It’s natural to want some of those groovy whiskey glasses that Harrison Ford’s character Rick Deckard keeps pushing on his replicant girlfriend Rachel in Blade Runner. Though they’re not cheap, and there are about a million knockoffs out there, we can’t thing of anything better to put LG’s new “ice sphere” ice cubes in — alongside a dash of something potent.
LG’s InstaView Door-in-Door refrigerators have been out for a little while and now the company has pushed through an upgrade that enables them to make something called “Craft Ice.” Most of us are still cracking ice cube trays filled with traditional square cubes (unless you’re in the U.K. or the EU, where they sell a bizarre alternative that uses plastic bags with weird pockets that would eventually make something resembling an ice cube.)
Unless you’re the type to frequent weird underground speakeasys in Los Angeles or rooftop bars in Manhattan, “Craft Ice” turns out to be ultra-pure, slow-melting ice sphere, or near-sphere, measuring anywhere from a couple of inches in diameter to the size of a baseball. If you’re going to blow a bunch of hard-earned cash on some really good booze instead of just putting a shot or two in your morning coffee, you’ll naturally want some aesthetic grace to go along with it. A graceful glass that fits comfortably in the hand, a ball or two of some of the purest ice on the planet, and a dram of something that’s older than you are? Heaven on earth.
We looked into the tech behind this, too. Even though making spherical ice cubes is a giant pain in the tech workspace, LG’s latest innovation can produce 3 of them per day and store 25 of these little drinker’s friends at a time. That’s in addition to making the traditional cubed ice that we’re all used to, as well as crushed ice, in case you’re feeling all sentimental for an extra-large Sonic limeade.
“LG is no stranger to offering first-to-market innovations that help make life good with forward-thinking technology for the home,” said David VanderWal, senior VP of marketing in a release. “With the addition of LG Craft Ice to our award-winning InstaView Refrigerator Lineup, the next step in the evolution of home entertaining is here to aid consumers with useful features sure to impress guests and make hosting easier than ever.”
LG’s fancy ice balls are really kind of neat if you’re a fan of the occasional cocktail. First of all, they’re crystal clear — none of that milky hue that most of us are used to dumping into a Diet Coke for breakfast. There’s also some physics involved: no word on exactly how LG managed to replicate the expensive ice machines sold by companies like True and Scotsman that easily run a couple of grand just by themselves.
The new ice cubes are cool, so to speak, but LG’s InstaView refrigerators are a marvel unto themselves. J.D. Power, just this year, says that LG ranks highest in customer satisfaction across all refrigerator categories including French-door refrigerators, side-by-side refrigerators, tom-mount freezers and two-door refrigerators.
The good news is that you can make super-cool futuristic cocktails and store bologna for lunch so you can offset your high-priced liquor. The news that’s harder to swallow is that the LG Instaview refrigerator that makes ice balls clocks in at a cool $4,000. That ticket goes up with different finishes and features so I’d check your credit card limit before the bar bill comes due.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the amount of spherical ice cubes the LG refrigerators can make per day. They can make three daily.
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