On the Rocks: History of Ice

Suddenly, serious bars all have “ice programs,” and the trifecta of clear blocks, cubes, and nuggets are now basic essentials in upscale mixology. Candian ice king and bar owner Cam Bogue helps us drill down into the history of cocktail ice.

Natural Ice Era: Ancient Times — 1800s

Ice from glaciers and frozen lakes is kept in underground pits for food preservation and, eventually, stored in ice houses, available primarily to the rich. 

Early Ice Age: Early-to-Mid-1800s

Boston merchant Frederic Tudor commercially harvests and transports winter lake ice, making it cheaper and more available to all.

Block Ice: Late 1800s

The first ice-making machines appear in France. Juleps and cobblers in the U.S. are served on shaved ice, and ice cubes are used for shaking, chilling, and diluting cocktails.

Early Cocktail Era: 1860s

Cocktail ice is referenced in Jerry Thomas’Bar-Tenders Guide: How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks (1862).

Big Freeze: 1920

U.S. Prohibition’s ban on drinking alcohol temporarily halts the development of ice culture.

Electric Age: 1950s

Home refrigerators bring iceboxes to the masses, but homemade ice is cloudy and melts quickly. Home bar carts and cocktail service (think: Mad Men pitchers of martinis) are seen as chic.

Kold-Draft Ice: 1955

An Ohio company releases the legendary ice machine, now known as Kold-Draft, which makes square, perfectly clear cubes. Many of these machines stay in service for decades.

Clinbell Ice: 1964

Virgil Clinbell invents the CB300 machine, which makes two 300-lb. Slabs of clear ice in three days. Initially, it’s used mostly by ice sculptors working with chainsaws.

Dark Ice Age: 1960s – 2000s

Mass production of commercial ice machines bring to bars and homes decades of crappy “pillow” ice crescents, thimbles, and cubes.

Japanese Ice: Late 1990s-2000s

Too small for clunky commercial machines, Japan’s pocket bars — like High Five, Star Bar Ginza and Tender (originator of the so-called hard shake technique that lets ice roll inside the shaker for a smoother, perfectly aired liquid) — bring in block ice for hand-carving.

Home Ice Era: 2009

The Alcademics blog of San Francisco writer Camper English — author of The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts — shares his simple, inexpensive home method for freezing clear ice.

Clear Ice Age: 2010s

Craft and artisanal purveyors of clear ice flourish in major cocktail cities. Crystal-clear king cubes and highball sticks proliferate at serious bars, along with novelty shapes like diamonds.

Sparkle Ice: 2015

With Clinebell’s original patent expired, Bogue creates a smaller, bar-sized machine that makes hand-carveable 50-lb. slabs of clear ice.

Cocktail Renaissance: 2000s – Present

New York bars Milk & Honey, Dutch Kills and Weather Up begin hand-carving block ice into large cocktail ice cubes, spheres, and spears.

Tiki Revival: 1990s to Present

Stiff rum drinks need quick dilution. Nugget ice rises in popularity, as it melts more evenly than crushed.

The Essential Modern Bar Trinity

Old Fashioned Ice for carving, Big Clear Cubes, Nugget Ice.

By Alexandra Gill with Cameron Bogue

Illustrations by Anthony Hare