Cocktail science

[slkinsey]

I crack ice at home this way all the time. Doesn't bother me at all. FWIW, places like Pegu have extra-heavy bar spoons that one us unlikely to find at the local supply store. For home use, I find that a decently heavy soup spoon is best. Just hold the ice in the palm of your hand, give it a sharp smack with the spoon, dump the cracked ice into the shaker, and shake out your hand once over the sink (this last bit keeps your left hand from freezing). I find that the cracking blow from the spoon should be fast, but can be relatively light. It doesn't take much pressure to crack an ice cube into three pieces or so. Experiment with your ice to figure out the best location for an effective cracking strike with the spoon (generally, in the center of a flat face of the cube).

[eje]

Based on the information I gathered from this and other eGullet topics, I've been using cracked ice for all stirred cocktails for a while now.

I use a cast aluminum ice cream paddle to crack the ice cubes. It is heavy enough to work well. I have my freezer set for -5 F, so the cubes are very, very cold. They do have a tendency to stick to my hand and it stings a bit when I smack them to bits.

While cracked ice makes a difference, it seems like chilling the glass makes an even bigger difference.

Given the same amount, and more or less same consistency of cracked ice, there is a huge difference between the speed at which the ice melts when you have chilled your mixing glass in the freezer and when the glass is at room temperature.

The combination of very cold (-5 F) cracked ice, a chilled (-5 F) glass, and a well stirred (30-60 secs) cocktail, results in a very cold cocktail with a wonderfully silky texture.

I know this is getting a bit into the land of things that will likely never happen in a real world bar.

Still, I present it for your consideration, and thank you for pointing me in the correct direction.

[slkinsey]

As far as I know, and my knowledge is by nio means all-encompassing in this respect, Pegu Club is the only bar that has a dedicated freezer for mixing glasses and glassware. It is also the place where I've had the coldest Martinis outside of my own home.

One thing I can never quite understand is why bars don't have refrigerated ice bins. Home cocktailians have a huge advantage over professionals because we're taking our cubes directly from the freezer whereas bartenders take their ice cubes out of open insulated bins. This results in a huge thermal advantage in favor of the home cocktailian. Surely it couldn't be all that hard to design aa reasonably accessible refrigerated ice bin that would keep the ice at -20C/-5F (and could be warmed up/drained/sanitized on a nightly basis).

Are there any professionals who keep a thermometer in their ice bins? I'd love to hear what temperature their ice is.

[misterdyer]

The answer to your question seems relatively easy. While you might be making three cocktails in an evening at home, I might be making 150 in an evening at work. And while I would love to have a dedicated closed-top refrigerated ice system, the reality is that I need continuous access to my ice bin in order to keep up with the bar volume. As result, my ice at home will always be colder than it is at work.

You're certainly right about the Pegu having the only dedicated mixing glass and glassware freezer around. I credit that to it's bar being designed by someone like Audrey, who knows how to create a cocktail-centric working bar environment. Unfortunately, most bar areas are built out by an architect, or non-bartending restaurant people, or (in the case of my bar) the chef. Eh, whaddayagonnado?

I'm hoping this year Santa brings me a glass freezer and a Kold-Draft machine too. I promise to be very good this year.

[slkinsey]

The answer to your question seems relatively easy.  While you might be making three cocktails in an evening at home, I might be making 150 in an evening at work.  And while I would love to have a dedicated closed-top refrigerated ice system, the reality is that I need continuous access to my ice bin in order to keep up with the bar volume.  As result, my ice at home will always be colder than it is at work.

I think it should be possible to design an open-top ice bin that provides both easy and convenient access to the ice as well as refrigeration to keep the temperature low. A few things that come to mind:

- The sides of the bin can be refrigerated

- There can be "cooling fins" sticking up through the ice every foot or so

- The top opening of the ice bin can be 10% smaller than the actual size of the bin

[Alchemist]

The answer to your question seems relatively easy.  While you might be making three cocktails in an evening at home, I might be making 150 in an evening at work.  And while I would love to have a dedicated closed-top refrigerated ice system, the reality is that I need continuous access to my ice bin in order to keep up with the bar volume.  As result, my ice at home will always be colder than it is at work. 

You're certainly right about the Pegu having the only dedicated mixing glass and glassware freezer around.  I credit that to it's bar being designed by someone like Audrey, who knows how to create a cocktail-centric working bar environment.  Unfortunately, most bar areas are built out by an architect, or non-bartending restaurant people, or (in the case of my bar) the chef.  Eh, whaddayagonnado?

I'm hoping this year Santa brings me a glass freezer and a Kold-Draft machine too.  I promise to be very good this year.

←

I belive that Milk & Honey had a dedicated glass chiller when they opened, in 2000. Also they keep all thier hand-hewn shaking ice in that freezer. It's almost too cold. You will notice that when the bartenders drop the ice into the shaker, they don't shake hard right away, because water, like most other things when very, very cold becomes brittle. So they warm the ice and chill the liquid before shaking the F#&k out of it.

I prefer working with K-D ice, becaude I feel it airates better than one big peice, and you can shake it sooner, and more jackhammery with out it turning to dust.