Food & Drink 5 Gimmicky Bar Products That Really Work

The internet is rife with flashy, gimmicky bar tools claiming to revolutionize life behind the stick. Unsurprisingly, those claims are often overblown—but not always. Over the past couple of years, we’ve come across a few tools that live up to their grandiose boasts—including a legit ice cube tray that produces perfectly clear cubes and a rubber block that vastly improves the texture of shaken cocktails. All gimmicks aside, here are five products that will actually make you a better bartender. Rabbit Clear Ice Tray, $20 Claims to “make ice that’s crystal clear and free of impurities…” This four-cube tray creates ultra-clear ice by directional freezing, and it’s championed by writer and ice aficionado Camper English. We tested it to see if it would actually result in cloud-free ice and—to our honest surprise—it worked beautifully. Not only did the ice come out clear, but the tray was easy to use and clean. Though it does take up a fair amount of space in the freezer and only results in four 1.5-inch cubes—it’s an easy, surefire way to make bar-worthy drinks.

BDX Cocktail Cube, $20 Claims to improve the texture of shaken cocktails. Booker and Dax’s Dave Arnold regularly taps into his scientific expertise to produce the best cocktails possible. One of his tried and true techniques involves shaking cocktails with one big ice cube, rather than a bunch of smaller ones, in order to improve the cocktail’s foaminess and texture. But those big ice cubes are expensive, so Arnold invented this giant rubber cube, which can be reused drink after drink. All you have to do is throw it in a shaker with a few smaller cubes of ice to get a perfectly frothy drink. If that sounds bizarre, we hear you. But the thing really works—try it out on a Ramos Gin Fizz and you’ll see what all the hype is about.

Corkcicle Canteen, $20 for 9oz bottle Claims to keep “drinks ice cold for up to 25 hours or hot for up to 12 without freezing or sweating.” Out of all these gimmicky products, Corkcicle’s claims seemed like the most outrageous. Twenty-five hours? Surely that’s a typo. But it turns out to be true. We wouldn’t say it keeps things ice cold or scorching hot for quite as long as it claims, but 25 hours after dumping a bottle of white wine into the 25-ounce canteen, it was still cold and highly drinkable. And it worked just as well with coffee over a 12-hour period. Considering the success with wine and coffee, we suspect the smaller 9-ounce version will work beautifully the next time you need to take a super-sized chilled Manhattan to a picnic or party.

Peak Crushed Ice Tray, $12 Claims that its “thin molds create perfect crushed ice.” Made up of about 20 thin strips of silicone, this crushed ice tray from Peak is a great way to avoid breaking out the Lewis bag and mallet to make a single Mint Julep. The idea is to squeeze the tray with one hand to crush and release the ice, while folding the lid with the other hand to funnel the released ice chips into a glass. It works well, though it may take some practice to be able to fill the tray just right. While it’s not a practical tool for hosting parties (one tray only makes enough crushed ice for one drink), it’s a simple hack for a one-and-done cocktail.