Mixing Up Your Spring Cocktail

Patios are opening, menus are being reinvented, and we’re all beyond ready to get out of the house and celebrate the coming of summer with friends. It’s official! Spring is in the air and a spring cocktail is in our glass.

Whether you’re doing the sipping or the making, take this into consideration: Ice makes up the largest portion of every drink. That means it can make or break a spring cocktail. Without good, clean, quality ice, the entire cocktail becomes a worse version of what it could be. That’s why keeping your ice machine and water filtration system on a regular maintenance schedule is imperative to serving up drinks your customers rave about.

Every meal, every drink, and every appliance in your kitchen all require one vital ingredient: tap water. The quality of the food and drink you serve is directly correlated to the quality of the water you supply. Gritty tasting water and/or ice is a negative experience that can be easily avoided. To ensure the highest quality water and ice, start by replacing your water filters.

Scotsman® ice machines offer a variety of solutions for filtering and creating premium ice. Scotsman ice machines make clear, taste-free, and odorless cubes that melt slowly. This makes drinks stay colder, longer. These machines cycle out impurities in the water and only make ice with the pure water that reaches the evaporator. Machines like these are a great way to make and serve luxury-grade ice. 

There’s a good chance you noticed that cocktail bars and dining establishments are paying closer attention to their ice. The industry is calling it the artisanal-ice movement and the efforts coming out of it are noticeably improving the taste of your cocktail. The idea is that ice made with clean, purified water has better density and dilution. The cleaner and clearer the ice, the denser it is, and the denser it is, the slower it melts. 

Once your premium ice hits the freezer and your water filtration system is in good shape, you’re on to the fun part. Most commercial ice machines are able to make nugget ice, crushed sonic ice, half-cubes, flakes, and more. This allows for a more diverse spring cocktail selection.  

Every cocktail you create requires unique forms of ice. For example, take a Mint Julep. A smaller, less dense ice like flaked ice works better than most other types of ice because it dilutes the whiskey at the appropriate pace and keeps cocktails ice-cold. This is different from how you’d serve a tumbler of whiskey. Tumblers typically require a large cube so that the water is able to slowly open up the alcohol.

Here are a few other types of trending cocktails that you should consider adding to your cocktail menu this spring.

Mocktails: There will always be a place for carefully crafted non-alcoholic drinks. Mocktails are a great way to socialize and enjoy a tasty drink without having to consume alcohol. They’re typically handmade, just as regular cocktails are, and use most of the same ingredients as a traditional cocktail.

CBD Cocktails: The buzzworthy CBD cocktails are reaching new heights and have no plans of stopping. CBD can be added to mocktails or even cocktails containing alcohol. They offer a soothing touch of sedation and relaxation. After a couple of drinks, you’ll be swept up in a calm and mellow feeling.

Minimalistic Cocktails: Less common spirits make for a unique taste without an overdose of ingredients. Simplicity, flavor, and a return to fresh, natural ingredients make for a cleaner, more thoughtful taste over the syrupy, sugar-filled cocktail we’ve all had one too many times.