Designer Ice Cubes | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures - The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

TIP OF THE DAY: Create Ice Cube Art (Designer Ice Cubes)

December 2, 2016 at 8:56 am · Filed under Beverages, Cocktails & Spirits, Entertaining, Food Fun, Tip Of The Day

We have long made “designer ice cubes” for cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks by:

Adding fruit to the ice cube for sweet drinks.

Adding herbs to the ice cubes for savory drinks.

You simply fill the ice cube tray with water and drop a piece of fruit or an herb into each compartment. Here’s our original article.

We also use two techniques that don’t dilute the drink:

Freeze juice or other liquid into ice cubes; for example, tomato juice or bouillon for a Bloody Mary, pineapple juice for a Piña Colada, coffee ice cubes for a Black Russian or Irish Coffee.

Use frozen fruits or vegetables. You can buy them or make them.

For sweet drinks, whole strawberries or melon balls are our go-to fruits.

For savory drinks, use larger vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower florets instead of frozen carrots and peas or corn, which are small and will defrost quickly. You can also freeze thick cucumber and zucchini slices.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The artiest ice cubes yet, from Let’s Mingle Blog. We just love the look, and have so much fun mixing and matching the ingredients.

Ingredients

Fruits, vegetables, herbs and whole spices of choice

Liquid of choice: water, flavored water, coffee, tea, juice or soft drink*

Preparation

1. FILL the ice cube compartments one-third or halfway with your liquid of choice: coffee or tea, juice, water, etc. Place the trays in the freezer until the ice is partially frozen (fully frozen is OK, too).

2. ADD the fruits, herbs, spices, whatever, and return to the freezer for 20 minutes or more, so the fruit will stick and not float to the top.

3. TOP with the final layer of liquid, and freeze fully.

Here’s the entire article from Let’s Mingle Blog, with many more design ideas.