It’s a dilemma for some, I suppose: You want to cool your drink down, but you don’t want it to get watery, a big problem with melting ice. Short of chilled-glass contraptions, how do you get the job done?
Answer: Whisky stones.
Whisky stones are real rocks, soapstone cut into cubes to be exact, which you store in your freezer and drop straight into your drink when you want coldness without meltwater. If you’re starting with a warm/room-temperature beverage, they are slow to work and never get things anywhere close to the coolness that real ice does, but they mostly get the job done eventually. If your drink’s already cold and you just want to keep it that way, they work better, but I doubt that’s a huge application here.
The effect is a little disconcerting, I have to say. You are, after all, drinking from a glass full of gray rocks, which is not the most aesthetic way to imbibe. Despite promises to the contrary, the rocks do impart some flavor to the drink. In plain water, you definitely get a chalky flavor and texture in your mouth. It’s not hard to see why — there are little fragments of dust floating in the glass (and yes, I washed them first). In strong drinks these effects may be less noticeable.
Interesting stuff, and since I usually use ice not just for the cooling but for the water inherent to it, too, I probably won’t use these very often. That said, they don’t take up much room in the freezer, they clean up easily, and they’re quite a conversation starter.
Rock on.
$20 for set of 9 / teroforma.com
