Cocktail hour is a cherished time where alcoholic beverages become the focal point – this isn’t to suggest that during the rest of the night the alcoholic beverages become an after thought – but, it’s during cocktail hour that one needs the most from their drink. The long day has passed and the night is slowly flooding in, and the cocktail is there to help ease the transition. It’s supposed to help take the edge off, it’s supposed to taste delicious, and most importantly, it’s supposed to be refreshing, almost like a nice shower.
A refreshing beverage is almost always cold and the quickest way to make that drink cold is to put ice in it. However, if this plan of action is followed, five minutes later the beverage becomes diluted, basically turning the drink from rich and refreshing to weak and unsatisfying.
But entrepreneur Jason Sherman has found a way to turn alcohol into ice, and it’s a landmark development. Well, it’s not exactly like Sherman has figured out how to turn water into wine, which we are all still waiting on hands and knees for. But, Sherman’s technological development marks a significant milestone in alcohol culture. No longer is it necessary for cocktails and other cold alcoholic beverages to become diluted and turn into gross water. Now, it’s possible for drinkers to actually want their ice to melt because with Sherman’s boozy ice creation, drinks will progressively become more concentrated, not diluted.
It’s not hard to figure out the basic logic behind this development. Sherman created a machine, called the Beyond Zero turbo ice machine, which gets extremely cold, to the point of freezing liquor (coldest possible point is minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit).
Sherman stumbled upon this discovery when he was tinkering with a liquid-nitrogen ice-cream machine. He put Patrón in the machine and it spit out tequila ice. Upon this discovery, Sherman immediately pivoted his focus to making boozy ice. He spent years creating prototypes until he produced the Beyond Zero machine, which can freeze wine in about 3 minutes and whiskey in roughly 12.
It’s important to note that this creation doesn’t just allow for an alcoholic beverage to become increasingly concentrated, but it also makes drinks significantly colder than regular ice cubes do. When a glass of bourbon has four bourbon ice cubes in it, it sips at roughly minus-20 degrees. Water ice cubes can’t even begin to pass the threshold of zero into the negative degrees.
So how can you get this machine right now? Unfortunately, Sherman’s machine costs $7,999, so unless this is chump change for you it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get your own personal Beyond Zero machine. However, your local alcohol-selling establishment is likely to acquire this technology soon, so excitement is definitely warranted.
