If you are like me and are always looking for ways to level up your ice game and presentation, putting logos, phrases and/or patterns into ice are a great option. There are several approaches to add new touches to craft ice:
- Custom Silicone Molds – Companies such as Siligrams incorporate a user selected image into the bottom of a silicone tray. These make for great gifts but create low quality, cloudy ice as explained in our previous blog post. With cloudy ice, the custom image also does not pop as much as it does with clear ice.
photo credit Siligrams
- Ice Distributors – Wondering how that $15 cocktail gets an awesome design on the cube? The bar or restaurant partners with a local ice distributor to machine designs into each cube. This can be very costly and not accessible to the general consumer.
photo credit Minnesota Pure & Clear
- Metal Stamps/Plates – This is the focus of our blog today. Combined with a Klaris cube, a custom ice stamp can level up the presentation of any drink. Let’s dig in.
photo credit The Ice Designer
Stamps are typically made of brass, copper or aluminum and use thermal properties to melt a design into the cube, similar to an ice press. Instead of changing the shape of the cube, one or multiple faces of the cube can be embedded with a pattern or logo.
Stamps come in different formats. Some are flat plates with several designs (See The Ice Designer plate above) while others include a handle and interchangeable plates within a single device. Generic stamps like this can be found at Williams-Sonoma and Bespoke Post.
photo credit Williams-Sonoma
Ice Stamp Application
Recently Klaris’ founder got married and he was determined to use Klaris ice makers to produce 300 clear cubes and custom stamp them with the couple’s initials.
He started by creating a 2D image of their initials then reached out to a vendor on Etsy to make a custom ice stamp.
Next, cubes were created using 10 machines, running 1-2 cycles per day for approximately 1.5 weeks. After each production cycle, the cubes were stamped in place, then removed from the tray and inserts, placed in a Klaris storage container, and kept in a freezer.
On the day of the wedding, all 300 cubes were transported from the founder's house to the event center and container by container used in craft cocktails throughout the night.
Needless to say, the custom cubes were a showstopper with many wedding guests posting their admiration of our stamped clear ice on Instagram.
Tips & Tricks
- To stamp multiple cubes simultaneously, heat the stamp using warm water between uses.
- When making a drink using stamped ice, do not pour the liquid on top of the imprint, pour around the cube, the imprint will last longer.
- Always use clear ice cubes, preferably Klaris cubes 😊 because cloudy cubes don’t make the same impression.