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Anytime you go to one of those bars, y’know with the bartender that has a handlebar mustache and a little rascals hat, they always crack one large cube with a spoon to add to the cocktail shaker. Wouldn’t it be faster and just as effective to use just regular ice cubes?
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It comes from a book by Dave Arnold called Liquid Intelligence. He did extensive research on the optimal way to use ice in both a shaker and a mixing glass.
He found that by cracking a 2 in cube into pieces and adding a 2nd whole one, you got the best mix of ice shards to chill and dilute the drink and bulk to properly agitate and froth the drink with a 10-15 second shake.
Generally you only see this in higher end craft bars, but I have seen it creeping into non-craft settings, probably as bartenders jump from the craft side to the traditional bar side.
That book is cool. The length he goes to try and perfect the daiquiri is incredible.
I love that book, that huge chapter on ice was read with a big what the actual fuck look on my face. It's knowledge I have that I will never use if I can help it. I like making good cocktails and the book is ON POINT on everything but...seriously...its also just a fucken cocktail man. Give me an ice machine bigger than my car, and some silicon molds for the king cubes.
Guess I'll never be the handle bar mustachioed dude in suspenders trying to sell you on a Ramos Gin Fiz with my hand cut ice. Yeah...I could. But I'd really rather not do that to myself.
I find that 90% of that book I will never use, 9% is good to know and it might influence things I do occasionally in the future, and 1% I use every time I make a drink.
That said, those percentages are different for every person depending on what kind of bar they work in, or what kind of drinks they make at home. Having the knowledge however is like having a complete set of tools in your garage ready to go whenever you need them - all for the cost of the book ($30) and the time to read it.
It seemed like a pretty good value proposition when I bought the book.
I'm about same there percentagewise. Im a huge nerd so that's why I read it. I loved the foaming tips and the argument for saline solution in cocktails totally made sense. Im a chef / bartender and have been fine dining about 90% of my career. I know how to do fancy shit, it's annoyingly pretentious. I can make you a to die for old fashioned without being pretentious about it is my thing. I write four cocktail menus a year for my bar (plus ones for events) that have to balance the volume with the deliciousness and work experience of my bartenders.
Cheers to knowledge, some of which I hope I never use.
I work in a setting where 8/10 of my customers wouldn’t know the difference between a perfectly crafted cocktail and a premix
Seems low, honestly.
I think it's the difference between treating a cocktail like a drink, and treating it like a piece of art. Both are fine, but you've got to know the setting you're in.
A small Coleman cooler in your kitchen freezer is all you need for quality crystal clear ice.
I know...and I'm not doin that. I did it once to see if I could and it wasnt worth it to me.
Then I suggest you read basically any other cocktail book. Liquid Intelligence is more of a food science textbook than a recipe book. After all, Dave Arnold is a food scientist that teaches/taught classes at a university level.
Check out Meehan's Bartender Manual if you want practicality. Or The Bar Book by Morgenthaler.
The NoMad Cocktail Book is really good too, especially for the semi-initiated.
It doesn't cover the breadth and depth that Meehan's does about stuff like bar layouts and that business, but it has everything someone would need to know about producing the ingredients and the cocktails themselves.
Actually, the foreword probably ought to be required reading for people thinking of hopping careers and getting behind the bar.
Yeah no shit dude. I have those too. All I'm saying is that ice chapter was pretentious as fuck.
It's pretentious to explain the chemistry of the only ingredient that is common in 99.9% of every single cocktail within the confines of a chemistry textbook?
And you’ll never have clear ice, and will never be on the same level.
See the thing is, I dont want to be on that level. That level has no work life balance at all, its soul crushing too much work and too many hours. Its unsustainable. I'll stick to my infusions and syrups I can make in one day and keep for a week or more. I highly doubt my clientele would even appreciate clear ice and thats the other thing I should've brought up.
Bartending is making people what they want, it's not making what you want. I know my clientele, they wouldn't give two shits about how clear the ice is.
Honestly that is such a good point. If the vast majority of your clientele literally wouldn’t notice ice clarity, that’s a lot of effort for nothing. “Bartending is making people what they want” is basically the truest essence of the job in one sentence.
Nerd, also good to now those things.
Isn’t that kind of subjective though? It may be optimal according to him.
The whole first part of the book is thermodynamics and understanding ice, chilling, and dilution. He goes into specific heat of glass vs metal and things like that. Very much not subjective in that regard.
Considering the man is a food scientist and professor of food science, I would think it is way more than "opinion".
But how can you be a “scientist” in regards to something totally subjective. A food scientist could say that lemon pepper on this cod fillet makes the ultimate dish, but I hate lemon pepper so it would not be optimal.
"Let me ask this sub of bartenders a question about bartending in hopes of getting an answer and then debate all the answers given to me" - this guy apparently
Food scientist isn't a fancy title like Mixologist.
Food science is an actual academic field of study. I can't explain it well but I found these
Wikipedia:
From UC Davis:
For a cooking analogy, it would be like them telling you the optimal temperature to pressure can something and you just being like "well, that's just like your opinion, man"
Different types/shapes of ice dilute or chill your cocktail in different ways.
I doubt the mere mortal can tell the difference, but I love that somebody did all that research
Those guys probably make hand-cut ice. Basically you freeze a large amount of water what is insulated from the bottom and sides - so that heat is only being drawn out of the top. This emulates how lakes freeze, because they freeze clear. Ice cube trays freeze the water from all directions which for some reason makes them cloudy,
Once you’ve gone through all of that effort, you’re probably tired of cutting ice. Therefore it makes sense to just use the biggies and break em up where necessary.
Any bar I ever worked in, 10 in 40 years, only had one ice machine. Different sizes of ice cubes were never an option.
That might be all the ice they have.
Yeah, I never had a cold draft making me one inch cubes, I had the machine putting out those sheets of small cubes for the well and big cubes in trays I made myself, so for the middle ground it was time to get crackin'
Just cause we can 😤 lol
How do you crack ice with a spoon?
Ice is naturally brittle, a sharp tap with the back of a bar spoon will crack it, saves having to get more tools out
Because they are fancy
Standard hipster activities tbh
If that’s how you describe “fancy” bartenders, please describe yourself…
Why?
Because 'Craft Cocktail Mixologists' fall into one of two catagories. Either A) They are completely delusional about what does and does not make a difference to people who drink alcohol, or B) they have figured out that 'Craft Cocktail Mixology' is a giant stage show, designed solely to create the illusion that they somehow are wizards magically creating mysterious potions in fantastical ways that you, the mere bar patron, could never hope to understand.
(As you can probably tell, I think modern bartenders are mostly either idiots or grifters. I'll just have a Hamm's on tap, please.)
Standard hipster activities tbh
because Japan.