Summer’s hot, you need cold drinks. It’s just a fact. And ice cubes can help make that happen. But sometimes you don’t want your cubes melting too fast, as they’ll water-down your drink. Or you might not need the drink to drop in temperature very much, just a few degrees. See, you’ve got options. So if you’re making creative cocktails or interesting juice mixes, it might be time to take your ice cube game to a new level.

Ice serves several purposes in drinks. Clearly, cooling is a big one. Melting ice also provides a bit of water that can help bind the ingredients and enhance flavors. Ice is also part of the presentation of a beverage. Think about the piled cracked ice of a mojito, or a massive ice boulder in a negroni. Changing up the way your ice goes in the glass does a lot to change your perception of the beverage. And the clinking noise is makes as you walk around a party.

Making ice

You may think you’re at a disadvantage if you’re making ice at home, without any fancy gear they may have at expensive restaurants and cocktail bars. Not so. Home drink-makers actually have a pretty good setup, since we can easily make hard, dry ice in our freezers in almost any shape. Sometimes restaurants only produce smaller cubes of ice with holes, which melt fast because they have more surface area than solid cubes. Or, they leave ice out on the counter, allowing it to partially melt and get condensation on it, which again hastens melting and waters down your drink faster.

To make great ice at home just do what you’re doing: fill ice cube trays and leave them in the freezer until you really need them. Some people use filtered water, believing it tastes better as ice. The jury’s out on that one. Do what feels right.

Clear cubes

Want to make clear cubes? They’re pretty cool, no doubt. Clear ice can be made from bottled water that has been purified through distillation or reverse osmosis. But it can also be made with simply boiling tap water. Just boil it (and boil it again, if you want the ice super clear), let it cool, and pour it into your ice cube trays.

Cube size

As we’ve noted, the size of ice has a big impact on your drink, since smaller pieces will melt faster than larger chunks, cooling and diluting your beverage faster. Drinks famous for having crushed ice include the mint julep, which benefits from crushed or shaved ice because the drink itself is mostly straight bourbon (with a bit of mint and sugar and a splash of water). The daiquiri is another classic cocktail that was traditionally served over cracked ice, or shaved ice. To make crushed ice, just put your cubes in a blender.

Other cocktails lend themselves to huge ice cubes that melt slower and dilute your drink less. The old fashioned, Don Draper’s go-to tipple, puts big cubes to good use. Moulds can be found at almost any cooking store.

What size ice cubes do you use in your cocktails or juices? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter at @luvoinc.