ICE: On the Rocks, Please
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This document provides an overview of the importance of ice in cocktails and the steps some bars and restaurants take to ensure their ice is clean and pure. It discusses how ice inhibits taste receptors to make alcohol taste less strong, and how water quality can impact the taste of ice and drinks. Some key points: - Bars filter their water before making ice to remove impurities that could impact drink flavor. - Using more ice results in slower melting and less drink dilution. - Home bartenders can use distilled/bottled water or filters to improve their ice water quality.
ICE: On the Rocks, Please
- 1. "On the Rocks, Please" by TOM LLOYD | photo by STEVEN PAUL HLAVAC model: ELINA YOUNGBLUT | makeup: MIKE BURT | hair: GLORY SEARGEANT, SURFACE COLORSPA SALON MOUNT DORA hair assistant: LAUREN BLACK | nail artist: ASHLEY WATSON, SALON THERAPY, EUSTIS | Wardrobe: FRUGALS, MOUNT DORA
- 2. Most of us take ice for granted. We shouldn’t. Le t’s st art with Happy hour wouldn’t be very happy without it, and odd as it may seem to today’s label-conscious consumers, ice is the basics... every bit as important as the brand of alcohol used in building America’s favorite social lubricant: the cocktail. Cold is gold. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Prospero, ice is the (cold) stuff that dreams are made on. At Ruby Street Grille in Tavares, co-owner Andy Saunders Before bringing in the local professionals, let’s start with the says less is more when it comes to making ice. basics. With apologies to another Shakespeare character, there are When it comes to cocktails, cold is gold. Ice inhibits certain more things in heaven and earth – and especially in tap taste receptors on your tongue and makes alcohol taste, water – than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Depending well, less alcoholic. Whether your tastes run to vodka or gin on where you live, those things may include lead, chlorine, or scotch or bourbon, for most of us the cooler the drink, copper, arsenic, mercury, sodium, hydrogen sulfide and the better the taste. benzene. Making ice isn’t magic. Ice is water. Very, very cold water, to Since almost no one walks into a bar and asks for a Cutty be sure, but it’s still just water. Fossilized bar flies like myself Sark and chlorine, every drop of water that goes into Ruby might remember the days of block ice, chipped ice and Street’s icemaker is run through a special filtering system shaved ice, but that particular ice age is long gone. The cube first. is king now, and the truth is your refrigerator does a whiz- bang job of making more cubes than most of us will ever Andy says this filtration is an essential step in making cocktail need. With a little compressed gas and a row of coils, your ice. Frigidaire will automatically change your water into ice. (If you want to change your water into wine, you’ll need to Joshua Jungferman agrees. Fresh off a near-sweep of the consult a higher authority.) “Best of Lake” restaurant awards, Josh is the general manager at Pisces Rising in Mount Dora. His bar crews can run That said, if the water coming out of your kitchen faucet has through upwards of one and a quarter tons of ice in a single an odd taste or smell, don’t expect your refrigerator to day, so he added a second Manitowoc icemaker to the change that. Sooner or later, ice does melt, and when it restaurant’s cocktail-making arsenal. The Cadillac of melts it will impart that taste or smell directly to your drink. commercial ice machines, these beauties also filter out pretty much everything that isn’t two parts hydrogen and Likewise, if you’re the type who tucks tuna steaks into the ice one part oxygen. bin, be prepared to end up with a cocktail that only the crew of a Japanese fishing trawler could love. Sorry, Charlie. It For the home bartender, however, a giant Manitowoc in the wouldn’t work for Starkist and it won’t work here. You’d have kitchen would be nothing short of overkill. Besides, there already stolen your Stoli’s thunder, gone on a wild Grey are any number of other filtering options that won’t eat up Goose chase and will never get to the land of blue Skyy all your counter space or quadruple your water and electric living. In short, there’s Absolut-ely no chance of pouring a bills. perfect drink with ice like that. Filling ice trays with distilled or bottled water or using a Brita- People whose livelihoods depend on serving adult beverages type water filter is one route. Getting professional help is know this, and some of them take rather extraordinary steps another. There are no fewer than 35 water filtration to ensure their cocktail ice does its job properly. Let’s face it, companies operating right here in Lake County. you are far more likely to order a second, (or possibly third and fourth) drink if the first one is perfect. Continued on Page 37 PULSE • FALL 2012 | 21
- 3. ICE, continued from Page 21 C&L Still, unless your water is really bad, the easiest route to cocktail nirvana may be to filter out myths rather than chemicals. The worst of those myths is that using copious quantities of ice will dilute your cocktails. The plain scientific fact is that the more ice you use, the slower that ice will melt. That means less dilution. If you brush up on your Archimedes, you may have an even bigger “Eureka” moment. Think displacement. Add as much of your PRINTING INC. favorite liquor as you want to an ice-filled glass, and presto magic, there’s not much AND GRAPHIC DESIGN room left for the biggest drink diluter of all: the mixer! So, when you set out to make the perfect cocktail, think about your ice. It really is WE’VE the (cold) stuff that dreams are made on. MOVED... MARATHON, continued from Page 25 To handle the races, Vickie needs close to 200 volunteers scattered along the race course giving directions, staffing water stations and communicating with race officials. She has to make arrangements for the course to be fully certified and officially measured. She has worked closely with Chief of Police T. Randall Scoggins to ensure the safety of the runners as they move en masse along the public streets. She even made arrangements with Jim Gunderson to provide the official “pre-race pasta meal” hosted by Lakeside Inn. Vickie knows the devil is in the details when it comes to this event. Together we drove the marathon course which starts at the corner of Edgerton Court, behind Lakeside Inn tennis courts. We drove through town up to Highland Avenue when Vickie said to me, “Runners love straight shots and this is a good one all the way to Limit Avenue.” We proceeded through the Lake Gertrude neighborhoods, along Morningside Drive to Lakeshore Drive to Old 441 into town. The half-marathoners peel off at Alexander Street and end their race in front of Lakeside Inn. Those running the full 26.2 mile marathon must complete a second lap around the OUR NEW LOCATION same course. I was exhausted, and I was riding with Vickie! As we drove the marathon course, I could sense the emotion that gripped Vickie 137 N. Highland Street, Mount Dora, FL 32757 when she made her initial runs through Mount Dora in 2007. We are truly blessed with natural Florida beauty. Our oaks, pines and sycamores mingled with palms interspersed with the mini-groves let you know that you’re in Florida, but it’s a special place in Florida. Throw in our lakes, the varied terrain, the printingcalvin@gmail.com Spanish moss, the hibiscus and other tropicals that bloom year round and you know you’re in Mount Dora – soon to be home of the first Mount Dora Marathon. 407.421.6686 For details about the Mount Dora Marathon, go to www.mountdoramarathon.com. For information about On the Run Fitness and Pilates, go to www.mountdorafit.com. PULSE • FALL 2012 | 37