Ice with Class

Diamonds! Diamonds!
I don't mean rhinestones!
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.
- from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953)

Many years ago I heard a news story on the radio of a company planning to sell ice from glaciers. It would melt more slowly and be slightly bluish. (The slow melting is not from extra hardness like I thought but rather from larger ice crystals in glacial ice.)  But this was back in 1988 based upon the only Google story I could find; there was nothing recent. I suppose the idea failed.

So where can you turn for really cool ice cubes? How about a diamond shaped "cube" (pictured above). The mold for a single diamond is $6.95 (plus shipping, etc.) A large chuck of ice will melt more slowly compared to many smaller cubes of equivalent volume. The rate of ice meltage is based on the surface area; smaller cubes have more surface relative to volume. This explains why I don't like the reusable ice cubes we have at home. They are plastic one inch cubes with water inside. Freeze them; drop them in a drink; and as they melt the water stays inside the plastic cube and does not dilute the drink. They can be washed and refrozen but they melt very quickly.

There are many specialty ice cube trays to be found online. For example 20 Unusual and Creative Ice Cube Trays include Lego's, the Titanic and iceberg, a set of false teeth, and dinosaurs.
CoolStuffExpress has Easter Island heads and penguins.
MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) sells a mold for spherical ice "cubes".

Bottom Line

Ice does not have to be boring; it can be fun. Or try non-ice alternatives like putting frozen grapes in a drink to cool it down. I also like using frozen limes that have been washed and cut in half.