Title says it all really, the store brought ice is always very different. Why is this?
Edit: I know I’m a moron, bought*
In: Chemistry
I’ve been down the rabbit hole on my quest for perfectly clear cubes, like you get at super swanky cocktail bars. I have answers now.
Boiling your water doesn’t do squat. Not sure what everyone is going on about. It’s about air and other impurities. Water has tiny bubbles. If you trap air in the middle of the cube, by freezing the cube from all direction, it will be cloudy.
Also, water expands when frozen, which causes stress as it pushes against the walls of the tray, which causes fracturing. To get clear ice, you have mimic how water freezes in a lake, which is how we used to harvest ice before electric freezers were invented. In a lake the water freezes in one direction, starting as a thin layer on top and expanding downward. As it does this it forces air and other impurities down. Because lake ice doesn’t reach the bottom of the lake, there’s always water below it, where the impurities can go.
You can do this at home by freezing water in a cooler without a lid. The ice will form top down. Pull it out before it freezes completely to the bottom.
**EDIT:**
* Youtube tutorial on using the insulated cooler method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHcCHbgX_o
* Or if you have more money than time: https://www.truecubes.com/store/true-cubes-tray
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