Much has been written on the topic of mixologists around the world getting fanatical about their ice (Sasha Petraske, who I greatly admire, being a prime example).   Why is ice so important?  Well, it melts into the drink and becomes an ingredient: WATER.

Water from ice both chills the drink and, obviously, adds water.  Notice that I did not say, “it waters down the drink”.  While a poorly made drink may be too watered-down, a well made drink incorporates that water as part of the drink.   We are not high-schoolers looking to see how much we can drink as quickly as possible.  We want drinks that make people happy.  How does water make people happy?

Time to return to my Theory of the Cocktail – Aspects of Happiness edition.  First and foremost, the drink should make people want to consume it for the flavor.  Next, it should enhance the atmosphere.  As a chaser, it should never inhibit people from attaining their goals.  Water is the lubricant that brings together

• Flavor – obviously the most critical element of drink
• Style – sometimes a drink needs volume to look right, or at least to keep people from interrupting the flow of an event for a refill
• Inhibition – lowering your own a bit is relaxing, but getting so drunk that you are inhibited from making it to dinner, bed, work, or a functional life is completely unacceptable

Add water, and the Flavors have a medium to mix in, the drink is volumized a bit to have the right Style, and people can drink appropriately to loosen Inhibitions without inhibiting their lives.  Pleased with the balance of Flavor, Style, and Inhibitions, people are happier.

Now that we know water properly belongs in cocktails, what sort of water should we put in?  Clean, filtered, tasteless water (another post will address flavoring the ice).  If you don’t like the water out of your tap, then don’t make ice out of it.

OK, so does it really matter what shape the ice is in?  Well, sort of.  As the article in the first line suggests (article) the more surface area exposed, the faster the ice melts.  So, if you only want a little water in the drink, then the bigger the cubes you can make the better.  Is it worth creating a gazillion types of ice?  I vote no, but I am pretty far along on the spectrum of laziness when it comes to things that are supposed to be fun.  I do think it is worth having a large and a very small size cube ice tray.  You can mix the two if you want a midsize.  For absurdly large whole glass cubes: there has to be a reason to go to fine cocktail establishments.

Of course, shaking a drink does a great deal more to break down the ice and introduce water than stirring, which must also be taken into account.  Somewhat surprisingly, I actually find larger cubes to be better for shaking than smaller.  I think the larger cubes fracture more and release even more water, plus they break up any fruit or other non-liquid items more effectively by virtue of their heft.

Fruit in the shaker brings up my final point: ways to cool a drink other than water.  You can freeze anything you want and put it in a drink, but it should be something that makes the drink look better (possibly influence the taste), and IS EDIBLE. 

Rocks DO NOT BELONG IN DRINKS:

Add ice or drink your whiskey straight.