My grandmother didn鈥檛 like ice in her drinks. She preferred boiled water that had cooled to room temperature, stored in an insulated bottle. Or a cup of hot tea.
I haven鈥檛 embraced room-temperature water, yet. But I am coming around to her attitude about ice in drinks. The ice interferes.
For entertaining insight into this, there鈥檚 , a blog posting from 2011 by Alina Simone at nytimes.com
鈥淚f you were born in the Soviet Union and are of a certain age, ice is your enemy,鈥� Simone reports. She hit the streets to pose the question, 鈥淲hy do Russians hate ice?鈥�
Some of my thinking on ice:
鈥� Ice dilutes the drink. You get less for your money.
鈥� Ice dominates. The drink 鈥� orange juice, soft drink, mineral water 鈥� fades to the background, and your tongue is numbed by the cold.聽
鈥� Ice can have a funkiness, adding an unwanted foreign essence.
鈥� Have you seen where ice sometimes comes from? Namely, scooped from a bucket that hasn鈥檛 been washed in gosh knows how long.
鈥� But ice is necessary to make a good smoothie.
When I ask for a drink with no ice, restaurants and bars have been happy to oblige. The request must be frequent, because there is never a quizzical look, or a sigh of annoyance.
I once received a drink in a smaller-than-normal glass when I asked for no ice. It was a premium soda pop. At the same place, plain old Coca-Cola came in the larger standard glass when I asked for no ice.
But at a fast food place 鈥� where there was a no-ice button on the cash register 鈥� my no-ice Coke came in a small cup, even though I asked for medium.
With self-serve drink fountains becoming common place at fast food restaurants and convenience stores, that鈥檚 less of an issue. When you fill your cup, you decide whether ice goes in it.
A compromise is the big ice cube, which melts slower, thus diluting less, while still providing a chill. You can buy, for example, .
I鈥檓 not necessarily recommending it. I found it when I did a search for 鈥渂ig ice cube鈥� on Google.
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