Putting aside for now, the fact that making crystal clear ice requires specially filtered water that is very carefully and slowly frozen with fancy equipment.
The real question is why does anyone think this is what they need in life. They only people I have seen that insist on such things are whisk(e)y snobs that drink their whisk(e)y on the rocks. They claim that cloudy ice has impurities in it that affects the flavor of the drink.
While technically they are maybe correct, my reply is-- “Shut up and drink your whisk(e)y neat like God and the Irish meant it to be consumed. The water is already in it.”
I don’t know, I’ve also heard that a few drops of water “opens up” the whiskey. My dad was an alcoholic who loved whiskey. He would order it with a few drops of water. Ice would do the same thing.
I was recently in a pub which had water bottles from the different regions of Scotland, so you could add drops of the same water it was made from.
Also, a pipette to exactly measure the amount of water added. It was excellent.
Noe that the water can just be tap, and the equipment isn’t super fancy. If the water looks clear, you can make clear ice from it.
It’s called directional freezing, you stick water in freezer insulated on all sides so that it freezes from the top down instead of outside in.
If you have larger ice, you’ll see the white stuff is in the middle, the last area to freeze. Directional freezing causes that to be at an end instead of in the center, and you either pull out the ice before the end freezes, ideally, or cut off the end.
I have an ice mold that doess this and it provides break off points to break the clear ice off the unclear ice.
It does take a while though and the bulky insulation takes a lot of room in the freezer.
Not such fancy equipment. I used to make it in a lunchbox cooler with our very hard tap water; that eventually cracked but I have been rocking one of these for a decade now.
https://www.clearlyfrozen.com/
All you need is directional freezing. My ice comes out crystal clear in big ol’ blocks like that.
To be fair - I would charge $5 a tray too. It takes a day & a half and space in my freezer. But it is an easy, cheap, and fun hobby
That’s interesting. I popped into this thread to help figure out why some of my ice was extra clear.
I think this batch froze slowly. Thanks
He shops at Aldi
He buys $5 ice.
Who is this person? Is he the same guy spending thousands on a free game?
Here in Europe you’d see expensive SUVs, like Porsches and Range Rovers, parked outside the Aldi all the time. Lot’s of rich people are penny pinchers especially old money who inherited their money. They would probably buy these ice cubes if they have to impress their friends with their Japanese whiskey that they only drink when guests are at their home.
Imagine all the AI prompts you could buy for $5!
Why don’t they just put these things into the ocean and solve global warming?
SimpsonsFuturama did it
Ultra pure slow melting… ok… it melts just like regular water
Extra micro plastics infused for the smooth slower melt
Though if you’re using a plastic ice cube tray to make ice cubes, there’s a good chance you’re bringing your own microplastics.
Source: got a metal ice cube tray and noticed that weird “old ice” flavour and subtle sheen on the drink surface as it melted is no longer there.
Are you able to twist the metal ones to free the ice? The flexibility of plastic makes that the best way to free the cubes.
It comes in two pieces, a bottom tray, and a grid that is hinged and has a handle. Then, to break the ice, you just torque the handle, which shifts the grid angle, forcing each cube to move and come free. Works best if you move the ice to a different container at this point but you don’t have to.
If you do a search for “metal ice tray”, it should come up in the images (to avoid linking an amazon image).
I like it better than the plastic trays for this. Both can be a pain in the ass but in different ways. Plastic trays can snap when you bend them (haven’t had one snap in half but I have had one snap some of the structural supports) and often the ice just settles back in its place after you loosen it and you need to “bounce” it a bit until the ice turns in the cavity so you can grab it. With the metal tray, it doesn’t just free the ice easily when you break it (though still easier than the bouncing game) and if you lift the grid part out, you’ll probably need to use a different container or just leave the grid off until you make new ice.
The old ice flavor is bacterial biofilm on the plastic tray, metal is easier to clean
Any nutritional value to that biofilm?
Probably a true claim, because surface area
I thought these were reusable freeze packs made to look like ice cubes. It’s actual ice…
We need to kill the billionaires and their politicians sooner than immediately right now
Lol I saw these at my Aldi too. It’s pretty dumb at first but I have seen ice cubes for sale at liquor stores for making mixed drinks.
Regular tap water usually doesn’t make perfectly clear ice and most trays are a lot smaller than 1.8" cubes. I wonder if the tray is reusable? If you were planning on a cocktail night and knew what you were looking for, this might not be as dumb of a buy as you think, especially if it was a one-time need.
It just looks especially silly at Aldi, a grocery store that prides itself on affordable products and doesn’t sell liquor lol
Tap water can make clear ice. It’s a matter of how it’s chilled.
Yeah, you want it to freeze on one end first to push out the bubbles. And even then it just pushes the bubbles to one end so you’d have to chip/cut away at them if you want perfectly clear ice.
I have molds for that style ice cube and I can’t be arsed to use them, let alone care about the bubbles.
I started using an insulated lunch cooler in the freezer to make clear ice. Its great!!!
How does that work?
The key to clear ice is that it freezes from the top down. The cooler insulates the sides and bottom.
Slowly.
Seriously.
All you need is to make the ice freeze slowly, and when it’s all frozen you just melt off the not clear part and you’ve got clear cubes.
You could also set your freezer to just below freezing and achieve similar results.
I knew someone at a bar who would use 4 foot lengths of PVC tubes. They’d fill the tubes and freeze them. The bottom half would be clear and the top half would have all of the impurities etc. (or maybe the other way?). The dirty half would get smashed for the well and the clear part would get polished into spheres.
If the packaging is a reusable mold then this makes sense.
Tell me more about how freezing water is the end of civilization.
Just because people are paying a premium for it doesn’t make it any worse than the bags of ice at the grocery store.
Ice was one of the first things humans used to keep things cold, and was super important on the path to refrigeration and freezing.
While I know a lot of technologies are overused, and capitalism twists them to disgusting ends, but refrigeration is a massive boon for making food last longer. Most American families just have ones far larger than they need and as such they end up wasting food instead of getting fresh food regularly and using it all up before it goes bad in the fridge. I personally enjoy a small fridge.
Also, freezers and refrigeration are an integral part of the medical sciences.
Anyway, personal opinion, this is pretty innocuous compared to like, jet travel between Seattle and Portland.
