Ice: How do you like yours? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 08-10-2008, 05:27 PM

Quote:

View: I Like My Ice Chilled Just So
Source: NYTimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

I Like My Ice Chilled Just So

August 10, 2008
I Like My Ice Chilled Just So
By GUY TREBAY
PARDON us, but was that Hoshizaki or Kold-Draft that you wanted with your Grey Goose?

Did you say you like your cocktail with a cube or a lozenge or a tube with a dimpled end? Do you want that iced tea served over crushed or would you prefer fragmented?

Questions like those may seem kooky or even risible to those content to cool a summer drink with chunks of ice from the sturdy waffle-bottomed tray parked next to the prehistoric peas in the freezer. But for some, the idea of consuming generic ice is enough to raise goose bumps and not the good kind.

There are those — and don’t wear yourself out looking for statistical surveys on this one — for whom water in chunky frozen form is a source not merely of interest but also obsession. You can find them, of course — alongside every other compulsive with an affinity group or microcohort — on the Web.

They post recipes for making ice with a level of internal clarity greater than that of a D-flawless diamond. They make YouTube videos of a deliberately Captain Kangaroo-style naïveté that demonstrate the beauties of cubes formed by boiling distilled water once to release any trapped air molecules and then boiled again and frozen before being plunked in a glass.

They forego refrigerator ice altogether in favor of the commercially produced kind, ordering products like the Air AI-100S portable ice cube maker, capable of producing fresh ice in 10 minutes, up to 28 pounds of it a day. Some aficionados, like the country singer Vince Gill (who has a Scotsman), even raise the ante by installing commercial-grade ice machines in their homes. And some set out on a kind of gourmet ice hegira (Safeway to Gristedes to Fairway) whenever friends come to drink.

CAROLYN POLK did not start out as “an ice snob.” For most of her life, Ms. Polk, a 41-year-old St. Louis native, staved off the blistering heat of Midwestern summers with the generic cubes that clunk into a freezer bin like clockwork or drop down a mysterious chute in the refrigerator door.

A couple years back, though, Ms. Polk noted a change in the habits of her guests, who casually started bringing their own ice, she said. Her ice, as it eventually turned out, was apparently not to her friends’ liking.

“Maybe the cubes were the wrong shape or they didn’t taste that good, I’m not sure,” Ms. Polk said last week. “But it got to the point where people came for cocktails, and they were bringing different bags of ice.”

“B.Y.O.I. was a turning point for me,” Ms. Polk said of the moment at which she exited the world of generic ice use and entered another. It is one where a cube, formerly a common and readily available commodity heaved out of supermarket freezers or convenience store cases, is transformed into a symbol of yet another type of consumer connoisseurship — not ice but “ice.”

“Ice is a food,” said Jane McEwen the executive director of the International Packaged Ice Association, voicing a mantra often heard in an industry laboring to lend gourmet associations to something seasonal, perishable and cheap.

The average American buys four bags of packaged ice each year; 80 percent of all packaged ice is sold between Memorial and Labor days. Promoters from within the $2.5 billion packaged ice industry would like to change ice’s hoi polloi associations, give it some of the swank that marketing geniuses injected into bottles of designer water.

Ice, as Ms. McEwen said, is water’s “sister product.”

As a sibling, ice is both mutable and fickle. “There are different forms of ice,” Ms. McEwen explained, and while every cube of ice has the same essential end point — and a purpose little understood in countries like, say, England or France — its use can be manipulated, ice experts say, to improve the quality of the drink it cools. Thus, there is fragmented ice (soda fountain drinks), nugget and cube ice (mixed drinks) and ice that is shaved. There is ice with dimpled ends that is ideal for chewing. There is ice manufactured using patented Japanese methods for eliminating the air bubbles that cloud a cocktail, inhibiting it from becoming a beautiful elixir, frigid and mystically clear.

Bottled water, of course, has lost some of its marketplace luster to consumer impatience with the plastic Everest generated from packaging a substance that runs safe and free from the tap. Ice, on the other hand, seems to be making gains in the market, however modest they may be.

“I never use refrigerator ice because it sucks up smells,” Phillip Redding, a visitor to Napa Valley, in California, said last week, his breath frosting as he plucked a 10-pound bag of Arctic Glacier from a freezer at the upscale Vallergas Market. At $1.79 a bag, the ice was good value, if not exactly top of the line.

The very finest ice, in Mr. Redding’s opinion — a true cube that provides greater surface area for faster drink cooling and does not melt as quickly as fragments do — is not easy to find outside a restaurant.

The worst, he added, is easily identified. It is the kind produced by a certain luxury refrigerator that he has at home. “The ice is crescent shaped and when you tilt the glass, it all rushes to the mouth and hits you in the face and spills your drink,” he added, as he made for the cashier.

Ice snobbery, to be certain, is no trend in the making. Packaged ice accounts for a mere 0.5 percent of all sales at American convenience stores, according to Don Longo, the editor of Convenience Store News, a number that has stayed flat for years. (Cigarettes, on the other hand, clocked a brisk 31.36 percent of all convenience store sales in 2007.)

Among the rare notable developments on the packaged-ice front is an uptick of interest in chewable ice — “like something to eat”— and a growing concern with purity, Mr. Longo said. To satisfy the Freudian cravings of the legions of ice chewers (Ice Chewers Bulletin Board - All about Chewing Ice • Index page), manufacturers have begun making products like Pearl Ice, Nugget Ice and Chewblet, commodities that in texture fall somewhere between the tongue-numbing chips of a snow cone and the molar-shattering hunks from a freezer tray. As for consumers worried that their ice, like their water, may have picked something up on its way from the icy depths of underground aquifers to the supermarket shelves, groups like the I.P.I.A. have pushed to certify ice made by its 240 members.

“You want to be sure you are getting good ice,” Ms. McEwen said. “If it isn’t certified, how do you know?”

Two years ago, the issue of ice purity was unexpectedly brought into focus when a Florida seventh grader, Jasmine Roberts, made national headlines for a science project that compared the purity of water from ice machines to that from the toilets in a variety of fast-food restaurants.

Testing the samples at the University of South Florida, the student discovered that the water from the toilets was purer than that from the ice machines, some of which were contaminated with E. coli bacteria, among other unsavory things.

“Not all ice is the same,” Ms. McEwen said.

And that, among other reasons, is why Ms. Polk uses the stuff pumped out by her refrigerator ice maker strictly as cooler-filler. Back home in St. Louis, she now buys all the ice intended for consumption at Ladue Market, where a 10-pound bag ($1.75) is dispensed from a Kold-Draft machine.

ASKED what it was about Kold-Draft cubes that made them special, Jerry Meyers, the owner of Ladue Market, who was 13 when the apparatus was installed 40 years ago, explained: “It’s one-inch square, a solid cube, no dimple, no hole in the middle. Plus, there’s something in the ice-making process — they use hot gas — that makes it clear when it’s released down the chute from the machine.”

The result is a finely transparent and classically shaped chunk of frozen water that might have brought a flush of pride to the cheeks of the 19th-century ice king Frederic Tudor, the pioneer who first harvested and shipped ice commercially from frozen water bodies (Walden Pond was one).

Can one, though, truly tell a Kold-Draft cube from one made from distilled and double-boiled water? Is there a quantifiable distinction to be drawn between store bought and homemade? The answer is yes, or at least for Ms. Polk it is.

“I never really thought ice mattered that much to me,” she said. “At first, all I wanted to do was make my guests happy. But once you go there, you go there, I guess.”

I got a shaved ice today.... it was very very tasty. Best part was the ice. It was shaved from a large clear block of ice. I love crushed ice, but many people don't have those kinds of machines anymore they have small little blocks. I've also been seeing ice cubes made from spring water in bags, but then there are these small packages called Ice Rocks.

ICEROCKS® - Spring Water Ice Cubes - WaterBank of America (USA) Inc. (WBOA) - Welcome

I didn't realize that I could be a snob about ice! This is great because I don't like the ice that comes from most refrigerator ice makers. If I'm getting ice cubes from the fridge, they are usually too "soft" with too much air. I prefer ice trays because the ice is hard and clear, but really I prefer crushed ice.

Ayashe · 08-13-2008, 06:04 PM

I would prefer to avoid ice for the most part. I don't care for how you are almost pelted in the lips with ice, or the chunks flowing into your mouth when you are wanting a drink. I also don't care for how they water down a bevarage. There are exceptions to this, a drink specially made to use crushed ice. Other than that, I find it ruins a lot of beverages for me. On a hot day, strolling at the fairgrounds I will have a drink with ice to keep cool but that is about it for me.

The_Jazz · 08-13-2008, 06:13 PM

Man, I need to learn sales tips from these folks.

Either that or:

Hey, Cyn, let's talk about making sure you've got all your insurance needs properly met.

Bear Cub · 08-13-2008, 06:31 PM

Preferably cold.

ItWasMe · 08-13-2008, 08:09 PM

I like crushed ice (real crushed ice, not small cubes), but I prefer shaved ice.

Jetée · 08-13-2008, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katyanna

I would prefer to avoid ice for the most part. I don't care for how you are almost pelted in the lips with ice, or the chunks flowing into your mouth when you are wanting a drink. I also don't care for how they water down a bevarage. There are exceptions to this, a drink specially made to use crushed ice. Other than that, I find it ruins a lot of beverages for me. On a hot day, strolling at the fairgrounds I will have a drink with ice to keep cool but that is about it for me.

Another perfect similtude to my tastes. I might never have to share an opinion again, since I always seem to arrive after someone else has already stated my personal feelings in their own words.

Grasshopper Green · 08-14-2008, 07:13 PM

I'm with the guy in the article that said he doesn't like refrigerator ice because it "sucks up smells" - I avoid ice that I know has been in the freezer for very long because it inevitably tastes funny. Other than that...I really don't have an ice size/shape preference.

telekinetic · 08-14-2008, 07:37 PM

We became ice-obsessed during my wife's pregnancy. The only ice we buy is from the Sonic fast food chain, as they sell it by the bag--it's 5mm clear pebbles, if I can find out what machine they use I will seriously consider a purchase.

We also enjoy shaved ice (not snow cones, but actual 'snow' style shaved ice, like what Cynthetiq was describing) and have an ice shaver as well as the molds to make our own clear blocks. We've also got a selection of syrup flavors.

But yes. Ice is not just ice.

mixedmedia · 08-14-2008, 07:44 PM

I always liked the crushed ice you used to get in those pebbly plastic glasses at little roadside diners. Can't remember the last time I had any.

Leto · 08-15-2008, 05:46 AM

I like it fragmented, with some fresh black pepper cracked over it.

kutulu · 08-19-2008, 08:37 AM

I like the crushed ice from Quik Trip

MSD · 09-02-2008, 01:36 PM

Filtered water in an ice cube tray does it for me. Most of the time when I have ice, it's at a bar and keeping my rum and Coke cold, so I'm not very picky.

Redlemon · 09-03-2008, 11:04 AM

I'm with Katyanna and Jetée; no ice please. If I have ice in a drink, I really prefer a straw as well.

I also drink my water at room temperature.

snowy · 09-03-2008, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlemon

I'm with Katyanna and Jetée; no ice please. If I have ice in a drink, I really prefer a straw as well.

My boyfriend thinks I'm strange because I won't drink a soda with ice in it if it doesn't have a straw. If the server gives me a glass of soda without a straw, I will wait until they give me a straw or bring me a straw to drink it. My teeth can't stand the extra cold. His grandmother thinks I'm strange too, because I won't drink lemonade with ice in it. Straw, please.

Leto · 09-03-2008, 11:40 AM

How do I like my ice? Cold and fast:

Willravel · 09-03-2008, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leto

Cold and fast:

That's how I like my women.

vanblah · 09-03-2008, 12:00 PM

I really like the ice-machine we have here at work. 1" by .5" rectangles of perfectly clear ice. I used to like pebbled ice (rabbit poop ice as we called it when we were kids); but the ice at work beats it for everything.

Part of it is the fact that it's filtered water and perfectly clear. It probably has more to do with aesthetics than anything.

ratbastid · 09-03-2008, 12:06 PM

Ice has the lowest overhead of any product. Just water, cold, and time.

Willravel · 09-03-2008, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vanblah

I really like the ice-machine we have here at work. 1" by .5" rectangles of perfectly clear ice.

It makes 2 dimensional ice?!

Leto · 09-03-2008, 12:35 PM

You're 'on' today!

vanblah · 09-03-2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willravel

It makes 2 dimensional ice?!

It really is an amazing machine ... and what's more: the ice DOESN'T melt. I think it works by slipping between the molecules of the drink. Of course, you have to have a special device just to collect it and a normal cup or glass won't work because it slips between the molecules of those too.

But I think it's worth it.

QuasiMondo · 09-03-2008, 02:23 PM

I prefer my ice to be warm and slushy, like springtime snow.

08-13-2008, 06:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	Man, I need to learn sales tips from these folks. Either that or: Hey, Cyn, let's talk about making sure you've got all your insurance needs properly met. __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

08-13-2008, 06:31 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bear Cub The Reverend Side Boob Location: Nofe Curolina	Preferably cold. __________________ Living in the United Socialist States of America.

08-13-2008, 08:09 PM	#5 (permalink)
ItWasMe But You'll Never Prove It. Location: under your bed	I like crushed ice (real crushed ice, not small cubes), but I prefer shaved ice. __________________ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Ok, no more truth-or-dare until somebody returns my underwear" ~ George Lopez I bake cookies just so I can lick the bowl. ~ ItWasMe

08-14-2008, 07:13 PM	#7 (permalink)
Grasshopper Green ...is a comical chap Location: Where morons reign supreme	I'm with the guy in the article that said he doesn't like refrigerator ice because it "sucks up smells" - I avoid ice that I know has been in the freezer for very long because it inevitably tastes funny. Other than that...I really don't have an ice size/shape preference. __________________ "They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa

08-14-2008, 07:44 PM	#9 (permalink)
mixedmedia has all her shots. Location: Florida	I always liked the crushed ice you used to get in those pebbly plastic glasses at little roadside diners. Can't remember the last time I had any. __________________ Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

08-13-2008, 06:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
Ayashe Psycho	I would prefer to avoid ice for the most part. I don't care for how you are almost pelted in the lips with ice, or the chunks flowing into your mouth when you are wanting a drink. I also don't care for how they water down a bevarage. There are exceptions to this, a drink specially made to use crushed ice. Other than that, I find it ruins a lot of beverages for me. On a hot day, strolling at the fairgrounds I will have a drink with ice to keep cool but that is about it for me.

08-14-2008, 07:37 PM	#8 (permalink)
telekinetic zomgomgomgomgomgomg Location: Fauxenix, Azerona	We became ice-obsessed during my wife's pregnancy. The only ice we buy is from the Sonic fast food chain, as they sell it by the bag--it's 5mm clear pebbles, if I can find out what machine they use I will seriously consider a purchase. We also enjoy shaved ice (not snow cones, but actual 'snow' style shaved ice, like what Cynthetiq was describing) and have an ice shaver as well as the molds to make our own clear blocks. We've also got a selection of syrup flavors. But yes. Ice is not just ice.

08-15-2008, 05:46 AM	#10 (permalink)
Leto Junkie Location: The Danforth	I like it fragmented, with some fresh black pepper cracked over it.

08-19-2008, 08:37 AM	#11 (permalink)
kutulu Junkie	I like the crushed ice from Quik Trip

09-02-2008, 01:36 PM	#12 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	Filtered water in an ice cube tray does it for me. Most of the time when I have ice, it's at a bar and keeping my rum and Coke cold, so I'm not very picky.

09-03-2008, 11:04 AM	#13 (permalink)
Redlemon Devoted Donor Location: New England	I'm with Katyanna and Jetée; no ice please. If I have ice in a drink, I really prefer a straw as well. I also drink my water at room temperature. __________________ I can't read your signature. Sorry.

09-03-2008, 11:40 AM	#15 (permalink)
Leto Junkie Location: The Danforth	How do I like my ice? Cold and fast:

09-03-2008, 12:00 PM	#17 (permalink)
vanblah Junkie	I really like the ice-machine we have here at work. 1" by .5" rectangles of perfectly clear ice. I used to like pebbled ice (rabbit poop ice as we called it when we were kids); but the ice at work beats it for everything. Part of it is the fact that it's filtered water and perfectly clear. It probably has more to do with aesthetics than anything.

09-03-2008, 12:06 PM	#18 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	Ice has the lowest overhead of any product. Just water, cold, and time.

09-03-2008, 12:35 PM	#20 (permalink)
Leto Junkie Location: The Danforth	You're 'on' today!

09-03-2008, 02:23 PM	#22 (permalink)
QuasiMondo Wise-ass Latino Location: Pretoria (Tshwane), RSA	I prefer my ice to be warm and slushy, like springtime snow. __________________ Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer. -From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator