Best Ice Makers for a Home Craft Cocktail Bar
Updated: Feb 15
Ice (or rather water) is an Ingredient
An often-overlooked critical ingredient in a Craft Cocktail is ice. The water given off from the ice opens up the liquor to give the flavor profile ability to truly shine. Although it varies by recipe, in general, a Craft Cocktail, should be between 1/4 and 1/3 water. That means that in a 6-ounce cocktail about 1.5 ounces should be the ingredient of water.
Water is delivered in a Craft Cocktail by the melting of ice that happens during the shaking or stirring process. Shaking will deliver more water to the drink faster than stirring. The act of shaking breaks the ice into smaller pieces. This creates more surface area, the more surface area, the faster ice melts. This is why you strain a shaken cocktail into a fresh glass of ice or just into a chilled glass. You are slowing down or stopping the water transfer, thus keeping the cocktail at the intended amount of water longer.
Good Ice Cubes
So, what does a good ice cube look like? The answer is... it depends. It depends on the purpose. In an ideal situation, you would have 3 different types of cubes at your disposal.
Bullet/Nugget Cubes - A hole in the middle of the cube is ideal to maximize the surface area. This cube is used for the shaking and stirring process. You would also use this cube for creating crushed ice or frozen cocktails.
Medium Cubes - These cubes should be solid and about 1 square inch in size. This cube is used to serve drinks on the rocks. You'll fill your glass with this cube and strain your Craft Cocktail over them.
Large Cubes - This cube is typically served as a single block and will take up about 1/2 of the rocks glass. This cube is used when serving a single ingredient on the rocks. This is desired when you want to cool the spirit off, but want to minimize the water melt.
Top 4 Ice Makers for a Home Craft Cocktail Bar
A lot of times at home, your bar setup may be some distance from the freezer. So, for this list, we're looking at countertop Ice Makers that you can have in your home Craft Cocktail bar. We will specifically be looking at Bullet and Medium Cube ice makers.
4. Crownful Ice Maker Machine
Capacity: 1.7 pounds
Speed: 10 minutes per batch
Per Batch: 9 cubes
Cube Type: Bullet
Reservoir: 1.8 litter
Noise Level: Quite
Simple Controls 👍
Auto Alert when Full 👍
Lowest Price 👍
One Cube Size (0.9" x 1.3") 👎
No Self Cleaning 👎
3. GE Profile Opal | Nugget Ice Maker
Capacity: 3 pounds
Speed: 1 pound per hour
Cube Type: Nugget
Reservoir: 1 gallon
Noise Level: Moderate
Large Capacity 👍
Highest Price 👎
One Cube Size (Crunch Nugget) 👌
Self Cleaning 👍
UV Water Treatment 👍
Smart App for Scheduling 👍
Capacity: 2.2 pounds
Speed: 15 minutes per batch
Per Batch: 24 cubes
Cube Type: Medium Cube
Reservoir: 2.2 litter
Noise Level: Quite
Large Capacity 👍
Moderate Price 👎
Multi-size cube size adjustment 👍
Very Clear Ice 👍
Self Cleaning 👍
Up to 8-hour delay 👍
Auto Alert when Ice is full or water is low 👍
Sometimes the ice doesn't break apart into individual cubes 👎
1. Dreamiracle Ice Maker Machine
Capacity: 3.3 pounds
Speed: 7 minutes per batch
Per Batch: 9 cubes
Cube Type: Bullet
Reservoir: 2.8 litters
Noise Level: Quite
Largest Capacity 👍
Low-Moderate Price 👍
Two Cube Sizes - Sm (0.5" x 0.5") & Lg (1"x1") 👍
Insulation to keep ice cold 👍
Self Cleaning 👍
Fast from zero to ice 👍
Auto Alert when Ice is full or water is low 👍
We choose the Dreamiracle as our number one choice for a few reasons, but the reason we liked the most is that it produced two different sizes of bullet cubes and the price was more reasonable. The Euhomy was a close second due to all the great features and the fact that it was the only one that actually made medium cubes.
For your Large Ice Cubes, the best option is to go with an Ice Mold. Here is our recommendation as it doesn't take up a lot of space in your freezer, has a lid, and is easy to remove the ice from the mold.
Cheers!