By David Ponce
Getting that liquor cold has to be done right. Don’t be dilutin’ it with ice cubes. Use these solid metal cubes instead, which you’ve kept in the freezer like you’re supposed to. They look great, will chill your drink in seconds and can be used over and over again. $40 for a pair. It’s expensive, but just look at them.
[ Skybar Chill Cubes ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]
good idea to avoid to change the liquors’ taste
This is really just a gimmick. Reason? Stainless steel (really all metals) do not store heat well. It doesn’t take much heat to warm or cool metal compared to substances such as water. So it’s not going to do that great of a job. Bottom line: ice is 4x better at cooling your drink
Let’s say you have a 2″x2″x2″ cube of stainless steel, another of the same size of ice. If you put the cube into a drink at room temperature, how much energy can each cube absorb in order to cool the drink?
The stainless steel cube is 1000 grams (125cc, 8g/cc). The ice cube is 115g. If each starts out at 0 F(a nice cold freezer) and warms to 40 F(a cold drink), here’s the comparison:
Stainless steel: 1000g x 22 C x 0.12 cal/g C = 2640 cal
Ice: see calculations below, total = 10614 cal
10614/2640 = 4.02. An ice cube can absorb 4x as much heat as a same-sized steel cube.
warming Ice to melting temp: 115g x 17.8 C x 0.5 cal/g C = 1023 cal
melting ice: 115g x 79 cal/cc = 9085 cal
warming water to 40 F: 115g x 4.4 C x 1 cal/g C = 506 cal
@FearUncertaintyDoubt actually those cubes usually contain gel inside in that gets frozen and helps keep the cube (and whiskey) cold.