The choice of ice cubes in cafes? What are the types of ice? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different types of ice?

Professional coffee knowledge exchange more coffee bean information please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

Seemingly simple ice cubes actually contain great knowledge. For drinks, ice is not only used as a way of cooling, its shape, size and even density will affect the drink. Although it has a cold temperature, it can be miraculously matched with any drink. Today, let's explore the effect of ice on coffee drinks in a professional way.

The use habits of ice cubes around the world

The ice cubes on the market have many different shapes, such as square ice, semi-square ice, snowflake ice, round ice, mineral ice and other different ice types have different applications in the coffee industry.

Mineral ice

Large coffee chains in Southeast Asia (Coffee Bean and JCO) use mineral ice as their only option. Due to the influence of local climatic conditions and traditional habits, the demand for ice in the region is also very large. Compared with the fact that square ice is difficult to chew, mineral ice is as chewable as fudge, which is also loved by many cafes. When chewing ice cubes, you can also feel the taste of the drink mixed in the ice cubes, making it a kind of flavored ice cubes.

More miraculously, after the mineral ice fusion coffee, fruits and vegetables are broken in a blender, you can get a new drink form-milkshake.

Round ice

In South Korea, the fashion capital, many cafes use round ice as a way to match coffee. Round ice is several times harder than square ice, which means that coffee with round ice that is not easy to melt can last longer. At the same time, compared with square ice and mineral ice, round ice has a stronger ornamental, and bright and more eye-catching effect.

So many cafes use transparent glassware to watch the ice. The design of round ice makes the gap between ice and ice very narrow, so coffee shop owners can save more raw materials and get lower costs. In the European market, most coffee shopkeepers also prefer round ice as their first choice.

Square ice

In the United States, the world's largest food ice market, people prefer regular square ice. Because of its ice-forming principle that can be condensed in a short period of time, Fang Bing can fully meet a large number of their requirements in the United States, where the pace of life is high and fast food restaurants are popular. In recent years, however, mineral ice that can be chewed and tastes smooth has become more and more accepted in the American market. In China, most cafes generally use square ice or semi-square ice due to the influence of traditional chain restaurants. Square ice or semi-square ice with low production cost and simple process is popular with many primary coffee users.

01 round ice

Principle of ice formation: spray type

Advantages: no impurities, safe to eat, high hardness, slow melting speed

Clear, bright, stylish, strong ornamental; narrow gap, save more raw materials

Disadvantages: too hard to chew and swallow

Suggested users: niche boutique cafe

02 ore-type ice

The principle of ice formation: extrusion and recombination

Advantages: ice-shaped particles are uniform and compact, easy to chew and taste smooth.

The shape is small and can be laid and placed at will; the water content is small and the melting speed is slow.

It is easy to mix with the taste of the drink and become a flavored ice cube.

Disadvantages: fragile

Suggested users: specialty coffee shop or chain coffee shop (high traffic)

03 square ice

Principle of ice formation: running water type

Advantages: ice can be formed in a short time to meet the needs of a large number of ice cubes.

The principle of the ice maker is simple, the production cost is low and the process is simple.

Disadvantages: fast melting

There are edges and angles, and the gap in the cup is too big.

Suggested users: ordinary individuals, new coffee shops

The importance of ice to drinks

We can see that ice occupies a very important position in coffee drinks, its existence not only affects the temperature of coffee drinks, but also inextricably related to the taste of coffee. It's just that ice is an invisible effect on coffee, unlike many other coffee devices in a dominant position.

However, if the two are matched properly, it will improve the quality and value of the coffee product itself. At the level of China's coffee market, many coffee shop owners use square ice at a relatively low price as a matching choice for coffee, which is understandable from the point of view of cost, but if you want to operate a large coffee shop with its own characteristics, then simple square ice can not meet the needs of ordinary consumers. On the contrary, you can infinitely enlarge a good cup of coffee by using the concept of ice cubes and even characteristic ice cubes that match your own drinks.

Characteristics represent a kind of personality, but also a unique temperament that can form differentiation. Most of the time, your drink is not popular, not because your coffee is not well made, but more often because you ignore some details and fail to show your own characteristics and new ideas. Square ice is a norm, but more often, characteristic ice cubes of different shapes will also give customers an advantage in the increasingly fierce coffee consumption market with their own characteristics.