Ice balls put a big smile on my face

I am as opposed to uni-taskers as one person can get, but I broke down and bought a stupidly overpriced ice ball mold: http://thejapanoutlet.com/Japanese-Ice-Ball-Maker-Tray-P1659987.aspx

I really enjoyed the so-called "world's best gin and tonic" at Jaleo in Las Vegas:

iceball.jpg

However, it's also fun to make your own! The ice balls are best shown off in a drink other than water, because the different index of refraction makes them stand out. Obviously, it helps to use boiled, then chilled water, to minimize bubbles.

Silly, I know, but lots of fun.

Nice!

The better cocktail places here have taken to putting a single, very large cube in some of their drinks. If you start with the ingredients chilled (or strained from a shaker) then the large cube does a good job of keeping everything cool without any further dilution. (At least I think that's the idea.)

There's a pretty long thread on the eGullet cocktail board discussing ice balls as well as various other shapes and sizes used in drinks.

I can see the smile and understand why.... I think they are elegant. Some things are worth the cost.... I would spring for a larger quantity device. It must take a bloody long time to have enough on hand.

Mike, I bet there is. I'm not a fan of eGullet for personal reasons, but there are a lot of really great people there. I'm scared to visit the ice thread because I worry I might find others who would enable my addiction to novelty ice. The silly thing is that the moon-shaped "cubes" produced by most home ice makers are pretty darn good cocktail ice, so it's not like I have to run out and buy the stuff.

I personally enjoyed a lovely mix of rye, sweet vermouth, and Bénédictine, the "Cocktail a la Louisiane" ( http://ajiggerofblog.com/2009/12/27/benedictine-cocktails/ , not to be confused with [i]"La Louisiane"[i] which combines whisky, amaretto, and peach liqueur and makes me shiver inside). I used a couple partially melted ice balls, and they did an excellent job of chilling the drink without excessively diluting it.

Cristina, I would have gladly bought a larger tray, but they all have small balls (2.9cm / 1 1/8th inch) while the Japanese one is 5cm / 2 inch, which doesn't seem like a big difference but is five times the volume!

If anyone out there is looking to just fling money into a toilet, you can buy a block of aluminum that will melt a cylinder of ice into a 75mm ball for just £600 (naturally, shipping only £81 additional). http://www.iceballmaker.com/iceballvideo.html Also, if you are looking to fling money into a toilet, let me know and I can provide the toilet for a very reasonable fee.

Oh, and one last tip, there is a reason the gin and tonic above is in a wine glass instead of an old-fashioned glass. The gentle slope away from your lips helps support the ice ball. It weighs 65g / 2.5oz, which is heavy when it's rolling downhill onto your lips. I recommend using a wine glass, or else the Riedel water glasses or similar tulip-shaped water glass. http://goo.gl/D0U5U

Walt

If anyone out there is looking to just fling money into a toilet, you can buy a block of aluminum that will melt a cylinder of ice into a 75mm ball for just £600 (naturally, shipping only £81 additional). http://www.iceballmaker.com/iceballvideo.html Also, if you are looking to fling money into a toilet, let me know and I can provide the toilet for a very reasonable fee.

Okay, so I watched the video on the aluminum block ice ball maker, and I have several comments. 1, I would rather freeze ice balls directly than have to freeze blocks of ice as large as the one in the video. 2, that thing will only work that quickly once - you would then have to let it return to room temperature before repeating the trick. 3, that's really messy - even with the built in runoff tray. If you are going to make another ball, you have to clear out the melt water or the second melt will run all over the table. If anyone wants to buy that, I suggest you put the money in Walt's toilet.

Shlomo, ditto everything you said. I didn't mention that they will sell you the glossy black trays to hold the runoff, as well as molds for the starting block, for only £42 additional.

I really wonder why they don't sell a mold that is much closer to the shape of the ball, so it wouldn't have to melt half the ice.