6 ms·

I don't know about the rest, but the physics behind the ice ball does not seem right to me. The ice absorbs heat from the drink and cools it. The ice melts at a

by kghose 12y ago

I don't know about the rest, but the physics behind the ice ball does not seem right to me. The ice absorbs heat from the drink and cools it. The ice melts at a rate governed by how fast it absorbs the heat. If the ice melts more slowly, it absorbs less heat, so it cools the drink less. You can get the ice to melt more slowly by reducing its surface area, but your drink will also be warmer.

trevorstarick 12y ago
I believe that getting the ice to melt more slowly is the purpose. Regular ice cubes will melt at a faster rate and in turn dilute whichever drink you have them in. In something like water or soda it is less noticeable but with something like whisky, you will end up noticing it more.
Retra 12y ago
Seems right to me. But I think that explanation has more to do with selling ice to rich people than it does with cooling whiskey.
RaptorJ 12y ago
Unless the ice cube also gains heat from the air above the drink, which you want to slow down.
trevyn 12y ago
The ice absorbs heat from the drink and cools it. Yes. The ice melts at a rate governed by how fast it absorbs the heat. No.
- MrMeker 12y ago
  Explain? I think OP is right. The energy to melt the ice has to come from the whiskey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat
  - jjoonathan 12y ago
    Yes, but not the energy to heat the ice to 0˚C, which you have to do before melting it. A typical freezer might be -20˚C.
- doomrobo 12y ago
  Care to explain? This seems counterintuitive and interesting and I can't seem to find a source or equation that relates to your latter statement online.
MichaelApproved 12y ago
Here's a video of the ball in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwhVz_y8m0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwhVz_y8m0 The ice press sells for $700 to $1,100, depending on the size. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cirrus-ice-ball-press-kit/ http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cirrus-ice-ball-pres...
- MaxGabriel 12y ago
  I haven't used one myself to confirm the quality, but Cocktail Kingdom (which comes highly recommended + I know from experience sells great bar products) has them for $150 for 55mm models and $300 for 70mm models. Williams Sonoma is likely adding a huge markup.
- aleem 12y ago
  Whats wrong with just using a round mold http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Ball-Maker-Premium-Silicone/dp/B00CKH8ITQ http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Ball-Maker-Premium-Silicone/dp/B00... ?
  - MaxGabriel 12y ago
    Quoting from bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler's recent book: > My experience using these has resulted in more than a few cracked ice balls, whose deep fissures essentially increase the surface area of the ice ball, negating any benefits in that department. I had pretty much the same experience with my molds (I was using the Tovolo brand, rather than the one you linked to, though).
    - joncrocks 12y ago
      They work better with filtered and double/triple boiled water. Or you could go for a pricier option such as http://www.wintersmiths.com/ http://www.wintersmiths.com/ (which uses directional freezing).
danteembermage 12y ago
I'm going to take a stab at this, but trust me I don't speak from a position of authority on this one, just a couple of good college-level chemistry classes. So water will transition from liquid to solid and back through a phase change which consumes or produces energy. So any melting will cool the drink assuming it's warmer than 0 degrees C. So let's take as our starting point a mass of ice uniformly 0 degrees C. Regardless of geometry, any cooling of whisky will inevitably produce a phase change to liquid water in the exact amount required by the energy absorbed by the ice. So you get 0 degree ice, 0 degree water, and cooler whiskey. Assuming a 0 degree ice ball geometry is irrelevant. Of course water can be cooler than 0! So let's assume some really cool ice and do some thought experiment geometries. Take super thin sheets of ice for example. The total amount of energy available to cool the drink without melting is the specific heat of the ice times the temperature difference from zero (there might be some non-linearity here but I doubt it's relevant) times the volume of the ice. So if you have enough volume and cold enough ice you should be able to achieve a 0 degree drink at which point you have no more cooling and therefore no melting and no water. Unless the heat is transferred out of the water unevenly, say a large mass of it with a central core inaccessible from the outside liquid. Then it would matter how fast heat travels from the interface to the core relative to how fast heat travels from the drink to the interface. This probably has something to do with the outside liquid being turbulent and the inside solid being a lattice but I'm not sure. So, pure speculation here, I'd guess a large ball would have smaller surface to volume and so would cool more slowly for equivalent volume, but you get a large volume so you might be okay assuming the cold core of the large ice ball does the job of cooling the surface faster than the drink can heat it up. It seems to be it would be more effective to get very small ice chunks, a ton of them, make them really cold, then you have lots of surface area and if you do the math you could approximately guarantee no melting and you'd cool fast. Then strain out the chunks and put whatever you want in there since it's already 0 (maybe something cool looking you can condescend about?) But whatever you do don't put it in a glass you grab with your whole hand, the air is a really good insulator, glass much less so and palms work like a circulating hot-fluid heat exchanger.
- colechristensen 12y ago
  I'll take another stab with some thermo education experience added in. Much of your stab is pretty accurate though. Starting off with the opposite, I'll compare two situations. One with whiskey and snow, the other with whiskey and an ice ball. (mass of snow = mass of ice ball) Immediately when you drop the snow in, the temperature of the solid water in the snow raises from some negative temperature to 0 C, the temperature of the whiskey lowers to 0 C, and the surface of the snow particles melts. The slurry stays in equilibrium at 0 C until external heat inputs melt all of the solid water. Also because it is at 0 C, heat transfers from the environment quickly (heat transfer rate depends on the difference in temperature, the bigger the difference the more energy is transferred in the same amount of time) Downsides: * Cold whiskey * Immediately diluted whiskey * Faster heat transfer. Now for a solid ball of ice. As opposed to the snow, there isn't an instant change to a constant temperature. The ice (which in my freezer is at -19 C) initially only warms towards 0, there isn't a significant amount of melt until the whole ball is at 0 C. The whiskey likewise don't instantly, or perhaps ever cool to 0 C. This warmer whiskey accepts energy from the environment less quickly, which warms the ice ball less quickly, which results delayed and slower ice melt. This all happens because the surface area in contact with the fluid is much much smaller than with the snow. So you get * warmer whiskey (desirable for more flavor) * less water immediately in the whiskey * slower introduction of water into the whiskey This is all because the large mass, low surface ice ball slows down the thermodynamic process which has all desirable effects. * The key is not cooling the whiskey as quickly & not keeping the whiskey at 0 C. If it _did_ keep the whiskey at 0 C (for example with lots of stirring) there wouldn't be a difference between snow and ice ball. Normal ice cubes are a middle ground with undesirable effects to a lesser degree.
zaroth 12y ago
When she's talking about the balls of ice, you know, she's not really talking about balls of ice.
furyg3 12y ago
Surely refrigerating your whiskey is the correct approach? Or chilling the glass?
- MilnerRoute 12y ago
  They make plastic "ice cubes" which you can chill and then put in your whiskey (for cooling without any dilution). Although I wonder if my posting about plastic ice cubes really misses the point of the article.

by kghose 12y ago

trevorstarick 12y ago

I believe that getting the ice to melt more slowly is the purpose. Regular ice cubes will melt at a faster rate and in turn dilute whichever drink you have them in. In something like water or soda it is less noticeable but with something like whisky, you will end up noticing it more.

Retra 12y ago

Seems right to me. But I think that explanation has more to do with selling ice to rich people than it does with cooling whiskey.

RaptorJ 12y ago

Unless the ice cube also gains heat from the air above the drink, which you want to slow down.

trevyn 12y ago

The ice absorbs heat from the drink and cools it. Yes. The ice melts at a rate governed by how fast it absorbs the heat. No.

MrMeker 12y ago
Explain? I think OP is right. The energy to melt the ice has to come from the whiskey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat
- jjoonathan 12y ago
  Yes, but not the energy to heat the ice to 0˚C, which you have to do before melting it. A typical freezer might be -20˚C.
doomrobo 12y ago
Care to explain? This seems counterintuitive and interesting and I can't seem to find a source or equation that relates to your latter statement online.

MichaelApproved 12y ago

Here's a video of the ball in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwhVz_y8m0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwhVz_y8m0 The ice press sells for $700 to $1,100, depending on the size. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cirrus-ice-ball-press-kit/ http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cirrus-ice-ball-pres...

MaxGabriel 12y ago
I haven't used one myself to confirm the quality, but Cocktail Kingdom (which comes highly recommended + I know from experience sells great bar products) has them for $150 for 55mm models and $300 for 70mm models. Williams Sonoma is likely adding a huge markup.
aleem 12y ago
Whats wrong with just using a round mold http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Ball-Maker-Premium-Silicone/dp/B00CKH8ITQ http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Ball-Maker-Premium-Silicone/dp/B00... ?
- MaxGabriel 12y ago
  Quoting from bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler's recent book: > My experience using these has resulted in more than a few cracked ice balls, whose deep fissures essentially increase the surface area of the ice ball, negating any benefits in that department. I had pretty much the same experience with my molds (I was using the Tovolo brand, rather than the one you linked to, though).
  - joncrocks 12y ago
    They work better with filtered and double/triple boiled water. Or you could go for a pricier option such as http://www.wintersmiths.com/ http://www.wintersmiths.com/ (which uses directional freezing).

danteembermage 12y ago

I'm going to take a stab at this, but trust me I don't speak from a position of authority on this one, just a couple of good college-level chemistry classes. So water will transition from liquid to solid and back through a phase change which consumes or produces energy. So any melting will cool the drink assuming it's warmer than 0 degrees C. So let's take as our starting point a mass of ice uniformly 0 degrees C. Regardless of geometry, any cooling of whisky will inevitably produce a phase change to liquid water in the exact amount required by the energy absorbed by the ice. So you get 0 degree ice, 0 degree water, and cooler whiskey. Assuming a 0 degree ice ball geometry is irrelevant. Of course water can be cooler than 0! So let's assume some really cool ice and do some thought experiment geometries. Take super thin sheets of ice for example. The total amount of energy available to cool the drink without melting is the specific heat of the ice times the temperature difference from zero (there might be some non-linearity here but I doubt it's relevant) times the volume of the ice. So if you have enough volume and cold enough ice you should be able to achieve a 0 degree drink at which point you have no more cooling and therefore no melting and no water. Unless the heat is transferred out of the water unevenly, say a large mass of it with a central core inaccessible from the outside liquid. Then it would matter how fast heat travels from the interface to the core relative to how fast heat travels from the drink to the interface. This probably has something to do with the outside liquid being turbulent and the inside solid being a lattice but I'm not sure. So, pure speculation here, I'd guess a large ball would have smaller surface to volume and so would cool more slowly for equivalent volume, but you get a large volume so you might be okay assuming the cold core of the large ice ball does the job of cooling the surface faster than the drink can heat it up. It seems to be it would be more effective to get very small ice chunks, a ton of them, make them really cold, then you have lots of surface area and if you do the math you could approximately guarantee no melting and you'd cool fast. Then strain out the chunks and put whatever you want in there since it's already 0 (maybe something cool looking you can condescend about?) But whatever you do don't put it in a glass you grab with your whole hand, the air is a really good insulator, glass much less so and palms work like a circulating hot-fluid heat exchanger.

colechristensen 12y ago
I'll take another stab with some thermo education experience added in. Much of your stab is pretty accurate though. Starting off with the opposite, I'll compare two situations. One with whiskey and snow, the other with whiskey and an ice ball. (mass of snow = mass of ice ball) Immediately when you drop the snow in, the temperature of the solid water in the snow raises from some negative temperature to 0 C, the temperature of the whiskey lowers to 0 C, and the surface of the snow particles melts. The slurry stays in equilibrium at 0 C until external heat inputs melt all of the solid water. Also because it is at 0 C, heat transfers from the environment quickly (heat transfer rate depends on the difference in temperature, the bigger the difference the more energy is transferred in the same amount of time) Downsides: * Cold whiskey * Immediately diluted whiskey * Faster heat transfer. Now for a solid ball of ice. As opposed to the snow, there isn't an instant change to a constant temperature. The ice (which in my freezer is at -19 C) initially only warms towards 0, there isn't a significant amount of melt until the whole ball is at 0 C. The whiskey likewise don't instantly, or perhaps ever cool to 0 C. This warmer whiskey accepts energy from the environment less quickly, which warms the ice ball less quickly, which results delayed and slower ice melt. This all happens because the surface area in contact with the fluid is much much smaller than with the snow. So you get * warmer whiskey (desirable for more flavor) * less water immediately in the whiskey * slower introduction of water into the whiskey This is all because the large mass, low surface ice ball slows down the thermodynamic process which has all desirable effects. * The key is not cooling the whiskey as quickly & not keeping the whiskey at 0 C. If it _did_ keep the whiskey at 0 C (for example with lots of stirring) there wouldn't be a difference between snow and ice ball. Normal ice cubes are a middle ground with undesirable effects to a lesser degree.

zaroth 12y ago

When she's talking about the balls of ice, you know, she's not really talking about balls of ice.

furyg3 12y ago

Surely refrigerating your whiskey is the correct approach? Or chilling the glass?

MilnerRoute 12y ago
They make plastic "ice cubes" which you can chill and then put in your whiskey (for cooling without any dilution). Although I wonder if my posting about plastic ice cubes really misses the point of the article.