And here is a cheap and easy way to do that with minimal equipment:
https://www.alcademics.com/2014/09/make-perfectly-clear-ice-balls-using-insulated-mugs.html

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December 11, 2014

Peter

If you want the balloon balls to be more perfect spheres, freeze them while they are in a 20% salt brine bath. The brine bath shouldn’t freeze and the ice balls will float on the top. It does depend on the balloon though. The weaker the balloon, the easier it can form a sphere.
Word of warning, it can take a few tries….

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December 11, 2014

Camper English

Good idea!

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