Bloody Mary Ice Cubes Are The Genius Hack To Cool Down Your Savory Cocktail

Ice is both a blessing and a curse for cold beverages. What begins as a means of cooling down your drink can quickly transform into a watery dilutant that dulls its flavor. One of the most unfortunate drinks to bear this affliction is the Bloody Mary, whose fiery-hued base of tomato juice turns a hapless pale red color when the ice cubes melt. 

This drink is defined by its bold flavors — full-bodied and acidic tomato, salty and umami Worcestershire sauce, spicy horseradish, and other herbs and spices, all sailing down a vodka river with an oar made of celery. So, it should taste bold to the very last sip. Enter Bloody Mary ice cubes, a genius way to keep your savory sipper nice and cool without compromising taste.

To make these at home, all you need is an ice tray and your favorite ingredients for the cocktail. Simply mix everything together in a pitcher or lipped measuring cup, as you would for a standard batch of the drink. Next, pour the liquid into the tray spaces and let it all sit in the freezer for two or three hours. Finally, plop the cubes in glasses filled with their liquid counterpart and revel in the fact that your cocktail will be spared from watery sips. Oh, and if you don't have enough fresh provisions for both Bloody Mary cocktails and the ice cubes, you can fill the tray with pre-assembled Bloody Mary mix instead.

The best Bloody Mary you'll ever have is the one that was born of trial and error in your own kitchen to match your particular tastes. With that said, there are plenty of great recipes out there. A no-frills version might call for tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (such as Tabasco sauce), horseradish, celery, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and vodka. 

When it comes to Bloody Mary ice cubes, you'd be smart to adjust your standard recipe in order to concentrate the flavors of the cocktail as much as possible. You might even try adding a little extra spice to your cube mixture to give your drink a little extra zing once it melts. This could be an extra dash of hot sauce, a little slice of chili pepper, or a dash of Tajín. The latter, which often graces the rims of spicy Bloody Marys and margaritas, gets bonus points for its lip-tingling effect.

Once you see how effortlessly simple it is to make Bloody Mary ice cubes at home, you might be tempted to open Pandora's icebox and see what other anti-dilution hacks await your beverage rotation. If and when you do, you'll find that just about any cold drink you'd normally serve with ice cubes can benefit from this trick.

Iced coffee, for instance, can quickly lose its potency from regular ice cubes, leaving you with coffee-flavored water. You might not be able to ask your neighborhood barista to make a special version for you, but if you're making your own iced coffee at home, you can pop in a few cubes of frozen coffee. You can even freeze wine, which is great news for that ice-cold glass of rosé — or even white or red wine – that you plan to drink on hot summer days. Cheers to that!