Cocktail ice: 3 mistakes to stop making at home

Use one big cube for strong drinks

Small cubes have more surface for their size, so they melt faster and water a strong drink down before you're halfway through. An Old Fashioned or a Negroni wants one large cube. A silicone mould for 5 cm cubes is all it takes.

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  Old Fashioned

  One big cube keeps it strong to the last sip.

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  Negroni

  It wants one large cube too, for the same reason.

Fill the glass with ice

It sounds backwards, but two cubes melt faster than a glass full of them. A full glass stays colder, so the ice melts slower and the drink stays the way it was made.

Make clear ice

Cloudy ice is trapped air. It cracks when the drink hits it, and cracked ice melts faster. To make clear ice at home, freeze water in a small insulated cool box with the lid off. It freezes from the top down and pushes the air to the bottom, so the top of the block comes out clear. Cut it into cubes with a serrated knife.

And one more: fresh ice in the glass

Never tip the shaker ice into the glass. It's already broken up and half melted. Strain over fresh ice, as the Bloody Mary and El Diablo recipes do.