Pillar Ice Co. brings crystal clear ice to Adelaide's bar scene. Are South Australians ready for the next step in cocktail culture?
when city mug I met with Lachlan Gunner, owner of Pillar Ice Company, and he reiterated that this was a conversation about ice cubes, not ice.
“I have to say especially about the ice cubes,” Lachlan says of the drawbacks of owning an ice company in the capital, which is Australia's top consumer of methylamphetamine.
“It's often given the wrong name.”
Pillar Ice Co. specializes in premium ice cubes. These in particular are singular, large cubes, meticulously crafted by Lachlan's suppliers on the outskirts of Adelaide.
Lachlan says the perfect ice cube should do two things. It cools the drink and slows down the water from diluting into alcohol.
“Water quality is important because you're adding water from the ice to your drink,” says Lachlan.
“And when you cool it down, the main thing that affects that is the surface area of the ice, which is what the surface area to volume ratio of the ice cube is.
“Think about shaking a drink with crushed ice and shaking a large block of ice. When you shake crushed ice, most of it dissolves into water, right? It's a pretty cold drink, but most of it It’s water.”
Lachlan's hands were frozen after this.
The benefits of a single ice cube, he says, make it suitable for certain cocktails that “change quickly when diluted and benefit from being very cold.”
“Large cubes dilute slowly, so to preserve the quality of your drink, you want to dilute it slowly, but you also want it to be cold, right?” asks Lachlan.
“An Old Fashioned is a good example. The bartender stirs it over ice (usually cubed ice) until he or she is satisfied with the dilution and cooling power.
“Then they pour it into a glass and add a big block of ice. [it’s] It's one of the best options for keeping drinks cold without diluting them further before your guests drink them. ”
Lachlan points to Negronis and whiskey as drinks that work well with Pillar Ice Company products. He also says that his ice complements the manufacturing label, which pays close attention to the quality of the drinking experience.
“If I spend all this time and energy making a product and then mix it with bad ice, then at the end of the day my glass isn’t the best experience, which is a bit of a shame,” says Lachlan. . he says.
“It's gotten to the point where some whiskey drinkers are saying, 'Don't drink it with ice.' A lot of people would say that's a pretty thing or that it's no big deal.”
transparent rocks
Pillar Ice Co. offers two different types of cubes. One is the pillar, which is a long column, and the other is the lock, which is the square in the photo above.
“It's designed to hold a lot of ice in different shaped glasses, but still have the quality we're talking about,” Lachlan says.
when city mug If you look down into the icy core of a perfect rock, you can see it straight through. It's very clear.
Lachlan said the process is called “directional freezing.”
“Typically, when you put something in the freezer because the whole freezer is cold, it freezes from the outside in. So if it's room temperature, the edges and sides will freeze first, then the center will freeze. “It freezes toward the ice…and that's where the white part of the ice cube comes from, and it compresses because it has nowhere else to go,” Lachlan said.
“So directional freezing means that instead of coming from all directions, if it comes from one direction, that side of the item freezes first, and then it goes from one side to the other.
“And then at the end, you hit a wall or something… there's a thin layer of ice on that side as well, so there's still a compression modulus, but it's on one side of the cube and a human can cut it off.” . But generally, to save time, you just stop the freezing process instead of interrupting it. ”
The “industry standard” freezer to facilitate this process is a Kleinbel, the same equipment used to make ice sculptures, Lachlan says.
Mr Lachlan started the business after working in cocktail bars in Sydney and witnessing the growth and evolution of the ice cube industry. He took inspiration from Sydney-based Bare Bones Ice Company, which has a similar Ice Cube ethos, and wanted to bring it home.
When I asked Lachlan if he thought Adelaide was ready for this particular type of ice, he said: “It's with the cocktail culture.”
“Ice, in particular, is continuing the cocktail culture and Adelaide is growing…just as we grow really good fruit and vegetables, that extends to the food industry and even drinks. I think there are,” he says.
Pillar Ice Co. is currently sold at Lachlan's cocktail bar Trap., as well as stores such as La Louisiane, Leigh Street Luggage and Restaurant Botanic.
Visit their website to order cubes in bulk or connect with them on Instagram for more.