Take a trip down to the new cocktail joint in that hip neighborhood. You know the one, with the velvet banquettes and the wood-paneled bar. Sidle on in and inspect the embossed menu. Then order the mezcal negroni, and when it arrives, observe the ice within. Is it spherical, like a solitary moon suspended in amber? Or maybe it’s a hard-angled cube, stony like a paperweight. It probably takes up the better part of the glass.
Craft cocktail ice was once a status symbol for the bars that topped any city’s “best of” lists. Its purpose was functional: To keep a mixed drink properly chilled while minimizing dilution from ice-melt. And of course, it didn't hurt that these cubes looked cool too. The trend soon moved into the fashion world; Angeleno Leslie Kirchhoff’s company,Disco Cubes, became known for the custom botanical ice it made for companies like Miu Miu and Goop.
At first the only way replicate this oversize cube experience was to order ice through specialty businesses likeGläceor Yelö—and 50 cubes might set you back $300 or more. But for a number of years now, the Big Ice trend has been available to the masses. Silicone molds for oversize cubes and spheres are pretty easy to find, and making crystal-clear cubes isdoable at home too, especially if you’re willing to devote some serious freezer space to it.
The more artsy stuff, however—the “frozen objet d’art,” asThe New York TimesdescribedKirchhoff’s ice—is a little trickier to pull off in your own kitchen. Kirchoff's method of freezing fresh botanicals inside ice is difficult to master, and moving beyond the standard cube and sphere into more complex shapes isn’t so easy without ice-cutting tools or custom stamps. The novelty ice molds available in more ornate shapes tend to feel over the top—less gemlike and more kitschy and designed for themed parties.
That's why I'm so into this ice mold set from W&P, which offers a tasteful approach to decorative cocktail ice.
简而言之,这些模具让你冰litt的样子le gems suspended in your drink—without involving any of the effort of carving your own ice. The prism shape is the boldest of the bunch, a cube with small pyramid-shaped spikes reminiscent of the end of a meat mallet. The ripple shape has wavy facets that look like two vintage aspic pans fused together. (The pattern is apparently inspired by designs of the Prohibition era.) The Petal, with its rows of scalloped ridges, looks like a lotus blossom. And the Crystal resembles the glasses my parents had when I was growing up.
Each mold of the set features angles and geometric shapes that will catch the candlelight at your next cocktail party. And each offers its own creative possibilities: The Prism's sharp edges would lend glamour to asimple mix of sherry and vermouth, whereas a couple of spherical molds with etched petals would look elegant bobbing around in aspring cocktail with notes of fennel and rhubarb.
However you use these molds, they'll give your home drink—that post-work Friday whiskey, that nonalcoholic shrub, or that carefully-measuredJungle Birdyou made for friends—the look of a drink at a fancy cocktail bar. And all you have to do is pour water into a mold.
