Flavorless, colorless cubes just don’t cut it anymore. Mixologists are now making a rainbow of ice infused with an unexpected array of savory ingredients. These inventive bar masters are using everything from meat consommé and squid ink to jalapeños and salt. Not only do these frozen components please the eye, they please the palate by adding new layers of taste to the cocktails they’re cooling down. Here are seven cocktails starring savory ice cubes that you should be drinking now.
Quality Meats, Miami Beach, Florida
Here’s a pirate-worthy pick me up. The Loose Cannon is made with tequila, house elixir, and fresh celery juice, and served over chartreuse green jalapeño ice. Smart aleck parrot and peg leg not included.
Range, Washington, D.C.
Beverage director Dane Nakamura offers up the Vegan Sacrifice forged from scotch, ginger, and cayenne. The cocktail’s cool factor is a meat popsicle – yes, you read that correctly – made with raw beef, cured meats, and pig’s blood, among other ingredients. As the ice melts, the drink’s flavor becomes more and more savory.
Clock Bar in the Westin St. Francis, San Francisco, California
This ice is like a cooling cannonball for your cocktail. Squid ink transforms an otherwise translucent sphere an ominous black. A mixture of dark aged rum, salted molasses, and orange and tiki bitters is added to the tumbler to create the Drunken Sailor.
Burritt Room + Tavern, San Francisco, California
Salt isn’t just for margaritas anymore, and it’s moved beyond the rim of the glass. The Peachy Keen features cachaça, peach, honey, lemon, and a salted ice cube to keep it all chill. The briny block adds a slightly salty counterpoint to the drink’s sweet and sour components.
Eli’s Table, New York, New York
Now you can drink your daily dose of veggies. Head mixologist Nathan Gurr makes beet ice cubes accented with maple syrup, fresh ginger, and lemon. The magenta cubes star in the Halcyon Days cocktail along with vodka, mint, lemonade, and soda.
Minton’s, New York, New York
Beverage director Antoine Hodge isn’t satisfied with simple squares. His cubes are speckled with basil seeds and black peppercorns, then topped off with broccoli rabe florets. These eye-catching elements bring a frosty demeanor to the Gordon’s Bittercup, an intoxicating mélange of gin, vermouth, lime juice, and simple syrup.
Grafton Street Pub & Grill, Cambridge, Massachusetts
There’s your average Pimm’s Cup — and then there’s the Crimson Cup. A blend of Pimm’s #1, gin, strawberry simple syrup, and lemon juice is poured over a giant cucumber chill pill. While you’re drinking it, feel free to boast to your tablemates how healthy you’re being by loading up on all the potassium and anti-oxidants found in the cukes.
Have you quaffed a drink with an infused cube? Where did you try this new trend? Let us know here or over on Facebook, G+, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter.
Nevin Martell is a Washington, D.C.-based food and travel writer and the author of several books, including Freak Show Without A Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations. Find him on Twitter @nevinmartell.
The post Not Your Average Ice, Ice Baby: 7 Cocktails Starring Savory Ice Cubes appeared first on OpenTable Blog.
