The Importance of Ice

Making the right ice and having the right equipment to store it is pretty much the most important part of making a cocktail, and essentially it’s a question of whether you have dry ice or wet ice. In a bar, if the ice that sits in your well (the insulated storage box that’s built into most bars) is insulated and there’s a lot of metal around it, it will stay dry when you put it into your glass or tin so you won’t have to pour any water out. But if your storage vessel or your ice is too warm, for example, it will start to shrink, turn to water and then of course dilute the drinks.