Beautiful ice-sphere machine

This copper mechanism from Macallan's will turn your large, irregular chunk of ice into a perfect sphere, whose melting properties are somehow optimal for the consumption of Scotch (I drink neat Irish, when I drink at all, which is almost never).

The Macallan Ice Ball Machine- 01.15.10 (via Andre's Notes)

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MORE: booze • cocktails • Gadgets • whisky

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Anonymous

Seems like the perfect addition to a physicist’s bar.
“Assuming spherical ice, and room temperature Scotch…”
Anonymous

As a Scot, I wouldn’t put ice in my whisky – I’d also go with a small quantity of water to open up the taste.

That said, it’s plenty cold enough here in Scotland, we have no great need to ice our drinks, I suppose it’s a different matter if you’re drinking in California,
Anonymous

That’s a re-branded Taishin icemaker.

http://www.taisin-ss.co.jp/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r46QnHTouDE&feature=related
Day Vexx

Personally, I’d rather have a Coke. The ice ball would be okay in it, too, but a chilled glass bottle is better.
M. Dery

“When I drink at all, which is almost never…”

Well, if you MUST teetotal, at least have the good grace to keep it a secret; it isn’t etiquette to flaunt one’s vices. (Is anyone else alarmed by this seemingly increasing tendency toward public proclamations of Xtreme Abstemiousness?)
coaxial

Pfft. Real connoisseurs buy theirs at $8 a sphere.
Raj77

I’m genuinely and truly saddened that Macallan are putting their name to anything that supports ruining their very fine whisky by putting ice in it.
Bevatron Repairman

I’m an enormous fan of single malt, and usually drink it with about 1/4 water added, but don’t look down on adding ice. If that’s how one enjoys it, do your thing. If I want a side of snobbery with my beverage, I’ll drive up to Napa.

That said, I would drink bourbon with one of these.
- weatherman
  
  Exactly. I hate it when people think the way they prefer their drink is the “right way” to drink it. With water, with ice, scotch, irish, kentucky, sprig of mint, dash of salt, whatever. It’s a matter of preference.
  - PaulR
    
    I agree, weatherman, wholeheartedly.
    
    If you’re drinking pond water, which is what most whiskeys taste like, you markedly improve them by adding ice, ginger ale, thai peanut sauce, whatever.
    
    But unlike a lot of people, you see, I make it a point of not drinking pond water. Ever.
    
    Adding ice to a good whisky, is like having a “medium-fat with speck” (that’s a smoked meat sandwich, for you non-Montrealers) with lettuce and tomato.
    
    I’ll concede that adding a splash of water is acceptable. Especially if there’s a war on and your ration card only allows four fifths of a gill of tipple per week. (If you’re ever in this situation, keep an eye out for bottles of ‘cask strength’ whisky.)
    
    Every year, two days after Canada Day, I raise a small glass of The Macallan, for Mordechai.
    
    Neat, no ice.
    - Talia
      
      Hehe. So its not ok to be snobby about HOW you drink your chosen drink, but it IS ok to be snobby about what your chosen drink IS?
      
      :P
peerst

I wouldn’t care about if people drink their malt on the rocks, wouldn’t it be the reason for chill-filtering.

Most malts get chill filtered, that is cooled down and then filtered. The reason is that some of the ingredients are insoluble at low temperature. So when non chill-filtered malt is put on the rocks it gets cloudy.

I would still not care if the substances that are taken away during chill-filtering wouldn’t enrich the taste.

Fortunately it gets easier now to get non chill-filtered malt nowadays.
Anonymous

Funny. I cannot drink scotch any other way than neat, with a small amount of water. But I love Kentucky bourbon, and that I always drink with a few ice cubes. I don’t really get how this neat devices would complete my life, but it is sort of neat in that “look, I’m showing how glaciers work” sort of way.

It’s true we should give it a break with telling people how to drink their libations, but it really annoys me when some newbie suggests to me that scotch must be drunk neat, no water to be a true snob, when it is precisely the opposite.

Really, it’s easy! Whisky, some amount of water to taste, enjoy. But if you come over to my house and want a whisky, I’ll serve it how you want it, with no snark.

What’s yer favourite whisky spirit?
Anonymous

My daughter makes these by putting water balloons outside in the winter. I presume you could do it in the freezer as well.
Anonymous

You should drink more! :D
Anonymous

Absolutely agree with the “no ice, but add some water” crowd. Do a very very simple taste test: serve two glasses, one with no water, the other with a little bit of it (from a dash to 1:1 whatever works for you, room temperature)… you’ll very clearly see that adding water opens up the taste and allows many of the individual flavor components to come through.

… On a related note, I’d also recommend to add a small splash of milk to your black tea. If you can’t tell an English Breakfast from a Darjeeling or a Prince of Wales, you’ll see how the milk makes them very different.
Anonymous

There’s a bar in New York that has a very similar device – it is amazing how fast it melts the hey-where-did-this-giant-ice-block-cube into a sphere, and quite fun spinning the ball around in the glass.

Hooray secret hot-dog bars!
Anonymous

It takes up all that counter space, and it only does one thing?
- CheshireKitty
  
  Think of it rather as a piece of art that also has a useful function! ;D
Snowrunner

Back in November I was at a “Macallen” dinner here in Vancouver at the Gotham Steakhouse.

Outside of being able to have a really tasty dinner, I also got to see this thing in action, it’s really really a very nice device and I would love to have the money to have one…. But I rather spent the money on delicious Scotch :)

If you’re curious, here are some photos from the dinner: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkness/sets/72157622876174130/
pinehead

If all you’ve got to feel smug about is the booze you drink, then I’d say you’ve found a good reason to drink as much of it as you can.

Personally, I don’t drink ANY whiskey neat anymore. I much prefer a cocktail to a tumbler-full of raw hooch.

But instead of ice, maybe you could drink it through a crazy straw. That way you wouldn’t even have to take the cigar out of your mouth. Now THAT’S class.
oyvinja

Drinking your single malt without ice is not just about snobbery. A good single malt can give an amazingly rich and diverse tasting experience, easily as challenging as any wine.
But the ice reduces that experience. Ice and/or very cold water tends to bring out the alcohol taste, and cover up a lot of the flavors. Your originally fabulous single malt now tastes bland, boring and…less.
So by all means, drink your scotch with ice, but you’re robbing yourself of the tasting experience.
- Enormo
  
  Putting a good single malt over ice is like taking a can of spray paint to your Ferrari because you think it looks better…
  
  Far be it from me to tell you not to do it but don’t expect me not to laugh at you for your poor decision making.
  
  If this makes me both a car snob and a whiskey snob so be it.
Andy Nonymous

It’s a re-branded Japanese item:

http://www.japantrendshop.com/ice-ball-mold-from-taisin-p-244.html
merreborn

It’s $200 for the mini-version of this device, and $1000+ for full size?

Surely this is something you could fabricate with $20 worth of metal and a computer controlled milling machine?
Anonymous

I went to that scotch event (if it was the same event) and yes, that machine was SUPER amazing:

http://sunnyfong.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/my-very-first-scotch-tasting/
Anonymous

False. It also smashes hands.
Scuba SM

Or you can buy spherical ice trays online. I believe the MoMA sells them online. The spheres do work well for scotch on the rocks though.
Anonymous

if you’re drinking “neat Irish” , you’re not drinking scotch anyway. Scotch is from Scotland. You can put as much ice in your Irish Whiskey as you’d like.
neilbrimelow

I’m sorry, but that’s just awesome. You could make the ice yourself by using a mold, but forming a sphere out of an irregular block is much cooler.
glory bee

The ice is a perfectly aesthetically beautiful shape and as one got drunker and drunker, even tho’ one had to squint to bring it into perspective, I am sure one would experience a more aesthetically pleasing experience of being pissed as a newt.
Anonymous

Maybe the reason you rarely drink is because you drink it neat. Add a bit of water to bring out the flavor and make it a bit more palatable, otherwise you might as well be consuming cough medicine.
realgeek

Don’t get me wrong, I like the spherical (or ovoid?) ice, but I’m disappointed that Macallan is advertising it by pouring their primary product over one of these ice balls. It’s good advertising, I suppose, but a terrible idea.

Do yourself a favor and drink your Macallan with a slightly less than equal part of room-temperature water. Sounds bland but it’s incredibly good. Go slow, savor it.
- apoxia
  
  Or even better, drink it neat.
Chewie_nz

I AM TURGID WITH WANT FOR WONDERFUL MACHINE

for now stuck with third world style square (SQUARE!!) ice cubes

live not worth living

WHISKY!
linnen

Sorry, Macallan took one of these and put their name on it.

But, yeah, they do look sweet.
Cowicorn

They used these ice spheres in the movie Paprika.
I bet the bottom would melt faster though and it would quickly turn into a half dome shape, which is kind of a bummer. :P
i_prefer_yeti

Another option is the $11.75 Muji Ice Ball maker.

http://www.muji.us/store/silicon-ice-ball-maker.html

It’s not copper, but it’s Muji & that count’s for something!
wuxingstreet

The perfect use for this ice ball machine is in the making of a classic Martini. Instead of using a cocktail shaker and ice cubes, simply pour your gin and vermouth into an over-sized beaker, add an ice ball and stir to taste. Remove the ice ball with a pair of tongs and serve into a chilled Martini glass. The olive goes on the side (not in the glass).
Revolverkiller

i think im gonna make one but not use such a HUGE damned piece of copper, just enough to make the inner radii on both sides and use steel to take up the rest of the mass and weight
- Seraphim_72
  
  No way in heck that thing is made out of copper. Guestimating from his hands holding the top I figure the main metal body is 20cm by about 12cm wide. A solid chunk of copper at that size clocks in at 44.6 pounds. Minus the center sphere and you are still in the 40 pound range. And from the picture he looks like he is far too casually holding 20 pounds. Aluminum works out to be 13.5 pounds at that same size.
  Also if it were made out of copper you had best hope that your local ice isn’t acidic at all, or that you leave it wet for a few days (shudder).
Anonymous

I would hope that lightning would strike me dead for putting ice/water with one of the finest whisky’s like The MacCallan.
skeletoncityrepeater

that’s a sweet device..
but Scotch on ice?
hmm if that’s what they recommend i’ll try it,
and if it’s good enough i’ll buy it
MelSkunk

I’d seen this in an anime (the giant sphere of ice in the scotch) and had been curious to try it myself, but I’ll probably wait for a full on trip to Japan rather than buy one of those.