I’m not interested in chipping away large pieces of ice, or spending $600+, so the second place looks like a great option! Thanks for these reviews! 😊👍
You left the cooler in for 24 hours too long then complained it's hard to break up. If you do it for just 24 hours, not a whole weekend, it pretty much breaks on it's own.
Loved this! I felt your pain trying to chip away at the cooler ice (My preferred method.) The key that we learned from the ice sculptors is to let the ice temper before you cut and chip away. Wait until it starts to sweat and is no longer frosty. Before that it is too brittle and won't break straight. The big key for me is co$t. I can by a ton of Liber & Co syrups with the money I save.
I do the cooler method and I actually find it relaxing to cut the block of ice down into cubes. One thing you need to do is let it temper (lose the outer frost) before you cut. Also, the tool to use for cutting is a large bread knife. The cooler method also gives you flexibility on shape, so you can make cubes as well as bars for highball glasses.
I used the igloo cooler method for years. Then I purchased the Simply Taste mold and wasn't happy with it because the spheres never got totally clear, but I do like the sphere shape, and I use it for that. I went back to the igloo method. I like this method because I have the option on making different size cubes, but it's a pain to cut them out. I use my oscillating saw to make cutting easier. I just purchased the Clearly Frozen tray. I'm very pleased with it. The cubes are all crystal clear and it's a lot easier than hand cutting the ice. I would like an option for a bigger cube. I may cut one of the walls out to make a double size cube. Thanks for the review. FYI: Your link to the Clearly Frozen mold takes you the Simply Taste mold.
Cooler both on the budget front and flexibility of shapes gets my vote. I use it for punch bowl ice, to cut cubes and spears, you can shape it with a pick, and any cloudy bits get smashed into my cracked ice bag.
i still prefer the cooler method. once you find the optimal time (2 days in my freezer) the cooler will have a reservoir of water at the bottom making the chipping away extremely easy. You'll need to be near a sink to catch the unfrozen water. From there carving the ice cubes is very easy. Top tip, when you remove the cooler from the freezer place it upside down on a cutting board and wait until the ice is released onto the board. By that time the ice will be tempered and very easy to work with.
Great video, I really enjoyed the content. I, too, am a cooler method guy, let the ice temper, and have fun cutting. I use a large bar mat to catch the water and ice shards without making a big mess, and use gloves I saw on The Educated Barfly's channel. Fun to cut different shapes (rocks, spears, etc) and chip edges off the sides for a rustic look. I agree on the serrated knife and a mallet. Lastly, the 50% of ice made that is cloudy is perfect for stirring or shaking cocktails. I appreciate the slight venture from syrup videos and how to make excellent cocktails!
I always use the cooler method, but thats because i find it therapeutic lol. It's fun and i find it quite rewarding too. Plus being able to cut into more shapes than just a simple cube is ideal.
It's simple enough to smooth out the uneven top surface on the Clearly Frozen cubes... just put the uneven side on a flat metal surface like a cookie sheet or in a pan for a couple minutes; the conductive metal surface will melt it right down to a uniform plane.
Fantastic review, thank you!! ❤ Last month I had an Old Fashioned (and a pornstar Martini) at the cocktail bar of Georges V in Paris. They also used totally clear icecubes. It was wonderfull...
I've used the Simple Taste sphere mold for several months, and never have anything but perfectly clear ice. No idea what y'all did differently, but for the space and price, it's a great product. You want more spheres for guests coming? Just plan ahead and put em in a baggie.
No idea what happened either, we just moved to a new space and perhaps the water harder here than our old space. We agree though! The price is very enticing!
I've got that sphere ice maker too, and I don't even use fancy distilled water (just the filtered stuff from my fridge), and it's been super clear every time.
Clearly Frozen makes awesome clear cubes. If you have the room the mini Igloo cooler is amazing. Plenty ice per freeze and you can make various shapes. Takes less then 10 mins to cut up an entire block and you get tons of ice.
I’ve been looking for solutions as the clearly frozen system was terrible for me. I don’t know if it’s because older freezers dont get as cold, but the foam pad was not thick enough to promote top down freezing. I had ice forming in the sides way before the curves were frozen.
This video was very useful for discovering new options but I think it`s not good for comparing them because to do it properly you need to leave them in the freezer for the right time.
I personally love the cooler method. I'm not surprised when other people are overwhelmed by the stuff that I like because I tend to go deep into the weeds for all of my hobbies. But if you spent a bit of time reading or watching youtube videos about directional freezing you'd realize that you should be tempering the ice before working with it. I probably make a batch of directionally frozen ice once a month and it takes me about 5 minutes to process a block of ice. The first time I did it probably took 10 minutes.
Y'all made the cooler method look way harder than it is. I do that multiple times a week. It takes like 10 minutes. Just need a long, serrated blade like a bread knife and a mallet. And the yield of ice is like 5x as much as the other options.
Seems like you should be able to get any silicone ice tray, make some little holes in the bottom, and suspend it in a cooler. That's essentially what a lot of these ones do. Stuff that freezes on top stays clear while the cloudy stuff gets presser down into the body of the cooler
There’s no need to use bottled, filtered, or distilled water. As you rightly point out, the process of pushes out all of the impurities, and the science backs you up on that. As a result, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, there’s no need to use bottled, filtered, or distilled water. Also, those spheres should have got a 0/10 for clarity.
Screw $600 for 4 cubes. I will stick to the cooler free.99 He made it more complicated than it really is you do not let it freeze for 2 days had he let it freeze for a day and then let it temper for 15 minutes after taking it out of the freezer it would have taken him 15 minutes to cut the cubes.
@@liberandco please do a full video of the monogram forge ice press. It’s an amazing appliance and it’s the first ever to use a heated press. Can you do a dedicated full video of the klaris ice maker?
Looks like they are all failures imo. And don't say 700 bucks is worth it if it doesn't allow for external water source and alarm notifications when finished
that first block.....I went to the thrift store and bought a serrated bread knife for $2. use that to score on one face of the block. get your meat tenderizing mallet and rest the knife blade in the score and give it a whack. easy peasy. quick work of the big block.
Youve got to pull the cooler before it freezes all the way, and then you have to leave the ice out of the cooler for 20-30 minutes to temper. You tried to cut it without tempering, and thats why it fractured randomly and was hard to cut.
Hi there! We really appreciate your insight on cocktails, especially making clear ice and believe our new heated ice press will be suitable for your ice. Is there an opportunity for us to give you one for free in exchange for your valuable words on this product? If you're interested, we'll arrange to get the ice press to you at your earliest convenience. Thanks so much!
The tester was inept. It's just not that hard to carve up the large block. Same thing with the Clearly Frozen. You left it in too long and didn't fill it evenly. Blame it on your freezer if you must, but it's not hard to get consistent cubes out of it except always for that one that is twice as tall as the rest. Just cut it.
You must not have EVER even tried the cooler method. To anyone who uses this method,you looked bad. Been doing it four years ,of course you need to figure a few things out before you get it down. BUT….it’s crystal clear EVERY time(and I use plain old tap water) plus has ZERO taste. One more thing…..I can freeze and cut my blocks any size I wish. You want to throw one of those 2x2 cubes in a lemonade glass? I use my ice in all drinks that take ice. This was not an accurate look at all. And ya even made fun of grandpa.
Yup, you left the cooler way to long in freezer. 24 hours and you knock off shards with a knife and done. Also, you left out the OG, probably the one that kicks all those other products asses, the wintersmiths phantom
Hi there! We really appreciate your insight on cocktails, especially making clear ice and believe our new heated ice press will be suitable for your ice. Is there an opportunity for us to give you one for free in exchange for your valuable words on this product? If you're interested, we'll arrange to get the ice press to you at your earliest convenience. Thanks so much!
