Ice breakers: the right way to chill your summer cocktails

As the warm weather hits and the desire to cool down peaks, ice-cold drinks will always be in demand.

Ice provides dilution and chill to cocktails, with dilution being particularly important in stirred and shaken drinks. When it comes to building long drinks, the function of ice leans towards chilling.

While quality ice (meaning well-sized, solid cubes) matters for all cocktails, it’s particularly important for longer drinks, such as spritzes or highballs. Here the goal is to ensure the drink stays cold without collapsing into watery dilution, which counterintuitively means the glass needs more, not less, ice. Before fully topping your spritz or highball with its required mixer, take a look at the level of ice in your glass. Ensure it’s well packed and add a couple more cubes to keep that drink cooler, with minimal dilution, for longer.

Concentration versus dilution

Ice doesn’t have to be made out of water or necessarily thrown away once it’s been used to stir your drink. While adding ice to wine is often frowned upon, venues have been experimenting with cubes made from wine. Wine below 13% abv will freeze, though the cubes will be softer and melt more quickly than water. It can get quite technical with freezing and melting points, but flavouring your ice can provide a slow-release evolution to your drink.

Or take inspiration from Le Veau d’Or in New York, where the ice that’s used to stir your Martini is not discarded once your drink has been strained. It’s added to a glass, topped with sparkling mineral water and served to refresh.

Cool side-effects

You can also think about the flavours of summer and lean into them on your menu. A well-made Mojito, for example, with cooling mint and a balanced sweetness to acid ratio, will do much of the work to revive drinkers; cucumber, melon and coconut water all bring desirable, cooling refreshment, and herbs such as mint, verbena and lemon thyme will lift and revive the senses.

Iced teas, with their balance of gentle tannins, a touch of sweetness and a splash of acidity, are also useful bases for refreshing cocktails in the summer. They are traditionally served without alcohol and so satisfy demand from those not looking for booze in the heat, but it’s an added bonus for your station set-up if they can be served with alcohol too.

Zoe Burgess is the beverage consultant at drinks consultancy Atelier Pip