make clear ice. The ice cubes look best in a drink when they are apparent and transparent. Achieving this is not that easy if you want to make the ice cubes yourself.
How can you make clear ice cubes yourself? It works with these tricks!
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Transparent ice cubes – excellent and suitable for cool drinks
A perfect cocktail, long drinks, or pure spirit “on the rocks” needs ice cubes that are as large as possible and as completely transparent as possible. Clear ice cubes not only look nicer, but they also have better cooling properties. Crushed ice also works better when clear ice cubes are smashed.
The cloudiness and white veils that are often visible in ice cubes also mean that they melt faster and thus dilute the drink more than transparent ice cubes. Unfortunately, homemade ice cubes usually turn cloudy and milky in the freezer or freezer. The reason for this can be explained physically.
Why do ice cubes get cloudy?
Ice cubes usually freeze from the outside in. However, the water contains air, which is released when it freezes. Air and gases cannot escape inside the ice cube, creating tiny cracks and air chambers. This cloud the appearance of the ice cube. Seen from the outside, they appear white and milky. How to prevent this and make clear ice cubes yourself is explained here with a few simple tips.
Make ice cubes yourself – make clear ice!
It is possible to make wonderfully transparent ice cubes yourself with conventional ice cube molds. The type and size of the shape do not matter. The temperature and the direction from which the water freezes are significant.
1. Good water – good ice
To make good ice cubes, of course, you first need good water. It’s good that we have high-quality drinking water in Germany. Tap water is the most strictly control food in this country, and in most regions, it is even better than bottled mineral water. So there is nothing wrong with making ice cubes yourself with the tap water.
Many amateur bartenders swear by boiling the water once or twice before freezing to kill bacteria and get gases and minerals out. Much more important for clarity than boiling, however, is the type of freezing.
2. Freeze as slowly as possible to make clear ice
Have you ever wondered why icicles hanging from rain gutters are so beautifully clear and transparent? The reason is that the water here freezes very slowly, little by little. A thin layer of water after the other adheres to the cone-like stalactite so that it becomes thicker and longer from the inside out.
The process for clear ice cubes should work as similarly as possible.
So that your ice cubes freeze as slowly and gently as possible, you can raise the temperature of some freezers or freezers. At just -1 ° C, the water freezes more slowly than at -4 ° C and accordingly, less turbidity occurs.
3. Do not allow it to freeze from the outside in!
However, it is the critical speed and the direction in which the water turns to ice. As explained before, cracks and cloudiness appear in the middle of the ice cube when the air can no longer escape. Even with gentle freezing at a relatively warm -1 ° C or boiled and still warm water, philosophy remains in the middle, which clouds the ice cube inside.
Special ice cube machines for gastronomy keep the water moving while it is freezing and control the freezing process so that the ice cubes freeze from the inside out. The easiest way to do it yourself is to use insulation to influence direction. To do this, you pack the ice cube mold filled with water in a box covered with aluminum foil on top. This keeps the cold out above. The ice cubes freeze slowly from the bottom up, and the disruptive air can escape upwards. Clear ice cubes should be removable after about 24 hours.
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