Royal Tiki. A series this month of the places I’ve bought from, or want to buy from. Twitter: @RoyalTiki

Blender drink aficionados should book a flight to Europe, bring extra luggage space. The “Silent Blender” is here, er, there.

The Polar Ice Tray is quite possibly the most essential bar accessory a home cocktail bar enthusiast should own. Really. It’s that cool.

The more you grow to love cocktails, and especially making your own cocktails, Ice Obsession Syndrome seems less and less like a mental disorder and more like a reasonable state of mind. The size, temperature, and water quality of your ice all affect the cocktails you make and serve. Further, once you start paying attention to the application of your ice, you naturally start to pay attention to the aesthetics of your ice.
The connoisseur has two desires for his or her ice, especially the ice served in a rocks drink like an Old Fashioned, Big and Clear. Big isn’t so hard, especially these days. But ice tray ice and even some ice maker ice is full of tiny bubbles that cloud the stuff and make it look dirty. And the bigger the chunk of ice floating in a drink, the more obvious that cloudiness is. The Holy Grail of cocktail ice is big chunks that look like melty glass.

Over at Alcademics, Camper English has spent the last year in the quest for clear ice. After a host of mostly failed experiments, he came up with a cool working method of producing clear ice at home. It involves putting a whole igloo cooler in your freezer, however, so it doesn’t really fit under the heading of “Convenient”.

Enter the Polar Ice Tray from Lumiaire. This sleek, small loaf of bread-sized ice tray will make you a slab of nearly crystal clear ice about 6 by 5 by 1.5 inches in around twelve hours, using the same principals that Camper worked out. As you can see from my picture up top, and this one here, it is a lovely little device, too.

I cannot recommend enough how well this little guy works. Once you get the hang of it, it produces a nice supply of serving ice to have fun with and enjoy, without taking up an inordinate amount of your freezer’s limited space.

The one criticism I have of the Polar Ice Tray is the documentation, which less than adequately explains the use of the device. So I’ll give you The Missing Manual here, if you will. This part of the review is fairly in depth, so if you want to skip it for now, just jump down to the results.
Here’s an exploded diagram of each part of the Polar Ice Tray.

Only the three bottom pieces will matter most of the time. The bottom is an insulated holder. Always make sure it is dry inside and out when you get ready to make ice. The two white trays are where the ice will form. Fill the bottom tray with water almost to the top and then nestle the top tray (which has a number of small holes on the bottom) down into it. Press down and it will fit snugly. Then add more water until the level in the top tray comes about a half to a quarter inch from the top. Lift the white trays and nestle them tightly in the bottom cooler.

Place the combined pieces into your freezer. Make sure it is resting flat. The manual spends a lot of time on the temperature you should set your freezer to for optimum results. (0° C is best.) Unless you are in the terminal phases of Ice Geekery, you are unlikely to go changing the temp you like your freezer to be for this gadget, so be assured it will produce nice results at any functional level. The worst that can happen is tiny needles of air along the bottom.

What is important is where in the freezer you place the tray. Do not put it near the freezer element! If you do, you will get a giant, knobbly, frosty, permanent wave climbing out of one side of the tray. It looks weird and makes getting the ice out harder.

The closer to the chilling element you place the Polar Ice Tray, the larger this unsightly wave will get.

One more thing that is never mentioned in the manual: do not use the lid when making ice! If you do, you will not make ice at all.

A word here on how the science of the Polar Ice Tray works. When water freezes, it pushes out any dissolved air into the remaining unfrozen water. In most ice trays, the ice freezes all around the outside first. As the crystallization moves inward, the air is forced inward as well. Soon the air over-saturates the remaining water and begins to form bubbles, which freeze in place. The result is cloudy ice. In the Polar Ice Tray, the insulated container prevents the ice from forming on the sides and bottom. Instead the ice slab forms smoothly from the top down, like pond ice. The air is forced downward instead of inward.
This is where the double-boiler like construction comes in. Bubbles will not really start to form until the ice has frozen down to the bottom of the top tray. The air is forced down through the holes and forms lots of bubbles in the thin lower chamber, but few if any will be present in the big slab formed in the top tray!

When your twelve hours is up, remove the Polar Ice Tray from your freezer and lift out the white inserts. Set them aside on a counter where they can safely drip a bit and walk away for about five minutes. It’s not hard to find something to do in your bar while you wait. Clean up the bitters stains or something. The wait lets the trays come apart easily and will let the ice warm up a bit. Almost none will actually melt however. Carefully remove the lower tray. The upper tray will be filled with clear ice, and there will be a slab of gnarly white ice stuck to the bottom.

Getting this waste ice off the bottom is easy, but does require a little patience.

Run a thin stream of cold water from the tap and let it flow over the seam between the junk ice and the bottom of the upper tray. Rotate it around until a seam opens. When the seam is deep enough to reach the first holes, turn the tray upside down and gently press on the junk ice. In a few moments, the inner good ice should slip free. Discard the crap ice and you are left with a lovely slab of clear ice.

Did I say lovely? Actually, the bottom will likely have a layer of bubbles and imperfections about a millimeter deep, and the top will be fairly frosty. Don’t worry, as soon as you use the ice, this will all disappear.

All this cloudiness will vanish as soon as the ice gets immersed.

I told you to let the ice warm up a bit because if you don’t, the thermal shock of even cold tap water will shatter the slab. It doesn’t fall apart, it just has big fissures everywhere. You can still use the ice, but it won’t look as cool. And in that case, what the heck was the point?

Before you reload the Polar Ice Tray, fill the insulated bottom with warm water and let it rest of a bit. If you don’t, the cold container will let the water in the bottom chamber freeze early, and the air will end up making its last stand in the upper tray, forming bubbles there and ruining the slab.

The blue tray and its inner lid are a special mold which makes a little ice man statue. I haven’t tried it, but if you want a chunk of ice shaped like a little dude, it should be awesome. The top lid combines with the insulated bottom to make a lovely ice bucket, should you wish.

As for using the ice, you’ll probably want to knock the slab down to four or six chunks, each of which should do awesomely for a low or high ball, depending on the shape you make. My aforementioned ice guy, Camper, has a nice post on using an ice pick, and notes that the alternative ice saw is a lot of effort.
He looks like he’s using an Anvil Ice Pick, or similar Sharon Stone approved model. Single prong ice picks like this look awesome and scary, and give you tremendous control while carving ice.

Pictured: NOT Camper English.

But at fifty bucks, the Anvil is a trifle cher…. Since the only carving I’m doing right now is simply snapping the slab in straight lines, I prefer one of these. $3.25 on Amazon.

If you store your ice in the freezer before serving, be sure to let it warm up again first, or it will shock when you put it in the drink. And as to that frost of surface bubbles that may have been evident as I mentioned above? Once you put your chunk into the drink and give it a good stir (or better, pre-chill the drink in a mixing tin and pour it over the ice) the surface imperfections will disappear, and you will be left with a glorious, clear, giant chunk of diamond keeping the finished libation chilled.

Oh and the cool little ice dude whose mold I mentioned before? Apparently, he is an action hero…

Here are a few more links about U-Cube Creative, the Taiwanese firm which created the Polar Ice Tray. Founder Chu Yulong is apparently quite the cocktail lounge connoisseur. The company’s Taiwanese website (in english) shows some other products they make, including a number of other shaped Polar Ice Trays. The site is worth looking at for some creative ideas they have for using the product. I’m looking in to whether or not the other ice trays are available on this side of the Pacific. I’ve talked to someone at Lumiere, and he tells me that the Bamboo version of the Polar Ice Tray will be available in the US around the end of March!

Among the cooler things I got for Christmas this year was a Tiki vessel set, part of which you can see above. It’s a pitcher, a mug, and (under the blue umbrella and hidden by the magic Tiki volcano eruption) a shot glass. They were made and given to me by my niece Beth, who among other things is a very creative ceramic artist. She’s also a Tiki Month fan and indulges her interest by making custom, one of a kind Tiki mugs.

I like mine. They look cool. And while they don’t have smooth texture and more graphic geometry of most Tiki mugs, they definitely have the right vibe.

If you are interested in one of Beth’s creations, she has an Etsy.com shop called ElizabethJeanCreations. She seldom takes too long to sell her stuff, so there are only a few items there as I write this. If you don’t see something you like, drop her a line through the shop, or through her FaceBook page, Capricious Creations in Clay. Custom orders are no problem.

In case you think you’ve seen something like this before, I used the other mug in my set for the Nui Nui post and this one.

I was reminded by some comments today of something I’d planned to do at the start of Tiki Month, but forgot about. It’s about drinking vessels of all types, not just Tiki mugs. I try (sometimes not very hard) to produce cool illustrations to go with many of my posts (sometimes not very successfully). Other bloggers do a hugely better job than I.
Further, as I surf other bloggers’ sites and look at their drink photos, I often find myself as much interested in the container as I am in the drink. And there are few things more frustrating than looking at a gorgeous cocktail glass and having no idea of what it is, who makes it, and where I could get for my own.

You get this sensation too, don’t you? See, I feel your pain.

So I am going to start including a brief description of glasses or Tiki mugs that I photograph. It’ll include a link to wherever I can find that carries it, so you can get your own if you like.
In the event I can find it on Amazon, I’ll always link there. This is because if you follow my link to Amazon and then buy, I get a small commission at no expense to you. Consider it hitting my tip jar. If I can’t find it on Amazon, I’ll give whatever advice I can.

Here’s what it’ll look like:

Booga Booga!
(Hot Lava Java Tiki Mug: available from Amazon.com )

As I get a chance, I’ll go back through old posts and add this info as I can, starting with the post people were asking about.

A clever, easy home bar hack using IKEA stuff. The comments on IKEAHacker posts are often very helpful and insightful too.

The New York Post notices that February is a good time to get your Tiki on. They must read this blog, or something.

Basement Bars Are Helm’s Deep For Men. An interesting article on a species endangered by society’s destruction of its habitat: Men.

So the home bar is back in fashion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Who knew?
Well, as someone who’s had a basement bar for a decade, and been writing about them for years now, me for one.
To be fair, the segment of the movement on which Helen Kirwan-Taylor (hyphenated last name, a bien sur) reports is likely somewhat more of a new phenomenon: The Rich have discovered the home bar. While the Why of this discovery is more important than the What, the What is the main focus of the WSJ article. I want to focus on the whys, but I’ll first point out a few interesting elements of Basement Bars for the rich that make the article worth reading in its entirety.

The general cocktail revolution has produced public bars that are absolute showpieces of both social graces and design (e.g. Door 74 in Amsterdam, as portrayed here by the inimitable Jay Hepburn). These bars, rather than being seedy watering holes for the hoi poloi, are a good bit nicer than the homes of the rich and famous… and we can’t have that! Some of the best designers of these new showpiece watering holes are building good secondary businesses creating home bars for clients who fell in love with their public creations. Even the self-contained bar in a piece of furniture has moved into the upper price zone, with pieces featured in the article from Armani Casa and Ralph Lauren, among others.

Interestingly, while the gilt bars of the Rich and Famous may cost a lot more than the Basement Bar of Joe Sixpack, or the corner mixing station of Moe Martini, what they are at heart is the same. Cocktail godfather Ernest Hemingway, the master of lyricism though brevity, famously misreported (to greater truth) his interchange with cocktail goduncle F. Scott Fitgerald:

“The rich are different than you and me,” said Fitzgerald.
“Yes, they have more money,” replied Hemingway.

Fitzgerald’s phrase here was taken from The Rich Boy, and Fitzgerald intends what it says on its face, as regards the unique softness of Old Money. Hemingway, however, turns the phrase on its head, reminding us that Rich or Poor, the human condition remains the same. In this case, it means we all need a quiet place to have a drink and be left alone with each other.

Two rich people, interacting just like humans.
—Jane Goodall file photo

Ms. Kirwan-Taylor notes three different explanations as to why the Basement Bar is increasingly popular. Each is a good one.
The first mentioned is the demonization, legal and societal, of smoking. Increasingly, if you want to have a smoke in a bar, the bar has to be in your home. (“They” will cut off this freedom as well, when they can manage it, but for now a good cigar is a powerful incentive to build a lounge at home.) I don’t smoke anything myself, beyond a cigar or so a year, and no one including me smokes in my bar. But if you do smoke, this is really important.

The second reason offered, given voice in the article by french designer India Hudson, is simply: “no SMS”. The implication is that bars are our last great bastion of face to face contact, where the BlackBerry does not rule our lives.

The heartache of Crackberry Addiction.
if only there was a bar where she would feel welcome….
[Source]

I think I buy this one the least, at least on its face. Like you, I’ve been in many a bar where I’ve glimpsed patrons (sometimes in the mirror, I confess) clasping a glass in one hand and an iPhone in the other. But the electronic leash is a cruel master, and escaping its grasp can be a powerful motivation to visit or build your own bar. And if sitting in a dark, comfortable seat and staring into the depths of a glass of amber liquid while thinking deep thoughts gives you permission to not answer the latest Tweet, there is great value in that. This is psychological rather than practical, but no less real.
The second part of this idea is conversation, rather than isolation. A Basement Bar is a salubrious place to practice the art of conversation in more than 140 characters, whether before, after, or in place of dinner. It’s a better place than the kitchen, which is a place that always holds the air of work needing to be done. (For a good laugh, enjoy paragraph 12 of the article, in which Ms. Kirwan-Taylor tries to get all Victorian up in your face, making distinctions between the proper times to use a drawing room versus a bar….)

The last reason, with which I find myself quite sympathetic, is simply this:

Another factor is age, (London designer, Tara) Bernerd notes. “At a certain point, hanging out at China Whites (or any nightclub) is no longer so appealing” she says.

Not cut out for an evening at Liquid.

Age covers a multitude of factors. I for one am too old for a lot of bars, and too old to put up with a lot of others often, or for long. Many of us, along with our friends, have children as well. An evening of conviviality in the basement lounge while the kids rampage overhead can beat a night on the town all hollow. Especially since you can find out about the demise of the fish tank via screams from upstairs instead of a resignation text from the sitter. Plus, demise of said fish tank will not necessarily end the evening when spent in the home bar.

I snark on this because I love. I’m very glad to see the home bar idea spreading wherever it can. Besides the benefits I discussed here, I think home bars contribute to the expansion of craft cocktails and people’s appreciation of same. And a final hat tip to KegWorks, whose blog tipped me to the Wall Street Journal’s article to begin with. As purveyors of home bar equipment, fixtures, and paraphernalia, they are more than ready to encourage anyone with budget to hop on in.

If you want to follow this specific series of posts on the Pegu Blog, you can subscribe to our Basement Bar feed here. Or you can just subscribe to the entire blog, with all its brilliant content, here!
Here’s a list of the other articles in this series that have been posted so far:

• Basement Bar Accessories #10: The NewAir Portable Ice Maker
• Basement Bar Accessories #6: DIY Kegerator
• Basement Bar Accessories: Herbal Assault Part 1
• Basement Bar Design #0: Introduction
• Basement Bar Design #1: Where, What, and Why.
• Basement Bar Design #2: Refrigerators
• Basement Bar Design #3: Ice Supply
• Basement Bar Design #4(a): Essential Glassware
• Basement Bar Design #4(b): Supplemental Glassware
• Basement Bar Design #4(c): Buying Glassware
• Basement Bar Design #5: Water and Washing Up
• Basement Bar Design #6: My Own Basement Bar
• Basement Bar Design #7: Bar Top and Countertop Surfaces
• Basement Bar Design #8(a): Artists
• Basement Bar Design #8(b) More Artists
• Basement Bar Design #8: Artwork
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #1: Lit Backbar Walls
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #2: Holiday Glassware Giveaways
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #3: Beer Dispensing from Heineken and Elsewhere
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #4: Branded Beer Taps
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #5: Pure American Ingenuity
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #7: The Man Wall
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #8: The Arkeg
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #9: Global Domination
• Basement Bar Design Accessories: Hidden Lairs
• Basement Bar Design Elsewhere in the Cocktailosphere
• Basement Bar Design Elsewhere in the Cocktailosphere #2
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #1: Sheds
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #2: Dangerous Party Invitees
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #3: Irish Pub in a (really big) Box
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #4: Mr. Blendtec, activate the defenses!
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #5: 1800 Tequila's Mancave Contest
• Basement Bar Design News: The Wall Street Journal Notices That Home Bars Are "In"
• Basement Bar Design, Things to Consider #1: The Bargain
• Basement Bar Design: A Tour of the Parade of Homes
• Basement Bar Design: Star Trek Doors
• Bulletin, Bulletin, Bulletin!
• Christmas Idea: Martini Shaker
• I Saved at Least $10,000 Because of Cocktail Blogging...
• New Basement Bar Contest From Grant's Whisky
• New Blog Function
• SideBlog: A Really Clever, Easy IKEA Home Bar
• SideBlog: Basement Bars Are Helm's Deep For Men
• SideBlog: Blender Drink Aficionados Booking For Europe With Spare Luggage Space
• SideBlog: Making Tiki Stuff: Royal Tiki
• SideBlog: New York Post Notices February is a Good Time For Tiki Month
• The Bar Accessory The EVERY Cocktail Geek Must Obtain
• The Sixth Day of Christmas
• Tiki Timeout: Bar Building and BlogBarCrawl Update
• Trader Tiki's Basement Bar in the News
• Unique Tiki Mugs
• Wow, They Even Have Black Friday Sales In the Cocktail World....

I’ve written often that your basement bar, for maximum coolness, needs a hook or two. Said hooks ought to be in keeping with your own personality, and the design of your bar. They could be as simple as a piece or two of nice artwork, or a pool table. If you are higher up on the handy and/or innovative scale, you might install built-in beer taps, or perhaps some unique plumbing….
The idea below is not part of a home bar, as far as I can tell.
But it should be. Perhaps, if you have the right combination of cocktailian enthusiasm, and Star Trek geek cred, you could make it real.

Via GeekPress, I give you uiproductions’ air-powered sliding doors. They even sound perfect.
A few things, should you decide to install there in your own home Ten-Forward or Quark’s Bar. He used standard paneled home doors. Should you want to do this for a themed bar, I’d suggest you go with the flat doors, and paint or laminate them appropriately. Also, he deliberately chose to go with a push button because of his home’s layout. Installing the electric eye he discusses should be a must.
Marc, the maker, posts complete instructions, along with photos, of how he constructed the door in the post. Go read it, and check out the extended edition of the video.
One final note: My first thought was that this was too cool to survive much use, and could turn into a difficult white elephant. But when I read further, I found that this is a four year old installation, with no problems. This setup is so awesome, I almost want to redo my own Basement Bar to incorporate one. But then I realized that if I put Ten Forward in my basement, Whoopi Goldberg would probably move in shortly thereafter. Not worth it. I suspect she shakes her Manhattans….

If you want to follow this specific series of posts on the Pegu Blog, you can subscribe to our Basement Bar feed here. Or you can just subscribe to the entire blog, with all its brilliant content, here!
Here’s a list of the other articles in this series that have been posted so far:

• Basement Bar Accessories #10: The NewAir Portable Ice Maker
• Basement Bar Accessories #6: DIY Kegerator
• Basement Bar Accessories: Herbal Assault Part 1
• Basement Bar Design #0: Introduction
• Basement Bar Design #1: Where, What, and Why.
• Basement Bar Design #2: Refrigerators
• Basement Bar Design #3: Ice Supply
• Basement Bar Design #4(a): Essential Glassware
• Basement Bar Design #4(b): Supplemental Glassware
• Basement Bar Design #4(c): Buying Glassware
• Basement Bar Design #5: Water and Washing Up
• Basement Bar Design #6: My Own Basement Bar
• Basement Bar Design #7: Bar Top and Countertop Surfaces
• Basement Bar Design #8(a): Artists
• Basement Bar Design #8(b) More Artists
• Basement Bar Design #8: Artwork
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #1: Lit Backbar Walls
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #2: Holiday Glassware Giveaways
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #3: Beer Dispensing from Heineken and Elsewhere
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #4: Branded Beer Taps
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #5: Pure American Ingenuity
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #7: The Man Wall
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #8: The Arkeg
• Basement Bar Design Accessories #9: Global Domination
• Basement Bar Design Accessories: Hidden Lairs
• Basement Bar Design Elsewhere in the Cocktailosphere
• Basement Bar Design Elsewhere in the Cocktailosphere #2
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #1: Sheds
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #2: Dangerous Party Invitees
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #3: Irish Pub in a (really big) Box
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #4: Mr. Blendtec, activate the defenses!
• Basement Bar Design Factoid #5: 1800 Tequila's Mancave Contest
• Basement Bar Design News: The Wall Street Journal Notices That Home Bars Are "In"
• Basement Bar Design, Things to Consider #1: The Bargain
• Basement Bar Design: A Tour of the Parade of Homes
• Basement Bar Design: Star Trek Doors
• Bulletin, Bulletin, Bulletin!
• Christmas Idea: Martini Shaker
• I Saved at Least $10,000 Because of Cocktail Blogging...
• New Basement Bar Contest From Grant's Whisky
• New Blog Function
• SideBlog: A Really Clever, Easy IKEA Home Bar
• SideBlog: Basement Bars Are Helm's Deep For Men
• SideBlog: Blender Drink Aficionados Booking For Europe With Spare Luggage Space
• SideBlog: Making Tiki Stuff: Royal Tiki
• SideBlog: New York Post Notices February is a Good Time For Tiki Month
• The Bar Accessory The EVERY Cocktail Geek Must Obtain
• The Sixth Day of Christmas
• Tiki Timeout: Bar Building and BlogBarCrawl Update
• Trader Tiki's Basement Bar in the News
• Unique Tiki Mugs
• Wow, They Even Have Black Friday Sales In the Cocktail World....