The first installment in my ice series will coincidentally be the second installment in my Tales of the Cocktail 2007 Time Travel Series. I present my notes from the seminar entitled "Ice On The Rocks," given by Christie Pope, Chad Solomon, and Sasha Petraske. The goal of the seminar was to shed new light on the importance of ice, an often overlooked ingredient in the cocktail.

According to Harry Craddock, author of the Savoy Cocktail Book (a gem of 1930's mixological wisdom, reprinted in recent years and available here), the best way to drink a cocktail is "quickly, while it’s laughing at you"

History of commercial ice:
Mountain ice and ice from frozen lakes & ponds would be used by ancient civilizations, stored in the ground.
Ice trades are known to have existed as early as the 16th century
Ice was exclusively for the wealthy.
The American ice trade started in the early 19th century and expanded the world of ice as ice becomes the American way of life by the 1830’s, with street vendors selling blocks of ice for residential uses.
In the States, ice was harvested from ponds. Frederick Tudor, a wealthy Bostonian, was the first to realize the salability of ice, especially in warmer climates (he was assumed to be crazy for this idea, until he developed a way to line the holds of ships with sawdust, enabling the ability to expand the ice trade beyond local economies. After the ice harvest in January-February, icehouses in Boston would store ice throughout the year. Tudor revolutionized methods of chipping, storing, transporting, and delivering ice.
The Frozen Water Trade is a biography of Tudor.

A new strategy to promote cold drinks created a taste of cold that got customers hooked: A pusher gave free ice to bartenders, with the intention of illustrating that people would drink beverages that were the same price cold as warm, and that people would not want to go back to warm drinks once they tried them cold. As a type of insurance policy, he would pay for returned drinks. Previously, water was not consumed as a beverage because it was viewed as dangerous. Cooler jars would be set out with several gallons of water and a block of ice—and so the advent of ice water.

1833- Tudor opened a route to India to supply British colonists there. Blocks suffered 7% melt rate on trip from the States to icehouses in Calcutta. Tudor's techniques were mimicked around the States. By the 1840s home refrigeration was widespread.

1830’s tudor focuses on new Orleans market. Sherry cobbler. Education process of getting bartenders to use ice, as well as customers getting used to the tatse of cold drinks.

Integration of ice into cocktails by 1840s:
Crushed ice became a distinguishing feature of such cocktails as mint juleps and cobblers.

Early Commercial ice machines
Coldraft—1 ¼’’ cubes, involves a coldplate—“directional freeze”—as pure water hits cold plate, it freezes, what doesn’t freeze runs off
The "brining" system is one of the oldest
Now, some progressive bartenders use silicon molds—ambient temperature of refrigeration environment—but since the ice freezes from the outside, it leaves cloudy ice or ice with large bubbles trapped in it.

Sasha Petroske (of Milk & Honey, Littlebranch)
The common lenticular cube is designed to melt as fast as possible. As alcohol pours over ice, it melts the ice, making a little alcohol look like more. It used to be easy to find a cold-draft, or “honest” ice cube. Colddraft went out of business because the commercial ice machine makers were in a race to the bottom.

By the 1920’s artificial refrigeration began overtaking ice harvesting, which had completely disappeared by 1950’s
Gallatoirs (in New Orleans) was the last place to use block ice.

Ice Manufacturing at Littlebranch: at the beginning of the shift ice pans are removed and cut into pieces. By taking out dividers of silicon ice trays, we are able to make ice “spears”, for collins drinks. Littlebranch has 4 chest freezers, which cost about $800 each. By comparison, ice machines cost $4,000 plus maintenance. Chest freezers almost never break, and use less electricity. It just takes space and time. The technique is to build up a stash throughout the week. 90% of drinks are shaken and stirred.

Rocks drinks—with a big rock, water content stays the same for most of the drink. The first couple of sips and last couple of sips are similar. So-called “journey drinks” make more sense with big rocks. With standard bar ice the drink is not a journey but a rush.The ideal rock should sit on the bottom of the glass, and will last half an hour.

Where big ice comes into its own is with shaken and stirred drinks. First, break big ice into two large chunks (Petroske uses a specially designed ice cracker which I have not been able to find.) Put ice into mixing glass, pour alcohol, and stir. Before straining, crack another big ice over and into glass, allowing smaller pieces into glass. Stir again and strain.

With shaken drinks, make sure everything is built before handling the ice. Recall again Harry Craddock, who said that we "shake a drink to wake it up, not to rock it to sleep.”
1) Make sure your big ice will touch the bottom end of the shaker.
2) Shake athletically. Use your ear, not a shake count or feel of ice in hand.
3) Strain cold-ass drink into glass

The Daiquiri, properly made, has a blanket of ice on top, which helps to insulate the drink, With chilling drinks, the goal is to go overboard, as it is never possible to get a drink too cold. A cold drink is the most memorable one.

...Maison St. Germain, that is. It seems like Texas is finally getting something hot that is not the weather. Okay, I admit that "hot" is perhaps an exaggeration, since the non-Texas media outlets blew their load over St. Germain last year, but this is a major thrill for us Third Coast cocktail junkies.

St. Germain, a French-made elderflower liqueur, was released (I believe) in early 2007 in a number of markets, and was all the rage at Tales of the Cocktail and in news outlets from the NY Times to Out. Tipsy and I first got a taste of it at Tales, and he was so kind as to import several bottles for my birthday last fall. Other than that, it was a discovery that we couldn't share. I couldn't write a story about it, because it was not for sale in Texas. I couldn't tell friends about it, because they would want to come drink up my stash (some did anyway). Until now...

On Saturday evening Tipsy and I were tending bar at a party, and I sent him to the store to pick up an extra bottle of Paula's Texas Orange since we prematurely blew through the bottle we had brought (at this point astute observers will notice this bizarre combination of events: running out of a bottle of liquor while it was still early enough to buy more, that is by 9pm CST. Let me explain that we were pouring drinks for a mature audience--my mother was in fact a guest; our own festivities generally start well after the liquor store has closed). So he comes back with the PTO and a fantasy in a bottle, by which I mean a bottle of St. Germain. At first I thought he had violated our precious stash from the house, but before I could make any indelicate exclamations, he shouts, "It's Here!!" It was a moment that nobody in the room could understand or appreciate, but it was incredible nonetheless. We proceeded to pour a bottle's worth of St. Germain Cocktails, which are the simple signature drink of the spirit:

St. Germain Cocktail (from the promotional materials):
2 oz Dry White Wine* or Champagne**
2 oz St-Germain
2 oz Soda Water
Method: Stir ingredients in a tall ice-filled Collins glass, mixing completely. Think of Paris circa 1947. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Variation: Think of Sartre circa 1947. Be the lemon twist
* Preferably Sauvignon Blanc
**Sparkling Wine or Prosecco

At Tales we attended a seminar given by Robert Cooper, who is the developer and owner of the product. Cooper's presentation was excellent, if a bit over-the-top at times. There is, for one, the story of how the product is created, which involves old French dudes (maybe Swiss), or bohemiens, peddling bicycles in the mountains during the few brief Spring days when the flowers are in full bloom. A number of people have commented on the dubious likelihood of this foundational story/myth, but that is not my point here. Rather, I think it is remarkable that Cooper and crew have put so much effort into developing not just the product, but also the materials that accompany it. The souvenir of the seminar was not, unfortunately, 750ml of St-Germain, but instead we walked away with perhaps the sexiest press kit ever, including card-stock reprints of articles about the product, a luxuriously produced book about production and mixing suggestions, and a St-Germain DVD. It is all very exciting for a low budget cocktalian such as myself. I have never seen a product come out as an "instant classic." His promotional materials are geared toward having this product hit the market as if it had been a staple of the bar since time immemorial. This is in stark contrast to a number of other liquor promotions I have experienced, for example: A Johnnie Walker promotion for their "Latin-American Initiative," when they decided they didn't want to miss out on all that money from Hispanic community in Houston, so they rented a nice villa, hired mariachis, had door men dressed like Johnnie Walker, giant ice scuptures in the same shape, flambe carts making JW bananas "foster", all very classy and yet nonetheless tacky--what my friend Daniel calls "High Tack." A better example is an event I attended for Bacardi Ciclon, also in Houston, for which they rented a cheesy night club, decorated it like a M.A.S.H.-theme frat party, and had hot "nurses" walking around in bikinis administering shots of Ciclon (Bacardi's "tequila-infused" rum, whatever that means); there was also a nurse's station where you could get an airbrushed tattoo of the Bacardi bat. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that St-Germain is one of those rare new liquor products that has positioned itself at the top of the shelf, and deserves it, unlike, for example, a million and one high-end vodkas that amount to nothing more than an empty promise.