By now you may know that I am passionate about ice. I love when it is crystal clear and shaped in a perfect cube. There is something about the water up here that makes perfectly clear ice next to impossible- it's living on a well that does it.
No matter how many times that I filter the water, it always comes out cloudy in a glass and creamy colored when frozen into ice cubes. The minerals do it. Precisely what bores little pinhole leaks in the copper pipes. It's just not fair!
The Neat Ice Kit takes gravity and uses that principle to attain (nearly) perfectly clear ice. NEAT!
There are a few parts to the equation. The first is a tunnel, this is where the water goes. It's about 2.5 inches around and about six inches tall. It fits into a mold that holds the shape into something resembling a railroad spike, without the pointed tip.
This rests inside your freezer in an up and down position. The impurities in the water drop to the bottom of the device and the top (the 2.5 inch square) is (nearly) crystal clear. I'm very impressed to the simplicity of operation and the quality of the end result.
In the kit there is an extremely sharp ice cutter and a muddling/hammer to cut the ice. There is also a canvas "Lewis" bag to make crushed ice with the side (the end really) of the ice that contains the visually less pleasing impurities. What you do with this is crush it, and no one is for the worse.
I took my perfectly gorgeous ice cube and put it in a crystal glass.
I then poured a portion of Barrell Bourbon 003 over the top.
The next thing I did was sip. And then sip again.
Quite possibly, I dribbled some Bitter End Memphis BBQ Bitters over the top.
And then I sipped again.
Swoon.
I really love the Neat Ice Kit. I just wish they would package two to a box- primarily because when I make a drink, I make them for two. Not one. It would be nice to offer my friend (whomever they may be) an equally gorgeous hunk of hand crafted ice.
