The “ice crisis” aroused many reactions, from the anxiety of professionals to the jokes that spread on social networks. However, it shows something very striking: how little is known about industrial ice at the popular level. And this Spain, according to the data, is a superpower in the cube world.

In short, questions pile up… Really, industrial ice is the same as domestic ice, as many reviewers would have us believe, but are there larger ice buckets? Are there things that make industrial cubes better than what we can make at home? And looking at how things are, is there anything we can learn from that?

A “superpower” in the ice making world?. Although we are far from the numbers used in places like the USA, Spain is at the forefront of ice production and consumption in Europe. Spaniards consume an average of 10 kilograms of ice a year. That’s double what the Portuguese and Belgians consume (5 kilos), and more than three times the average for Germany, France and Italy (3 kilos).

Much more than just freezing tap water. In general, there is a firm consensus that the ice in bars (or in stores) is of a higher quality than what we can make at home: it is not simply a matter of taste (as everyone senses, the world derives from the ‘taste’ that the water used for its preparation can have), the longer they last for a long time and even have a more transparent color.

And it’s true. Essentially, there are three factors that make industrial ice last longer than homemade ice: the hardness of the water, the size of the cubes, and the amount of air in it. Normally, industrial ice is made with demineralized water: A few years ago, OCU did a thorough analysis of the cubes that can be found in Madrid and Alicante, and it turns out that they all use soft water in their manufacture. This is something that ensures they don’t add flavor and also has subtle (but interesting) effects on the texture of the ice.

Just as there are dissolved minerals in water, there is also air. In fact, it is precisely this air that fish use to ‘breathe’. In the case of ice, the presence of air causes the light to refract and appear white. Finally, size matters: household ice cubes are usually small (so they can be conveniently used in home freezers) and this means your ice cubes melt much faster.

bonus track. There is also one more thing. Ice cubes need a special polish so they don’t stick together. The general technique uses a dry air blast to ensure that the cubes do not clump together in the bags if the cold chain is maintained. This makes this type of ice easier (and very much) to handle.

Is there anything we can do at home to improve our cubes? In principle, there are tips we can follow to improve the quality of the ice. Things like using weak mineral water, trying to get the biggest molds we can, and boiling it (to get rid of the dissolved air bubbles inside). However, as with so many other things, professional finishes are difficult to achieve in most cases.

Image | first year