Ice tools like picks and tongs are essential bar tools for handling ice. It keeps things sanitary, and it protects you from the cold temperature. Other items like stainless steel ice cubes can keep your drink cool without diluting it.
How to Make Clear Ice
1. Warm Water
Use warm water from the tap or boil water in a pot. This will boil off the impurities of the water, helping it achieve clear ice. You can also use filtered water to maximize the chances of clear ice.
2. Cooler
Pour your warm water into a small cooler; the insulating material can help freeze your water faster. The wide base will create a giant block of ice that can be sculpted to the shape you want.
3. Slow Freezing
Leave the lid off and place the small cooler in the freezer. Let it freeze for 18-24 hours, this will freeze most of your ice, but it will leave a small layer of water. If this layer of water freezes, then the block becomes cloudy.
4. Shape
Place your ice onto a clean workspace. You can do this by flipping the cooler and giving it a tap. Let it slide down to the work area. Use a serrated knife to cut and shape your ice.
History of Ice Picks
Ice picks started as an ice ax to cut natural ice from lakes and ponds. They’re made of a long wooden pole with an iron spike tip used to travel on snowfields and glaciers in the Alps.
They later became smaller to use as a household item used to break up, pick at, or chip at the ice. It was used for separating and shaping the blocks of ice found in iceboxes. Ice picks became less popular around the late 1920s and early 1930s since people could make their ice.