Cocktails with smoked ice bulbs

Smoke lifts your drinks to new dimensions
It’s Friday, you have the boys over and serving up fantastic BBQ. What are you going to serve with the food, to get that little extra twist? Serve your favorite drink with smoked ice bulbs. My choice ended up on moscow mule and a variation of whiskey sour with honey and cinnamon. Recipe for smoked ice bulbs and the cocktails below.

What you need: (Smoked ice bulbs)

(Moscow mule)

(Whiskey Sour med honning og kanel)

Fill an aluminum tray with ice cubes
Then put the tray in the smoker (use a type of wood with a slightly pronounced smoky taste: Oak, hickory, mesquite. I used hickory) Set the smoker at 60-70 degrees C, not much more, otherwise the water will evaporate. Leave the ice cubes in the smoker for 2-3 hours, the water will get a slightly brownish color, smell and taste like smoke. Why not use a water tray instead of ice cubes? Sure you could just put water in a pan and smoke it, but I find it to get a more intensified smoke flavor by smoking ice cubes, as they melt, ALL sides of the cube will be infused with smoke, and not just the surface of the water. However, if you choose to us just a water pan, make sure you stir the water once in a while.

YES, size matters
How you choose to make your ice cubes is up to you. Small ice cubes give a faster sensation of smoke, large ones give off the smoke over a longer period of time, or you can serve the drink in ice bulbs, just because it is cool! Yeah, Cool. Ice cold in fact!

How to make bulbs and not balls
If you fill these molds and leave them in the freezer for 2.5 hours, the outside is frozen, but the water inside is still liquid. Use a soldering iron or heat a spoon etc. (Yes I have a dedicated soldering iron for food!) And melt a small hole in the top. then pour off the water, if you take care of the water you can freeze even more bulbs later. Put the finished balls back in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

When you are ready to serve
Use a funnel and fill the ball with the desired cocktail, and serve in a glass.

Moscow Mule
A classic, with delicious fresh taste of ginger. Perfect with a little smokiness.

Mix Lime juice, regular ice cubes and vodka in a shaker
Shake well and strain the mixture into a glass. Then mix with Ginger Beer and stir gently. Pour everything into the ice ball using a funnel or use a syringe. Put a slice of lime in the glass and pour Ginger ale around the ice bulb. wait until the ice ball melts, or smack it with a cocktail hammer.

Whiskey Sour with honey and cinnamon
Start by making simple syrup (bring 1 part sugar 1 part water 1 tablespoon honey and 2-3 cinnamon sticks to a boil) when the sugar has dissolved, leave the cinnamon sticks in the syrup for 30 minutes before taking them out and putting the syrup in the fridge.

Shake it
Mix the juice of a lemon and whiskey in a shaker together with a little plain ice cubes, shake well and strain the mixture into a glass, and then pour it into an ice bulb. Then fill the glass half full with Tonic water before letting the ball melt so that everything blends togethe. Or smack it with the hammer..