It's Drinking Week at City of Ate, which means even more stories than usual about our favorite pastime. Check back for more stories about craft beer, killer bartenders and more.
If you drink boozes, you've probably had a giant ice cube or ice sphere thrown into your beverage at a local bar. The reasoning behind using giant cubes and spheres is that giant ice melts slower, which means it won't dilute your fancy bourbon as quickly. If you're sipping bourbon, this is a nice benefit. If you're chugging Jack Daniels: high fives, chest bumps, and skip the rest of this post.
I'm not sure if the ice balls melt any slower, but they do look cool as hell. The first time I saw balls of ice balls (yes, I'm just trying to get the word "balls" into this as many times as possible balls), I was at a friend's house, and they used a Cirrus Ice Ball Press Kit. The ice ball press will shape an ice cube into an ice ball in a snap, and it'll continue to look badass the whole time, too. Unfortunately, this one also costs $1,099.00.
$1099.00 to make a giant ice cube into a sphere. My first words upon finding this out involved all of the good four-letter ones, plus "bullshit." Here is the Cirrus in action:
A major bummer we encountered with the Cirrus was that the press beautifully melted one cube into a sphere, but since the temperature of the device plays into the science of melting the cube, when we tried to melt another cube immediately after melting the first one, the device did not work. The video tells us to rinse the device in warm water, but if I'm paying $1,099 for an ice ball maker, I don't want to have to deal with that added ass pain.
And you have to make a silicone molded ice cube for the Cirrus before you can make a sphere. So, first, you're making a large cube, then you're melting that in the Cirrus. Basically, there are a lot of steps with this magic trick. If you want the process of making ice cubes to be a production and a show while you're making drinks, and you have a thousand bucks to drop on a toy, go for it.
But if you're like me, and you're 1) cheap and 2) handing out drinks at a party, you're going to want a different option that serves more people more quickly.
So, I headed to Spec's to see if there were other options. Surely there was a knock-off, right? Indeed, there are. I found several different silicone ice molds. There was a whole section of them. You could buy an ice tray that makes six giant cubes like this one, which sells on Amazon for $8.50:
Or they had these ice-sphere-makers for $19.95 for a set of two.
"But do they work as well?," you nonbelievers ask in a dick-ass tone. Yes. They work just as well. All you do is put the two sides of the silicone sphere thing together (it has a flat bottom (just like you like 'em?), so that it doesn't roll around in your freezer, but the ice is a spherical, as you can see), and then fill up the thing with water and wait for the water to have science sex with your freezer until it becomes ice.
And now, you have approximately $1,000 to spend on hookers. You're welcome. Merry Ice Ball Savings Hooker Christmas.
