Ice, Ice Baby!

Alright STOP, collaborate and lisssten.  Our ice trays needed an intervention!

I don’t know about you guys, but we’ve had a mountain of trouble with our vertical ice trays on the boat.  While it is awesome that we even have a freezer on the boat, our freezer (and by freezer, I mean a shoebox-sized steel compartment in the corner of the fridge) is not very big.

Most notably, it is too small to house those old flat ice trays from the eighties.

Yeah, those.  I miss those.  

So we, like many others, used those vertical ice trays that were made (I believe) specifically for boats, or small freezers in general I guess.

Yeah, those.  I hate those.  [And don’t ask me why they’re showing round little center-hole cubes coming out.  Little false advertising there … ]

At least I hated ours.  We always seemed to have trouble with them.  First, several of the little plastic dividers broke off, making it exceedingly difficult to get those little buggers out:

Then we had one crack right down the middle:

You’ll notice we tried to resolve the problem with packaging tape (which did work by the way).  But they kept breaking elsewhere.  These things were just not Annie-proof, although not much is.  Now, I know what you’re thinking: Was this cracking and breaking caused because we didn’t wait long enough for the ice to melt before we went to yanking the divider out?  Of course!  But cocktails wait for no one.

The final problem, though, was through no fault of our own.  We kept filling them up and putting them in the freezer only to come back and find them completely empty.  What gives?!  That’s when we discovered a hairline crack in the bottom that was allowing the water to leak out.

We tried to JB Weld it shut.  [I swear these guys should sponsor me.  I try to weld everything!  If anyone from JB weld is listening, I’m available.]

Much like my failed 5,200 fix, this too was an epic failure.  Sadly, it seems JB Weld cannot withstand the contraction and constriction of multiple freezes.  So, we were once again tray-less.  Until … we found these nifty little ice ball makers, and I wanted to share!

We actually found them at J. Crew (of all places), and we bought two packs.  I believe they were like $17.00 a piece, but don’t quote me on that.  They’re great, though.  They sit vertically, fit in our little shoebox freezer and make these nice big racquetball-sized ice cubes─well, balls rather.

They fit nicely in a tumbler and because they’re so big, it takes them forever to melt, so your drink stays chill for hours.

Well, in theory.  Our drinks never exist for that long.

Now, they’re not ideal for drinks that work better over crushed or cubed ice (where the slight dilution from the ice enhances the drink), but they are perfect for what we call “sipping drinks”─more potent, crafted cocktails like an old fashioned or straight rum.

Pretty nifty.  How about it guys?  Any of you having trouble with your vertical ice trays or have you guys already come across these or different “ice ball” makers?  Where are you finding them?  Sharing is caring people!

In the meantime, throw some extra ice in that drink.  Cheers!

 

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