Secret Bartender’s Recipe to Make Crystal Clear Ice Cubes

If you want to impress your guests with an unusual drink, there is no way you can do that without cubes of perfectly transparent ice cubes. It’s worth the effort because, believe me, they do look good!

The internet is full of recipes for clear ice. However, some of them call for loads of work and others are simply speaking ineffective. There are two options left for you. Either get a costly ice maker or follow our advice. Trust us, the other option is much much cheaper!

The best way to get crystal clear ice cubes is the so-called ‘directional freezing’. All you need is filtered water, a tiny portable fridge (the one you take with you going camping) and a bit of space in the freezer.

To start with you have to remember that ice cubes are cloudy because of air bubbles trapped inside them. Even if you boil the water twice, you will never be able to remove all the air.

Another thing is that when water begins to freeze in a fridge with insulated bottom, it pushes the air in one direction – downwards. As a result, a larger part of the ice is crystal clear – you only need to chip off the cloudy part.

Remember you can’t let all the water freeze – only then can you get some crystal clear ice. It will be just perfect to cut it into cubes of any size.

You must be wondering now why make such effort, spend so much time (though I wouldn’t say it really takes much time) and occupy freezer space only to have a few cubes of crystal clear ice?

As you already know, they look better. What is more, they are much colder so they cool your drinks much better. How is that possible? Remember that the cloudy cubes contain far more air which already answers the questions. Moreover, the clear cubes melt much more slowly. That means two things: they keep your drink cool longer and don’t dilute it too quickly.

• a small portable fridge (a car fridge) or an insulated container

• filtered water

• a long serrated knife

• a meat tenderizer

• a chopping board

1. Pour the water into the car fridge or another insulated container)

2. Put it into the freezer (without closing the container) for 24 hours, but no longer so that all water won’t freeze.

3. Take it out and ‘pour’ everything into the sink.

4. Chip off the cloudy part of ice. Immerse the knife in hot water before you do it – that will help a lot.

5. Put the clear part on the chopping board and dice it the way you want. The easiest way is to cut off a block about 2 cm off the big chunk. Then you can use the tenderizer. Just like this:

Easy, isn’t it?

The cubes you make this way can be used immediately or stored in a plastic bag in your freezer. Of course that means a very thin layer of ice will get cloudy as it well melt during the entire procedure described above.

What can you do about it? Well, just take them out of the freezer a few minutes before you use them so that they can ‘take off’ the cloudy camouflage.